Who’s Who in Green - Summer Rayne Oakes

There are few people who manage to not only call attention to important environmental issues, but do so in an effortlessly sexy, stylish and fun way. Summer Rayne Oakes is one of those people. The model, activist and television host is certainly genetically blessed, as anyone can see from her many eco-fashion spreads – but there’s far more to her than that. She’s smart, dedicated, and really into bugs. Seriously – she has an entomology degree. It’s just one of the many things that made her EarthFirst.com’s #1 Hottest Girl in Green, and deservedly so.

Summer Rayne grew up among Pennsylvania farmlands, and her experiences there led her on the path of protecting the earth. A dedicated naturalist from an early age, she was the youngest board member of the Environmental Advisory Council as a student. Summer Rayne graduated with honors from Cornell University and signed with Boss Models upon graduation. She soon won the Udall Environmental Scholarship, and worked to improve conservation programs “by successfully integrating human dimension aspects, scientific research and the intrinsic value of nature into comprehensive management plans.”

Her journey of cause-related modeling has brought her all over the world, as has her work in sustainable design and development projects. She’s also picked up plenty of accolades along the way, including Global Citizen by Vanity Fair, one of Outside’s Top Environmental Activists, Cosmopolitan’s Fun, Fearless Female of 2007 and one of Amica Magazine’s ‘Top 20 Trendsetters Under 40’.

She’s now a spokesperson, resident expert and the youngest member of the board of advisors for Planet Green. Her work has been featured on NPR, CNN, HGTV, Sirius Satellite Radio, MTV News, Discovery Channel News and many more outlets, and recent interviews have appeared in Elle magazine, Allure magazine and Shape magazine. She also writes for Lucire, PlanetGreen.com, Treehugger and The Huffington Post. She even created educational curriculum entitled ‘ECO FASHION 101’ that was launched in Philadelphia schools in 2005. Look for her book entitled Style, Naturally: The Global Guide to Sustainable Fashion and Beauty this December.

If all of that sounds incredibly ambitious, exhausting and exhilarating, get this: she also helps run a boutique consultancy business that develops, implements and manages traditional, online and grassroots/guerilla campaigns across the globe. Her many high profile clients include Conde Nast, the Democratic National Convention ’08, Discovery Television and Sony Entertainment.

Watch Summer Rayne talk about conscious consumerism in this video clip:

In a personal statement on her website, Summer Rayne says, “I firmly believe that we all want—or at least would like to be (whether we know it or not)—part of something that is greater than all of us. This is why I am here. This is why you are here. Oftentimes I get the question, “What can I do? ” If questions answered questions, I would reply: “What are you capable of? ” Moreover, what are you interested in doing? That of course is not the answer anyone is looking for, but it serves as a rhetorical reminder of our own personal interest in making a difference. It touches on the assumption that you, like me, all want to do better, not only for ourselves, but the rest of the planet.”

All of this, and she’s only 23 – Summer Rayne’s green score is building fast and will undoubtedly go through the roof as she continues to dedicate her life to varied aspects of sustainability. We wish Summer Rayne much luck and success on her quest to green up the world.

Summer Rayne Oakes’ Green Score: 24,332

Who’s Who in Green: Simran Sethi

This week’s Who’s Who in Green puts the spotlight on Simran Sethi, an award-winning environmental journalist who has appeared on the Sundance Channel, the Oprah Winfrey Show, the Ellen Degeneres Show, the Today Show and the Martha Stewart Show. Simran is one busy woman, with tons of green cred for all the work she’s done calling attention to environmental issues.

Born in 1970 in Germany and raised in North Carolina with Indian heritage, Simran has a list longer than her arm of astonishing career accomplishments as a freelance environmental journalist and has received many awards and recognition for her work.

Simran is a contributing environmental correspondent at NBC News and is currently writing a book on environmental justice for Harper Collins. She’s also the contributing author of Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy, which won the bronze 2008 Axiom Award for Best Business Ethics book. She’s also NYU’s inaugural Goddard Fellow, Associate Fellow at the Asia Society, and is the Lacy C. Haynes Visiting Professional Chair at the University of Kansas School of Journalism, where she’s currently teaching a course on Media and the Environment.

You may recognize Simran from her many media appearances, her work with Treehugger or our own Top 25 Hottest Girls in Green feature. She’s the co-host/writer for the Sundance Channel’s environmental programming The Green, and is also a featured commentator for Big Ideas for a Small Planet. She anchors the Sundance interstitial business series EcoBiz and creator of the Sundance web series The Good Fight, which highlights global environmental justice efforts. She also hosts the Emmy-award winning PBS production A School in the Wood, which highlights environmental education efforts on Bainbridge Island. As part of the Treehugger team, Simran co-hosted, created and oversaw all video and audio content. She also writes regularly for The Huffington Post.

