HOLLYWOOD, California, June 16, 2008 (ENS) – The nonprofit Hollywood-Los Angeles Beautification Team will be honoring and thanking well known actors Ed Begley Jr. and Amy Smart at their annual dinner event on June 25.

The Hollywood-Los Angeles Beautification Team, HBT, is a grassroots organization created by members of the Hollywood and Los Angeles community in 1992. The team engages communities to improve school campuses, neighborhoods and business districts, and provides educational workshops and vocational training to at-risk youth.

Begley, star of HGTV’s “Living with Ed,” is being honored as “a pioneer in teaching about sustainable living and walking his talk,” HBT said in a statement today. Created as two television series of six weeks each, “Living with Ed” aired in 2007 and 2008.

Actor and environmental activist Ed Begley,
Jr. addresses the crowd at the Earth
Day Green Apple Festival on the
National Mall in Washington, DC.
April 2008. (Photo by Nony Dutton)

Cycling and driving his electric car from his solar-powered Studio City home to destinations around Los Angeles, Begley has served as chairman of the Environmental Media Association, and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. He still serves on those boards, as well as on the boards of the Thoreau Institute, the Earth Communications Office, Tree People and Friends of the Earth, among other organizations.

HBT is also honoring Smart, a member of the board and long-time spokesperson for the non-profit group Heal The Bay, an organization devoted to cleaning up the Santa Monica Bay.

Entrepreneur Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal and SpaceX and chairman of Tesla Motors and SolarCity, will receive an Environmental Business Award.

The public is invited to attend the dinner and presentations at the Universal Studios Globe Theater. At 6pm the cocktail hour and “Green Faire” begins, with dinner and program at 7:30pm. Single tickets are $150. Sponsorships are available.

Guests will hear from Los Angeles Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, Los Angeles Council President Eric Garcetti, Councilmember Tom LaBonge, Debbie Levin of the Environmental Media Association, Ben Lyons E! Network’s Daily Show and emcee Paula Poundstone.

Also in attendance will be special guests Robert Baum, great grandson of L. Frank Baum, author of the Wizard of OZ and his wife Clare.

Sponsors include NBC/Universal Studios, Paramount Studios, Disney Studios, Kaiser, Ahmanson Foundation, Weingart Foundation, Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and the Gilmore Bank.

Created in 1992 by neighborhood volunteers, the Hollywood/Los Angeles Beautification Team now is building a permanent headquarters to house operations and educational programs just half a block from the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

HBT says a building is needed “because of the tremendous increase in demand for our services throughout the City and the County Los Angeles.”

From its new building, HBT intends to provide more efficient and extensive services for the community and more vocational youth job training; to implement on-site educational programs; and to develop more green programs.

Since 1992, the Team has adopted over 110 public schools, hired 2,500 at-risk youth as a paid work force, and implemented 250 mural walls. After first giving instruction in both art and the environment, the staff has mentored over 27,000 children in interactive art, tree planting, and cleaning projects at their own schools.

Each year, staff and volunteers plant 2,000 trees, abate over two million square feet of graffiti, and remove more than 30 tons of trash from the city streets throughout Los Angeles.

View This Story On Eco–mmunity Map.

BOULDER CITY, Nevada, February 24, 2008 (ENS) – Nevada Solar One, the world’s largest concentrating solar power plant to be built in 17 years, was dedicated Friday at Boulder City, about 32 miles southeast of Las Vegas in the Eldorado Valley.

Spread over 400 desert acres, the Nevada Solar One plant uses a parabolic trough design that employs 182,000 curved mirrors, which track and concentrate the sun’s rays in a process that creates 64 megawatts of energy, enough to power about 14,000 homes in Nevada annually.

The solar troughs cover 300 acres, the size of approximately 200 football fields. It is the third largest plant of its kind in the world.

