Goodwill Ambassadors Gisele Bündchen, Don Cheadle & Other Celebrities Unveil WED Challenge and Chance to Win Fuel-Efficient Car
INDIACSR News Network
NAIROBI: World Environment Day (WED) – to be held on 5 June 2012 – is aiming higher than ever before.
For WED 2012, people across the world will be challenged to register and carry out an environmental activity for 5 June 2012, and help break the record for the greatest number of activities registered in WED’s four decade history.
And this year, there’s an added incentive to get active for the environment.
Five fuel-efficient cars donated by Kia will be awarded to the best WED projects from each of the following categories:
People: Biggest number of participants mobilized for a WED Activity
Theme: Best supports WED 2012 theme: Green Economy: Does it include you?
Creativity: Most innovative, unique & fun WED activity
Buzz: WED activity that best harnesses the power of social media
Impact: WED activity that results in effective and substantive change
An expert panel will select the best activities registered at the WED website www.unep.org/wed and carried out from 3- 8 June 2012.
To qualify, all activities must be registered on www.unep.org/wed by 30 June 2012. The winners will be announced on 30 July 2012.
WED activities come in all shapes and sizes – from making an extra effort to use public transport or getting a whole school or community involved in using less water.
Getting involved is easy – just visit www.unep.org/wed and tell the world how you’ll be going green on 5 June 2012.
This year’s WED theme is Green Economy: Does it include you? with worldwide celebrations being led by Brazil – the WED 2012 host country.
Brazil will also play host to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), from 20-22 June 2012, where governments will meet to map out the future path of sustainable development for the 21st century. The Green Economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication is one of the central themes of Rio+20.
WED, organized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), is the single biggest day for positive action on the environment worldwide. WED 2012 will be one of the major pre-Rio+20 events to showcase individual actions towards achieving sustainable development.
A host of celebrities are also lending their voices to WED 2012, including the stars of last year’s WED Challenge – supermodel and activist Gisele Bündchen, and Hollywood actor Don Cheadle..
After Gisele’s victory over Don in last year’s contest (in which WED participants could assign their environmental activity to either star), the Goodwill Ambassadors of the UN Environment Programme have called a truce and are uniting to encourage people to register record numbers of WED activities at www.unep.org/wed
Last year, 4,229 WED activities were pledged in 144 countries – ranging from a bicycle rally in Nepal to a public litter clean-up in the Republic of Congo, or an environmental street procession by young people in Albania.
For the 2012 WED Challenge, Gisele and Don are joined by Ian Somerhalder, star of Vampire Diaries, Bollywood actor Rahul Bose and actress Li Bing Bing . The stars have all recorded video messages to encourage people to beat the 2011 activity tally.
The videos – and others recorded by WED participants and supporters – can be viewed at www.wedchallenge.org
For those stuck on what to do for WED 2012, the website includes a wide range of suggestions and ideas.