She was also honored with hosting duties at a forum on global warming with Al Gore, and moderated a panel on climate change at the first Clinton Global Initiative University. Other hosting credits include the podcast for the Alliance for Climate Protection, The EcoZone Project, and the series Keep it Green on Equator HD. She has produced documentaries for MTV News in the U.S., anchored news for MTV Asia and oversaw the MTV India News division. Simran also has her own production company, SHE TV.

Simran was celebrated for her environmental work in the 2007 Vanity Fair green issue, and Variety magazine recognized her as a ‘Woman of Impact’. She was also named one of the top Eco-Heroes of the Planet by the UK’s Independent.

While it’s hard to imagine how Simran finds the time for all of this work, she still feels as if she isn’t doing enough. Of what keeps her up at night, Simran told the Whole Life Times,

“Daily, I worry about being conscious of what I eat and how I live and what I buy. But I also want to have a macro focus, and sometimes I don’t know how to do both — looking beyond just me, and my world and how I consume. How can I, how can we work toward shifting the paradigm so there is greater equity across communities, across countries? That’s the part I don’t feel I’ve fully connected to yet. Because so far we’ve mostly focused on how to consume differently — which I think is a great entry point for people — but I’m also impatient to go further. How do we re-envision our world? That’s what I want to get to. I think the environmental justice movement is a key component of that, and that’s my goal in terms of self-education and the kind of organizations I want to promote, making sure they’re moving towards looking at environmentalism as a human rights issue. So what keeps me up at night is — did I do enough of it today? And where am I going to find time to do more, because I want to talk about all of these stories.”

What Simran’s basic goal comes down to is bringing environmentalism to the people, highlighting the fact that everyone has to start somewhere – so no matter how humble your initial foray into eco-friendliness might be, it’s still big – it’s a gift to the world. Simran wants everyone to consider how small daily actions, like using reusable cups instead of disposable ones, can cause a chain reaction that helps improve the state of the planet. The real-life tips for going green that she offers as the face of green media are just what people need to get off the pollution train and start being responsible.

Simran Sethi’s Green Score: 24,783

Photo credit: Domino Mag

EarthFirst.com’s Top 25 Hottest Girls In Green

We had a great time bringing you the Top 25 Hottest Girls in Green last week. We didn’t want to overwhelm our readers with their hotness all at once so we broke it into five, five girl installations. Now that you’ve had a chance to acclimatize your system (25-21, 16-20, 11-15, 6-10, 1-5) to so much green hotness, we decided to throw them all together on one place for your viewing and social bookmarking pleasure. Enjoy!

(Publisher’s Note: We’ve got the 25 Hottest Guys in Green starting on Monday)

#1. Summer Rayne Oakes

As you might gather, Summer’s a model. She’s also a National Wildlife Federation fellow, a Treehugger contributor, host/contributor/expert/board member for the Discovery Channel’s Planet Green, Udall scholar, and holds an entomology degree from Cornell.

[Read more]

The Hottest Girl In Green: We May Be Obsessed With Summer Rayne Oakes

Can you blame us? It’s not every day that the world’s hottest Udall scholar takes notice of you, much less in a good way. So in honor of the girl in green most likely to make your heart skip a beat, we proudly present a spread from her modeling portfolio. Oh, and Ms. Entomology-degree-from-Cornell: it’s cicada season where we live right now, so if you want a once-in-17-years show, you know who to call.

For those of you that are scraping yourselves off the floor still, let me point out the massive difference in style in some of these photos. Girl’s got range, y’all.

All photos courtesy of Summerrayne.net

EarthFirst.com Has Like, A Tractor Beam Of Hotness: The Top 25 Hottest Girls in Green (#1-5)

EarthFirst.com has been tracking the hottest girls in the environmental movement all week, and, with the exception of taking a moment to make fun of Paris Hilton for letting millions of people see her get nailed in night vision (That’s green! It was research, we swear!) we’ve hopefully introduced you to some beautiful women who are going to save the planet. Today is no different, but today is about the top five–the super-gorgeous, alpha-environmentalists that would be capable of stopping global warming by themselves, if they never got in a two-piece. The Top Five Hottest Girls in Green:

#5. Olivia Zaleski

Olivia Zaleski is a freelance writer in New York, and has made the most of the opportunities running rampant in both that city and the green movement right now– she’s the environmental living expert for Huffington Post and the editor for their new Green section, and managing editor of Eco-Chick, two websites that aren’t in any danger of running out of business anytime soon. She’s also seen her work appear in Treehugger, and The Daily Green, and like many of our honorees, has a background in design, leaving her even better-suited to fine-tune a green lifestyle and look great doing it. She’s been making a green splash in the mainstream media with her recent video work for Good Morning America.

