Eco Hero Awards

The 2009 Planet in Focus Eco Heroes

Each year Planet in Focus honours and celebrates remarkable individuals and organizations that have made a difference in their communities and the world at large through their passion and body of work. They deepen the discourse about the environment and provide a unique lens and framework from which we view our world. Indeed, they have opened our eyes to the fragility and beauty of the planet and demand of us to be ever vigilant.

The 2009 Planet in Focus Eco Heroes are:

• Maude Barlow– International Eco Hero
• Ian Clifford – Canadian Eco Hero
• The Nature of Things With David Suzuki –Industry/Media Eco Hero

International Eco Hero – Maude Barlow

This award is given to an individual who has demonstrated outstanding leadership and made a lasting contribution to environmental awareness, action and change on the international stage.

_{"The life of an activist is a good life because you get up in the morning caring about more than just yourself or how to make money. A life of activism gives hope, which is a moral imperative in this work and in this world. It gives us energy and it gives us direction. You meet the nicest people, you help transform ideas and systems and you commit to leaving the earth in at least as whole a condition as you inherited it.”}

_{Maude Barlow,  Trent University,  June 2009.}

Maude Barlow is a visionary and inspiration to environmental activists the world over. Undaunted in the face of opposition, she has gained the ear of the powerful while empowering the powerless. Through her tireless efforts over four decades taking action on behalf of women, against free trade and now, water rights, she has become a true Eco Hero advocating on behalf of the planet, for all.

Maude Barlow is the National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians and Senior Advisor on Water to the President of the United Nations General Assembly. She Chairs the Board of Washington-based Food and Water Watch and is a Councilor with the Hamburg-based World Future Council. Maude is the recipient of eight honorary doctorates as well as many awards, including the 2005 Right Livelihood Award (known as the “Alternative Nobel”), the Citation of Lifetime Achievement at the 2008 Canadian Environment Awards, and the 2009 Earth Day Canada Outstanding Environmental Achievement Award. A best selling author or co-author of 16 books, she recently released Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and The Coming Battle for the Right to Water.

The film Blue Gold: World Water Wars based on her book that she co-authored with Tony Clarke opened the Planet in Focus Festival in 2008. Barlow has worked indefatigably advocating that we should never forget about the world’s most precious resource, H₂O. It sustains us all and is the source of life.

(Maude Barlow will be awarded October 21st at the Royal Cinema)

Canadian Eco Hero – Ian Clifford

This award is presented to a Canadian who has made an outstanding contribution within Canada by promoting environmental awareness, action and change and by seeking viable solutions toward a more sustainable future.

_{"I am quite certain that the economic benefits of shifting to "green" sustainable solutions will be fully appreciated and understood by all. …. I think the survival of the PLANET depends on this global shift, and that what we are doing at ZENN is an important part of ensuring that the necessary solutions are commercialized and implemented around the world."   Ian Clifford globeandmail.com Dec.5, 2008}

Ian Clifford was an established photographer and entrepreneur when he decided to take on the car industry, an industry largely responsible for the proliferation of green house gases. Clifford is the founder and CEO of ZENN zero emissions, no noise Motor Company, a Toronto-based developer of zero emission transportation solutions. His cars have been selling in the past year in Quebec.

Ian began his career as a photographer. Mentored by Ansel Adams, he quickly became one of Canada's leading corporate photographers. In 1995, Ian co-founded digIT Interactive, a full-service internet marketing company. After selling digIT Interactive in 2000, Ian sought a more meaningful endeavour and in 2001 founded Feel Good Cars, an electric car company (now ZENN Motor Company). ZENN Motor Company is currently developing their ZENNergy™ drive powertrains incorporating a game-changing energy storage technology from EEStor, Inc. Ian’s vision is for ZENNergy to evolve into the ‘Intel Inside’ of the automotive industry, enabling the mass adoption of zero emission vehicles around the world.

Ian undoubtedly exemplifies the “can do” spirit in environmental entrepreneurship.
(Ian Clifford will be awarded October 21st at the Royal Cinema)

Industry/Media Eco Hero – The Nature of Things with David Suzuki

This award is given to an artist or program that has made an outstanding and lasting contribution in the creation of environmental artistic expression through their collected body of work.

The Nature of Things with David Suzuki is the CBC Documentary Science & Natural History Unit's longest running flagship program and award-winning series broadcast across Canada and many countries around the world. Launched in 1958 as Focus on Physics it went through a name change in 1960 where it initially focused on the human brain and body, the Aurora Borealis, the laws of probability, engineering and science as well as Science Fiction with Dr. Isaac Asimov. In 1979, it merged with Science Magazine and the geneticist Dr. David Suzuki, became the host of the new one-hour program. The program was instrumental in enhancing environmental awareness among its viewers with such programs about a watershed in the Queen Charlotte Islands entitled Windy Bay (British Columbia); the eight part series A Planet for the Taking; the program Nuclear Power: The Hot Debate which looked at the pros and cons of nuclear power; and Amazonia: The Road to the End of the Forest, with its shocking portrayal of the destruction of the rainforest. These programs set the standard for environmental programming and artistic expression and established the incomparable place of Dr. David Suzuki as Canada’s most publicly trusted environmental advocate and champion.

The program has brought stories about the environment into the living-rooms of millions of Canadians and it continues to explore issues, discoveries and events in the worlds of science, medicine, technology, wildlife and the environment. Analytic and humanist in perspective, the series documents our increasingly complicated and interconnected world, seeking to interpret both advances and setbacks, at a time when the speed of change is ever accelerating.

This year David Suzuki celebrates his 30th season as host of the series, having paved the way for a greater understanding of the increasingly complex world in which we live. Over the past decade Planet in Focus has been enriched by The Nature of Things. The team behind this award winning series – its producers, host, filmmakers, crews and subjects -have played a vital role in our success, so it is fitting in this milestone year to bestow the 2009 Industry/Media Eco Hero Award to The Nature of Things with David Suzuki.

(The Nature of Things will be awarded October 25th at the ROM)