In an intimate dinner affair, The Daily Green held its second annual Heart of Green Awards, presenting the Lifetime Achievement honor to actor Ted Danson and the Role Model award to model-turned-cosmetics-entrepreneur Josie Maran. Gloria Reuben, of ER fame and who earned last year’s Truth Teller award, emceed the evening.
“The Truth Teller, yes,” Reuben said as she took the podium. “Sometimes it gets you into a lot of trouble, but I like trouble—for the right reason.”
Danson’s no stranger to making trouble for the right reason. For the past two decades, that’s been cleaning up our oceans, first with an organization the former Cheers star and a friend founded, then with the conservation group Oceana (with which his organization merged in the early 2000s). “It’s the greatest conversation in the world,” he told me. “You can talk about anything in the world people care about, whether it’s jobs and the economy, whether it’s national defense or national security or energy. Everything has an impact on our oceans.”
His fervor stems from the fact the he fears we’re fishing out our oceans. “I love oceans. I love eating fish,” he said.” I want my kids and my kids’ kids to be able to go to a fish restaurant and order great fish. I want fisherman to be able to fish like their ancestors did forever and ever.” Once Danson gets started on the topic, he doesn’t want to stop. But it’s that passion that drives his work.
Josie Maran, the former face of cosmetics brands like Maybelline, has always felt a similar drive toward finding make-up products that don’t hurt a woman’s skin or the environment. After years of being told they didn’t exist, Maran decided to create her own. (Check out our review of her mascara.) Now her line includes products for eyes, lips, cheeks and more. “There’s no reason not to have make-up products that are gentle on the earth,” she said. “Nature gives us all that we need.”
The event also honored six others, including:
- Jamie Oliver, “The Food Revolutionary,” for his work trying to get healthier food into schools
- Philip Landrigan, “The Guardian,” for his role in making the environment safer for children and for leading the Children’s Health Study, a 20-year look at the health outcomes of thousands of American children
- John Flicker, “The Steward,” former National Audubon Society president, for his leadership for 15 years
- Tracey Ryder and Carole Topalian, “The Ground Breakers” (represented at the event by the publisher and executive editor of several Edible publications), for advocating for local food
- Fred Schaeffer, “The Local Hero,” for transforming an old railroad bridge in Poughkeepsie into a new state park, called Walkway Over the Hudson