#4. Hayden Panettierre

Before justifying the inclusion of Hayden, who is no longer jailbait, on this list, EarthFirst.com would like to give you a chance to guess what her cause is by letting you know that there’s a warrant for her arrest in Japan. What can make the land of the rising sun so upset at such a pretty girl? Whales, kind sir, as Hayden has taken on the role of spokeswoman for “Save The Whales Again,” an organization aiming to consolidate and expand upon the gains in conservation made since the 1970s. She’s more than just a pretty face, appearing in press conferences with Sen. John Kerry, facing crowds in Q&As for over an hour, and even selling her own clothes for a fundraiser.

#3. Rachel McAdams

The Mean Girls and Wedding Crashers star permanently endeared herself to environmental activists last year when she and two friends launched Green is Sexy, a green blog that’s utterly without pretension, or even the acknowledgment that one of the writers is best known for being Owen Wilson’s love interest. From the site:

Rachel’s love for the planet began at a young age - summers spent at the cottage, swimming in the Great Canadian Lakes , riding her banana seat bike around the neighborhood. Winters consisted of tobogganing through the treacherous woods and building dangerous snow forts. Today, her bike is still her vehicle of choice and she isn’t above the occasional snow fort. But she’s trying to lighten her footprint on the earth - supporting tree planting organizations, switching her house to green power and developing an OCD for unplugging anything with a plug. She dreams of one day living in a treehouse and being able to grow her own food.

Who’s in love?

#2. Julia Butterfly Hill

Julia lived in a 180-foot tall, 600-year old redwood tree (Luna) for over two years, from December 10th, 1997, to December 18th, 1999, in order to prevent it from being cut down by the Pacific Lumber Company. If that wasn’t crazy enough, she undertook her act of civil disobedience alone–while organizations like Earth First (no connection to us) later came to her aid, she saw a need and a change to act, and rushed into the gap. Eventually, Pacific reached a settlement with her, and a three-acre buffer zone around Luna was created where no logging would take place.

#1. Summer Rayne Oakes

As you might gather, Summer’s a model. She’s also a National Wildlife Federation fellow, a Treehugger contributor, host/contributor/expert/board member for the Discovery Channel’s Planet Green, and still more environmental cred that can’t be easily listed here, among it an entomology degree from Cornell. That’s right–the girl in the picture above, in college, chose to study bugs. She’s also running circles around the rest of us trying to save the planet, and looking fabulous doing it, so what the hell are you doing in front of your computer?

EarthFirst.com Feels So Pretty: The 25 Hottest Girls In Green (#6-10)

The internet, according to Avenue Q, was made for porn, and it may be host to more…enterpenurial…young women than any other medium, ever. That hasn’t stopped EarthFirst.com from sifting through the masses to find not only the 25 hottest, but the 25 hottest that are carrying some serious eco-cred. Today, we proudly present 10-6 of the 25 Hottest Girls In Green:

10. Heather Stephenson

Heather is the co-founder of Ideal Bite, an organization committed to massive change on an incremental scale: their most prominent project is a series of tips that tell you how to green your life in baby steps. Prior to working there, Heather was also a founding member of Urban Sage, a New York rooftop garden deign and installation firm, giving her a unique background in the greening of urban areas.

9. Starre Vartan

Starre Vartan is a Huffington Post blogger, and founder of Eco Chick, which has been supplying our list with scads of talented, classy, environmentally savvy women. She’s an Ozzie by birth, and has had a hand in more green media than we can keep track of: she’s associate produced with the Discovery Channel, writes regularly at E and The Daily Green, and been published in various print media worldwide.

8. Jill Fehrenbacher

A freelance designer and green design consultant in New York, Jill is also the founder of Inhabitat, a blog dedicated to green design in all facets of life. When she’s not exploring the intersection of green and pretty, Jill is a graduate student at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning.

7. Katie Fehrenbacher

Katie and Jill are the only two siblings on this list, and they’ve earned it: in addition to Jill’s skill as a designer, Katie edits Earth2Tech and writes for GigaOM; she’s also gotten her freelance work published in Red Herring, Endgadget, and ReadyMade Magazine.

