Mr. Enviro’s clout empowers us to change

Al Gore – former Vice-President, writer and social activist nurtures enviro-awareness on the political-global stage. But he makes it clear we are all custodians of Planet Earth and individually responsible for change.

Eco-Agenda Maker

Gore’s book, Earth in the Balance, published before he ran for Vice President, helped put the environment on the national agenda in 1992. After years of tending eco-awareness in the US, Gore set out to push the environment to the fore-front of the international politics. He’s lead more than 30 “Solutions Summits,” gathering the best minds from across the globe: scientists, engineers, and policy experts in search of answers to critical eco-issues.

Politics meets grass roots

Gore’s tour de force, the 2006 film and follow up book, An Inconvenient Truth, succeeded in translating the grass roots nature of the green movement into a full-fledged, international call to action. His message: global warming is real. It is manmade. We need to act – now.

An Inconvenient Truth in both film and book form, has harvested a bushel of awards from Grammy (best spoken word album), to OSCAR (best documentary film, best song), to garnering a Nobel Peace Prize for Al Gore in 2007. As important as these accolades are, this message continues to resonate with us and has generated enormous enviro-momentum in our homes and businesses.

Family friendly

Mr. Gore’s social consciousness is not restricted to the environment. Joined at the Heart, written with his wife, Tipper, examines the pressures of current day family life, from the stress of increased divorce rate to the health problems associated with sleep deprivation.

This week in Chicago, Al Gore visited Borders on State Street to sign copies of his newest book. We took an Eco Green pillow to share with Mr. Gore and he happily accepted it. We explained the pillow keeps PET soda bottles out of landfills, eliminating tons of harmful air emissions that contribute to acid rain, global warming and smog. In fact, each eco-green pillow contributes to the kind of responsible manufacturing our children will thank us for.

“What a great idea,” he said and accepted the pillow as a gift from Natura. While we weren’t able to snap a picture of him with the pillow, we have a fun shot of our intern holding up the box in the store.

You have the power

In his current book, Al Gore begins his rally call with an African proverb. “If you want to go quickly, go alone, if you want to go far, go together!” and again places the power to protect and preserve our environment squarely in our hands. With 100% of the proceeds from Our Choice being donated to the Alliance for Climate Protection, Mr. Gore again proves why he is this week’s Eco-Celeb.

Do your buying choices reflect your environmental values?