“Nevada Solar One represents our bid to excel in new technologies to produce clean and sustainable energy, with an emphasis on economic viability, technological competence and the capacity to be replicated on a large scale in locations around the world,” said Jose Manuel Entrecanales, Chairman and chief executive of ACCIONA, the Spanish company that designed and built the solar power plant and will operate it.

“Three years ago, we launched this project in Nevada because of the existing solar resources and the capacity to provide a significant portion of the electricity consumed by a city like Las Vegas in the hours of peak demand,” said Entrecanales.

“We also chose Nevada for the outstanding commitment of this state to the development of sources of renewable energy,” he said.

Scientists, environmentalists, federal and state public officials, and industry executives were present at the dedication ceremony, including U.S. astronaut Dr. Sally Ride and Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple Computers.

Speaking at the dedication was Michael Yackira, CEO, Nevada Power/Sierra Pacific Resources, which has a long-term partnership agreement with Nevada Solar One and distributes the solar energy to homes in the region.

Actor and environmentalist Ed Begley, Jr. was the event moderator.

Speaking at the dedication via a video taped message, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Winner and chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, noted the importance of ACCIONA’s role in addressing global warming and climate change.

Nevada Solar One (Photo
courtesy Nevada Power)

ACCIONA aims to reduce the world’s CO2 emissions by 220 million tons in the next 23 years.

This is a full one percent of the 18.4 billion tons needed from the world’s power production industry by the 2030 deadline set by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Entrecanales said Nevada Solar One is an important part of ACCIONA’s plan to meet that goal.

In a press conference following the event, Alberto de Miguel, ACCIONA Energy’s executive director of corporate development and strategy discussed the company’s plans to expand its renewable portfolio in the United States.

“We see a tremendous opportunity here in the United States,” said de Miguel. “This country has the natural resources, the technical expertise and the entrepreneurial drive to lead the clean technology revolution.”

Parabolic trough systems, like the one being used in Nevada Solar One, concentrate the sun’s energy through long rectangular, U-shaped mirrors. The mirrors are tilted toward the sun, focusing sunlight on a pipe that runs down the center of the trough. This heats the oil flowing through the pipe. The hot oil then is used to boil water in a conventional steam generator to produce electricity.

View This Story On Eco–mmunity Map.

ECOISTS

This week on ECOISTS, Ed Begley Jr. is the featured environmental activist. Ed Begley Jr. is dedicated to making sure the planet is habitable for future generations. He mentions that his kids and grandchildren helped inspire him to drive an electric car and recycle. Ed is interested in one particular organization, The Coalition for Clean Air. [www.coalitionforcleanair.org] As you may know, California has had many serious problems with air pollution, and particularly in the valley areas like Los Angeles, these air problems were so bad that one could see the smog in the air. Nowadays in Los Angeles, there are 4 times as many cars as there were in 1970, yet now the particulate air pollution is 50% as bad as it was then. We would like to encourage you to check out our ECOISTS’ Profiles [www.sundancechannel.com] area in THE GREEN mini-site. You may find that these notable environmental activists listed there share some of your concerns about the future of this world.

To watch great videos on THE GREEN, make sure to check out our ECO VIDEOS PAGE. [www.sundancechannel.com]

ECO BIZ

ECO BIZ gives it’s viewers a chance to get a quick snapshot of businesses that are committed to a sustainable future. This is not just a matter of public relations, these companies are helping to change their respective industries for the better, showing that green business philosophy is economically rewarding as well as the morally correct course of action. This week’s subject on ECO BIZ is Great Eastern Ecology, [www.greateasternecology.com] whose CEO, Mark Laska, is pictured next to this section. Among the projects mentioned in the show, Great Eastern Ecology is working on building a wetlands ecosystem on the New York City waterfront area. This project will create a park for the city’s people to enjoy while simultaneously creating a salt marsh environment for many other organisms to live in. One can think of this park as a borderless zoo. In fact, the company is essentially making it possible for people to live in a city (a very popular living destination) and not destroy the environment in the process.

Before you head off, make sure to check out The ECO BIZ Website. [www.sundancechannel.com]