6. Angelina Jolie

One of the rare celebrities with the enviro-cred to crack out list of 25, Angelina gets the nod because of her dedication to the developing world. While tinpot dictators are keen of saying things like “environmentalism is a luxury for the rich countries,” she makes it her work to ensure that the developing world is able to save the planet as well. Most recently she funded–by herself, because she’s a movie star–a Cambodian wildlife sanctuary at a cost of over 5 million dollars.

EarthFirst.com is looking (staring?) at the hottest environmentally friendly women all week–be sure to come back tomorrow for #5-1 and follow along all week with the Top 25 Hottest Girls in Green! Don’t worry Ladies, we have the Top 25 Hottest Guys in Green coming up next week.

EarthFirst.com’s Getting Hotter, And It’s Not Climate Change: The 25 Hottest Girls In Green (#11-15)

The internet is full of lists of hot women, and this one is no different–except that to get on it, these women have, in addition to bringing the hotness with them, have displayed environmental cred in any number of fields; some are activists, some are fundraisers, some are inventors, but every one of them does more than just drive a hybrid. Without further adieu, 11-15 of the 25 Hottest Girls In Green:

15. Emily Pilloton

Emily is the managing director of Inhabitat and the founder of Project H Design, a firm specializing in “initiatives for Humanity, Habitats, Health, and Happiness.” Project H is a nonprofit entity, and her designs there focus on a sustainable sensibility that’s both cutting-edge and classy.

14. Paris Hilton

Ah, Paris. This picture probably represents the “greenest” the hotel heiress has ever been, despite the fact that she’s fond of telling the press about her ever-more-ludicrous hybrid car ideas. First it was the 2007 GMC Yukon Hybrid, which may count, except it still only gets 21 mpg, and then there was her insistence that Hummer design her a hybrid–even more humorous when taken with the news that GM is considering dumping the brand. All the cool kids are wearing green these days, and I suppose she’s been feeling left out, but eco-fail, and everybody ranked 25-13 should move up a spot.

13. Lauren Bush

I know, right? The last name says that young Lauren here should be out issuing ultimatums to her friends and then getting into fights with people that look different than her, all before coming home to write several thousand letters to the editor about drilling in ANWR. Unlike her more famous uncle however, this designer has taken to the environment in a big way; she’s a vegetarian, and her design and modeling careers have allowed her to launch Project FEED, which has generated millions of dollars for the UN’s World Food Program through sales of accessories.

12. Kylie Minogue

Kylie has been agitating for environmental in a variety of ways since her career took off in the 1980s, advocating for penguins in Australia, playing at LIve Earth II, creating a completely energy-independent home with renewable resources, and speaking out in public. All of that, the stress of a show business career, and she still looks that good into her 40s? Oh my.

11. Darryl Hannah

Daryl Hannah is another celeb that backs up what happens in front of the cameras with real eco-friendly action: she’s served as a judge for Treehugger’s Convenient Truths contest, runs her own blog on sustainable solutions, and has won multiple awards for agitating for higher water quality and cleaner fuels. In 2006, she, Julia Butterfly Hill, and Joan Baez were arrested along with several other demonstrators who were attempting to stop the bulldozing og the nation’s largest urban farm in South Central Los Angeles, and actually spent some time in jail– proof positive that she’s sticking with her convictions.

EarthFirst.com is looking (staring?) at the hottest environmentally friendly women all week–be sure to come back tomorrow for #10-6 and follow along all week as we work like dogs to determine the Top 25 Hottest Girls in Green! Don’t worry Ladies, we have the Top 25 Hottest Guys in Green coming up next week.

EarthFirst.com Keeps the Hotness Train Rolling: The 25 Hottest Girls In Green (#16-20)

EarthFirst.com is taking one of the most popular internet memes and turning it on its head–instead of a roster of starlets that drove hybrids, what if we introduced you to 25 beautiful women who had real environmental credibility? We’ll be posting five new faces every day this week; you can catch up on 25-21 here, or continue on below. Without further adieu, I give you the 25 Hottest Girls in Green, #16-20.

20. Simran Sethi

SImran is currently holding an endowed chair at the University of Kansas, where she teaches about the intersection of journalism and the environment, but that’s not the only thing she’s done to get on this list. If you’ve ever taken a glance at Treehugger, then you’ve seen some of her work–Simran was a co-creator, hosted, and oversaw all video and audio content on what quickly became the largest environmental website int he world. She’s also hosed forums with such luminaries as Al Gore, and has been making documentary films since graduating Smith College in 1992.

19. Summer Bowen

Summer Bowen is another Treehugger contributor–they’re spread across this list like Kudzu in the deep south–and the founder of BTC Elements, an online retailer for sustainable products that are free of sweatshop labor. She’s a Berkeley grad, and was educated in social justice and environmental education, two fields that clearly influenced the foundation of BTC.

18. Melissa Etheridge

This cancer survivor and LIve Earth performer has taken using stardom to campaign for change to a new level. Her webiste has green tips, sure, but the concert tour fleet is powered by biodiesel? And have you seen this stirring call to action on stage? This is how celebrities should act.

17. Victoria Everman

Victoria, who runs the aptly-named Victoria-E.com as a personal website, green blog, and front for her modeling and freelance writing careers (she’s busy), is an Indiana farm girl turned San Francisco powerhouse. In addition to modeling and her freelance career, she’s also available on All Green Magazine, Building Green TV and Greenopia. She’s also been involved in the GreenMUA project, connecting green makeup cosmetic companies to makeup artists.

16. Kimberly Jordan Allen

Kim is one of several wirters on this list that have contributed to Eco Chick, an environmental site focused on catering to a demographic that it defines as not “men or moms.” She also has had her work featured in E-The Environmental Magazine repeatedly, and is an avid outdoorswoman and conservationist.

EarthFirst.com is looking (staring?) at the hottest environmentally friendly women all week–be sure to come back tomorrow for #15-11 and follow along all week as we slave away to find the Top 25 Hottest Girls in Green! Don’t worry Ladies, we have the Top 25 Hottest Guys in Green coming up next week.

EarthFirst.com Proudly Presents The 25 Hottest Girls In Green (#21-25)

They’re one of the most widespread formats on the internet: countdown lists of hot women. They can be related to any number of things; sports, politics, music videos–but I’ve always thought the ones related to the environment were kind of weak. While some trolls like to assail the quality of the women on the list, or brilliantly proclaim that they wouldn’t kick somebody out of bed for eating crackers, it’s always been odd to me that the green lists didn’t seem to actually require any environmental cred, leaving us a bunch of starlets who own hybrids. There’s so much more than that, though, and here’s the start of a list of 25 beautiful women who work daily to make the planet a better place. We’ll kick out five a day for you all this week, so tune back in tomorrow for #16-20.

(Publisher’s note: Don’t worry ladies, we haven’t forgotten you. Our very own Stephanie Rogers will be looking at the 25 Hottest Guys in Green starting next week.)

25. Leona Johansson

Of course this list would decry starlets, and then start with a porn star. Of course, Leona is no ordinary porn star; she’s effectively laid claim to the title of “world’s first eco-porn star” by first doing the deed with her boyfriend Tommy Hol Ellingsen onstage at a music festival, and then launching “Fuck for Forest,” (link very, very NSFW, in case you didn’t know) a not for profit organization that’s raising money, leading activism, and creating awareness…through porn.

24. Siel Siel

Siel is the face behind Green LA Girl, which is about as close as you’ll get to one-stop environmental info for those of you lucky enough to call the land of the pacific sun and warm air home. A freelancer and graduate student in a PhD program for creative writing, she’s also leading a car-less life, a bold eco-step in one of the most congested cities in America.

23. Dr. Heidi Cullen

Dr. Cullen is the Weather Channel’s chief climatologist, and has consistently advocated for the green movement– she’s appeared on Treehugger Radio, served as a “Convenient Truths” video judge for the Discovery Channel-powered website, and most importantly, penned a letter to the American Meteorological Society called “Junk Controversy, Not Junk Science” calling on them to no longer recognize any meteorologist that didn’t understand the threat of climate change. This of course, sent conservatives into an uncontrolled rage, and made Heidi the 23rd hottest environmentalist.

22. Laurie David

Laurie is a trustee on the National Resources Defense Council, and a regular contributor to the Huffington Post, but those aren’t her most famous contribution to the environment. Ms. David also produced An Inconvenient Truth, maybe the biggest single piece of global warming awareness ever undertaken. She’s led an online march against global warming, has been named Glamour’s woman of the year, and has produced a multitude of small projects about global warming, including TBS’ Earth To America. And she’s hot.

21. Alicia Silverstone

Remember when I assailed lists of starlets that own hybrids? Alicia is always on them, but with very good cause–she’s been a vegan since 1998, and was elected “sexiest female vegetarian” by PETA in 2004. The actress is an outspoken advocate for the environment and animal rights, appearing in a series of ads for PETA, setting up a pet sanctuary in Los Angeles, and, yes, driving a hybird. Of course, more importantly, she’s taken the step to make every part of her life as environmentally friendly as possible–even her dog is a vegan.

EarthFirst.com is looking (staring?) at the hottest environmentally friendly women all week–be sure to come back tomorrow for 1#6-20 and follow along all week as we hammer out the Top 25 Hottest Girls in Green!