Dede's Green Scene: These Celebrities Treat Every Day Like Earth Day! by Dede Tabak, April 27 2016, 45 Comments

Earth Day may come only once a year, but these five celebrities inspire the world to act as if every day was Earth Day.

1. Brad and Angelina Jolie-Pitt

Brad and Angelina are more than just Hollywood’s most beautiful couple—they’re also one of Hollywood’s greenest and most charitable. In 2007, Brad Pitt founded the MakeItRight.org organization, which builds eco friendly homes for people and communities in need. The organization also educates workers in eco friendly construction and gardening. Keeping right up with Brad is his wife, Angelina Jolie-Pitt, who is involved with numerous organizations and charities, and also serves as the Special Envoy of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. One of Angelina's longest running charities is the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation (MJP), which she established after she adopted her son Maddox from Cambodia. MJP is a foundation for environmental conservation, health, education and infrastructure in the remote and impoverished northwest of Cambodia. In addition, the couple:

  • Supports eco friendly fashion brands, such as Everlane, which uses ethical factories and advocates total transparency in terms of costs to consumers
  • Built an eco friendly theme park for their kids
  • Bought an eco friendly winery in the south of France where they now produce organic wine

Wow, can you say, "green couple"? Go Brangelina!

2. Kristen Bell

“It’s kind of become a fun game about how much I can reduce, reuse and recycle,” Bell said in an interview with E! News. “I can’t imagine that doesn’t sound like the dorkiest thing you’ve ever heard but it’s actually really fun for me figuring out that I can use the water that I wash my vegetables in, catch it in a bowl and dump it in my plants. It’s the little things like that that make me feel good.”

Kristen Bell has been a notorious animal lover from a young age. A vegetarian since age 11, PETA awarded her “World’s Sexiest Vegetarian” back in 2006. But after watching the film Forks and Knives, she and her husband, Dax Shepard, were inspired to go all out and become vegan. The actress' love for animals also echoes in her passion to help them live better lives. Together with the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), Bell worked to ban the use of gestation crates. But Bell's efforts go beyond animal rights. She is also an advocate for water conservation. After she witnessed the water crisis first hand on a trip to Ethiopia, Bell realized that this is not just an Ethiopian issue, but a global issue. In her spare time (where does she find the time??), Bell is an ambassador for Neutrogena Naturals, which has partnered with The Nature Conservancy to launch the Every Drop Counts campaign in an effort to get people to reduce their water usage.

3. Ed Begley Jr.

Ed Begley Jr. is a well known environmentalist. He’s toured across the country discussing ways to reduce one’s carbon footprint. He even sells his own line of drinkable natural cleaning products! Ed and his wife, Rachelle, still live in Ed’s green home that he purchased in the 1970’s. It’s a self-sustainable home equipped with rotating solar panels, a solar oven, rain barrels, a vegetable garden and a compost pile. He also wakes up in the morning and makes his toast with energy he creates from a stationary bicycle. If that wasn't green enough, Ed strives to be completely carbon neutral. He is also known for showing up at Hollywood events on his bike. And if he must drive, he has an electric car. When Ed has to fly, he purchases a TerraPass carbon offset.

In addition, Ed also serves on the boards of Green Wish, a charity that helps fund the green projects in your neighborhood and the Coalition for Clean Air, an organization that is dedicated to restoring clean, healthy air to California.

4. James and Suzy Cameron

James Cameron and his wife, Suzy, organize green initiatives to not only create fictional worlds in the movies, but also take care of this world. The couple owns a 100-acre ranch in Santa Barbara, California, that is both green and sustainable. The ranch includes solar installation powering and a wind turbine. The Cameron family uses their 100-acre farm to actually grow around 90 percent of the food they eat. James is also personally funding the construction of a massive solar array to power the next Avatar sequels—hopefully to create net zero emissions while filming. And he is partnering with FOX to donate a portion of the profits of the Avatar sequels to environmental causes.

In 2006, Suzy Cameron created the MUSE School with her sister, Rebecca. The building for the new school has zero emissions and environmentalism and sustainability are integrated into the curriculum. Suzy also founded Red Carpet Green Dress in 2009, an internationally recognized design competition that combines fashion and sustainability, and she is also in the process of starting her own fashion line.

5. Leonardo DiCaprio

Last, but certainly not least, is Leonardo DiCaprio. The actor has made a name for himself as not only an actor, but also as an environmental activist. He’s worked with the World Wildlife Fund’s tiger conservation campaign as well as created the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, which raises awareness for important environmental issues. The foundation focuses on four main areas including climate change, wildlands conservation, oceans conservation and protecting biodiversity, and supports projects in over 40 countries.

Recently, Leo has heavily utilized his fame to bring attention to climate change. After he won his Oscar for The Revenant earlier his year, he used his acceptance speech to speak of the dangers of climate change. This past Earth Day, DiCaprio spoke to the UN about climate change, where over 170 nations gathered to sign the Paris Agreement.

DiCaprio has also produced numerous documentaries such as The 11th Hour, which discusses the impacts of global warming, and Virangua, which follows the Virunga park rangers as they try to rebuild the park after decades of violence and instability. Virangua has been so successful that DiCaprio and Netflix are looking to produce other environmental conservation documentaries to air exclusively on Netflix. It wouldn't be a surprise if Leo streams these films from his eco friendly home or if he'll be showing them to occupants of the eco friendly luxury resort he’s building in Blackadore Cay, an unpopulated 104-acre Belize Island that has suffered from overfishing, deforestation and an eroding coastline.