Gisele Bündchen – Supermodel; BRAZIL

 

 

One of the world’s best known models, Gisele, walks more than just runways. Growing up in Brazil, she witnessed the beauty and destruction of the rainforests and the domino effect on surrounding communities.

 

“I am blessed to have grown up in a family that embraced the importance of nature and community coexisting in harmony. My career in the public eye has given me the opportunity to raise awareness about important socio-environmental causes in hopes of promoting a more conscious relationship with our environment.”

Her involvement with socio-environmental causes began when Gisele witnessed the effects of deforestation and water pollution in the Xingu River. Subsequently, she worked with Grendene, a footwear company she knew, to use her flip-flop line to call attention to environmental causes and raise funds to sponsor environmental projects, especially forest and water related projects in the Amazon and Atlantic Rainforest.

 

In 2008, she and her family launched the Projeto Água Limpa (Clean Water Project) in her hometown Horizontina. The project aims to make a difference by implementing sustainable environmental management and promoting the recovery of riparian vegetation and the region’s micro basins. In June 2009, the first native trees were planted – around 40,000 saplings were planted during the first phase of the projects.

 

From fashion to fanfare, Gisele finds a way to share her environmental passion in various aspects of her life. Aside from designing footwear to raise awareness, Gisele also dedicates part of her website to environmental issues. She launched a “green” blog in 2008 with the tag line ‘here the fashion is to be responsible’.

 

In May 2009, she hit the red carpet to co-host the Rainforest Alliance’s annual gala to honor leaders in sustainability.

 

In 2010, Gisele also became a cartoon character, The internet series, “Gisele & the Green Team, features a group of typical teenagers who lead a double-life as environmental superheroes who, together with Bündchen, strive to educate, inspire, and empower young girls to protect and preserve their world.

 

She recently did a photo shoot for Vogue Brazil, in the heart of the Amazon, taking care to ensure her surroundings were kept pristine. As a United Nations Environment Programme GWA, she has actively campaigned for a number of issues. This World Environment Day, she challenged fellow GWA Don Cheadle to see who could get more people to take action to plant a new forest. She won and will be planting her Legacy Forest in Brazil in the fall. Their combined effort tripled the activities from the previous year.

 

 

Vote for Gisele as the Best Green International Celebrity !

 

 

View Gisele’s speech at Harvard Medical School after she won the award for Global Environmental Citizen Award this spring: