Eco elite celebrate Global Green
SAN FRANCISCO–The well-heeled set came out in force this week at Global Green’s “Gorgeous and Green” third-annual charity event. Everyone from former Sex in the City actor Jason Lewis to local fashion designer Margaret O’Leary attended the benefit, which was designed to promote eco living ideas and raise money for California green schools and people adversely affected by Hurricane Katrina.
The event, held here at the environmentally certified Bently Reserve Building, was half high society promoting a cause and half a cause promulgating society. Local celebrities and luminaries, who paid anywhere between $250 for general admission to $5,000 for a VIP dinner, were treated to eco-friendly fare including grass-fed beef, fair trade coffee and organic tequila. The entertainment: a henna-tattoo booth, live auctions, models dressed like Marie Antoinette floating in the crowd, and a fashion show of eco-chic wear–items made of hemp silks and recycled tuxedo shirts (this from emerging designer William Good, featured here).
Apart from the glam, Global Green’s executive director Matt Petersen said that the event is designed to bolster his organization’s efforts to fund important work, and build awareness that living green is not just a lifestyle choice. Global Green, the U. S. arm of the international organization started by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1993, is investing $100 million in the California Green Schools Initiative, a project to build energy efficient schools in the state. It’s also working to rebuild New Orleans with one of its first sustainable low-income housing communities and a sustainable design and climate action center.
“It can’t just be a lifestyle change,” Petersen said in an interview at the event. “It has to be corporate change. We need government leaders to change and we can’t let corporate greed continue to take us to a place that’s insufficient.”
Sponsors of the event included Google, PG&E and cleaning-products company Method.