Green Options

Solar is sexy, and many celebrities, including Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt, and Will Ferrell, have already jumped on the bandwagon.

But many celebs have not, even though they represent a select group who own a disproportionate number of outrageously excessive homes located in sunny places, and they may want to consider re-decorating their roofs with energy-generating silicon.

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If saving money and resources, or doing the right thing aren’t enough, every time a celebrity installs solar with BP Solar Neighbors program, a low-income home in South Los Angeles will receive a system as well. It also wouldn’t hurt for any of these people to spearhead their local community solar purchasing program.

For your viewing pleasure (and our own personal enjoyment), we’ve rounded up the top ten heinously huge celebrity homes that probably should attempt to redeem themselves by installing solar panels. We’ve added DC nameplate rating quotes for each roof to show the wattage that would fit on the usable roof space, which was estimated by our resident solar expert and former solar installer. (An average home can fit about 4 kW, for your reference.)

Here they are, ranked from the smallest to largest potential system:

10. Ashlee Simpson, Beverly Hills, California, 2.5 kW

Pete Wentz said goodbye to his $1.8 million bachelor pad and hello to this $4.5 million home with Ashlee. They now live right around the corner from Demi and Ashton. Though this house isn’t ideal for solar, the installation could be just the distraction Ashlee needs right now.

Dreamworks/Paramount Vantage

Dear Mr. DiCaprio,

If you haven’t heard, there are reports that several years ago you bought a “pristine” Caribbean Island in the Central American country of Belize. It’s been the subject of speculation for some time, and there are many reports and rumors that you plan to build a “green resort.”

Seeing as that I just came across another one of these stories today, I would like to offer you some unsolicited advice, Leo, if I might.

Our favorite environmentally-friendly Titanic Star, Leonardo DiCaprio, is the force behind the recent (ironic) “Don’t Vote” PSAs starring Eva Longoria, Dustin Hoffman, Ellen, Ashton Kutcher and more!

With Election Day less than 24 hours away, Leo wants you to know that now is your chance to vote (the environment).

Before being ‘green’ became fashionable, and terms like ‘eco-chic’ were coined, being environmentally conscious was synonymous with words like ‘granola’ and ‘treehugger,’ generalizing the eco-conscious crowd as a free-spirited-Birkenstock-wearing-Grateful-Dead-loving bunch of Liberal hippies chanting ‘Peace, man.’

But being green has definitely gone mainstream, and from celebs like Julia Louis-Dreyfus with her lavish, multi-million dollar solar-powered home, to Pierce Brosnan, aptly named the ‘Best Dressed Environmentalist’ by the Sustainable Style Foundation, the stereotype of the gritty, unkempt nature wanderer that once dominated the category no longer applies.

Recently, MSN posted a list of the ‘Top 14 Green Celebrities,’ which contained some long-time environmental advocates and a few surprising new additions, all echoing a commitment to championing this important cause through various initiatives like Leonardo DiCaprio’s documentary film about global warming, the 11th Hour, featuring interviews with green leaders and a companion website where everyone can sign up to take action in their local communities, and George Clooney’s Oil Change, a campaign aimed at ending America’s independence on oil.  

Have you seen the Planet Green program Greensburg? The program follows the town of Greensburg, Kansas as they rebuild, in a very green way, after a tornado in May 2007 ripped through the town and devastated it. Nearly the entire community was destroyed.

Sunchips is helping the town of Greensburg to rebuild. Their first initiative was to donate $1 million to help build a solar-powered business incubator. It will eventually house 10 local businesses and help Greensburg residents return to their homes (many of them newly replaced).

Now Sunchips is taking another step to help Greensburg. When the tornado hit, it didn’t just destroy homes. It also destroyed the tree canopy in Greensburg. So a Facebook application was created called SunChips Greensburg widget that will allow Facebook users to add the widget to their profiles. For each widget that is added, SunChips will donate $1 towards replanting the tree canopy in Greensburg. The goal is to raise $50,000.

Blood Diamond exposed to the movie-going masses the horrors of the diamond industry's operation in the West African country of Sierra Leone. Four West African countries, Angola, The Congo, Guinea and Sierra Leone, where the diamond trade is bloodiest, produce about 20% (PDF) of the world's rough diamonds. The growing global market for diamonds reached nearly $70 billion dollars in 2005 fueled largely by the insatiable appetite of US consumers who

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Angelina Jolie, Julia Roberts and Leonardo DiCaprio made it to People’s 100 Most Beautiful list, in the section for “More than Just Look Good, They do Good.” Julia Roberts got top spot for most beautiful environmentalist, “Getting the nation’s 500,000 school buses to switch from fossil fuels to cleaner-burning biodiesel fules, which are refined from vegetable oils.” Leo while oh so hot, is also at the top spot for global warming, “I hope more people

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