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2006 OSSA Awards

Style & Substance Award
Angelina Jolie

OSSA Awards
by Jonathan Adler

OSSA Award - Arts & Entertainment
Cameron Diaz

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The Outstanding Sustainable Style Achievement (OSSA) Awards recognize outstanding social and environmental efforts across the many and diverse style and design industries that help us all "look fabulous, live well and do good". The OSSAs are designed to showcase the amount and breadth of sustainability efforts underway in style industries, as well as foster cross-industry awareness and inspiration. They are one of the few places where stylemakers, community organizations, businesses and government come together to celebrate the many ways we can make positive change in the world as we express ourselves in our individual style choices. Above all, the OSSAs provide incredible role models for us all to look up to.

The awards are presented as a part of SSF's "recognition and inspiration" program area, designed to highlight the best in sustainable style and showcase the positive power of making more sustainable lifestyle choices.

You can find all the 2006 nominees and recipients below and in issue 009 of our SASS Magazine. For more information on the OSSA Award nomination and selection process, click here.

[2006 Premier Awards]


Style & Substance Award - Angelina Jolie

Angelina JolieSSF’s highest honor, The Style and Substance Award in honor of Audrey Hepburn was presented to Angelina Jolie, for her tireless work as a concerned global citizen and active United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Goodwill Ambassador. The dedication to her craft that garnered Angelina an Academy Award for her performance in Girl, Interrupted in 1999 is reflected in her efforts for the UNHCR, a UN agency that currently assists 20 million refugees in approximately 120 countries. Angelina's involvement with UNHCR began with a mission to Sierra Leone, a small African country that, like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has been devastated by years of brutal civil war. Seeing firsthand the enormous challenges that refugees face was a life-altering experience for Angelina, who decided to use her fame to aid their cause. In 2001, she was named a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador. "It is an obligation to be here and to help the people," Jolie said of a recent trip to Pakistan. "I'm sorry we're in this situation, but I am so glad to be here for them."

Angelina Jolie As a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, Angelina uses her status as a superstar to generate media coverage about the plight of refugees and the conditions under which they live. She has traveled widely to remote refugee camps and receiving centers in countries including Tanzania, Namibia, Cambodia, Pakistan, Thailand, and Ecuador. To further raise awareness, she has released her personal journals for select field visits that can be accessed at USA for UNHCR. For her efforts, Angelina has been honored with the Church World Service Immigration and Refugee Program Humanitarian Award. While hosting "What's Going On?" Angelina was inspired by the stories of the Fataki brothers, Echa Nyange and Sofia Mocke, all children living at the Lugufu refugee camp in Tanzania. Tragically, their stories are all too familiar to Angelina, who has met thousands of men, women, and children forced to flee from their homes and struggle to survive as refugees. "You go to these places and you realize what life's really about and what people are really going through," says Ms. Jolie. "These people are my heroes." She has visited a dozen war zones, and adopted her Cambodian son after a mission to his native country. She first contacted the UN to see if she could help after spending 10 days in refugee camps in Afghanistan. Ruud Lubbers, the UN high commissioner for refugees, said: "She has helped put the spotlight on the disenfranchised group -- refugees -- and also those who are not in the headlines and who are victims of long forgotten crises. She gives a voice to millions of uprooted people across the globe."

The Style and Substance Award in honor of Audrey Hepburn is SSF's highest honor and recognizes outstanding efforts by a celebrity, style professional or public figure to improve the quality of life of children around the world. Originally inspired by Audrey Hepburn’s work with UNICEF, this award is selected by SSF and Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund (AHCF) boards and advisors.

photos copyright © UNHCR

Vision & Innovation Award - Ben & Jerry's

The Vision & Innovation Award was presented to Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, for their social and environmental leadership and vision to improve the quality of life for people around the world through their business practices.

family-farms Since their inception in 1978, Ben & Jerry’s has married their passion for making great ice cream with changing the world for the better; their numerous social and environmental efforts and programs include supplying a pig farm in Stowe, Vermont with ice cream waste in 1987, using recycled and recyclable plastic and cardboard packaging, coming out against recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH), based on concern about its adverse economic impact on family farming in 1989 and Ben & Jerry’s Circus Bus, which hit the road for a national tour in 1991 complete with solar panels atop the bus to power the on-board electronics. Ben & Jerry’s 2001 CERES Report also won the award for Outstanding Sustainability Reporting – the first-ever such award given by the CERES organization.

lick-global-warming 2002 saw Ben & Jerry’s partner with the Dave Matthews Band and SaveOurEnvironment.org to form Lick Global Warming, a campaign to fight global warming, as well as begin an ongoing partnership with NativeEnergy to offset carbon emissions by investing in new wind farms. In 2003, they launched a sustainable agriculture program in Hellendorn, Holland, that’s developing criteria for sustainable dairy farming practices. Through it all, they've proven that it takes more than great ice cream to be a great ice cream company, and that sustainability can be more than just a smart business practice; it can be fun, and it can be a way of life.

The Vision & Innovation Award recognizes an individual, organization or company that has demonstrated ongoing leadership and vision in a style/design industry. This award is selected by the SSF board and advisors following nominations from the SSF membership.

Outstanding Public Expression Award - Prince Charles and Lady Camilla

Prince Charles & CamillaThe Outstanding Public Expression Award is presented to His Royal Highness, Charles, Prince of Wales, and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, for their high-profile visits to organic farms in California and their outspoken support of organic farming in 2005.

The prince is a firm supporter of sustainable agriculture and runs an organic farm on his Highgrove estate in England. He also has a multimillion-dollar line of organic foods, Duchy Originals, whose profits go to charity.

Quoted as saying, "I have always believed that agriculture is not only the oldest, but also the most important of humanity's productive activities," the Prince has long been a supporter of organic food, sustainable farming, and raising awareness about the benefits of the food for both consumers and producers: "My commitment to organic food and farming goes back twenty years when I first endeavoured to put my principles into practice on the farm at Highgrove. Since then I have also developed a food company, Duchy Originals and, through the sales of Duchy products, I am not only trying to enable consumers to use their buying power to support sustainable and organic food production, but also to create a virtuous circle. That is why all the profits are donated to charitable causes, including educational and development projects, such as those run by the Soil Association and the HDRA in the United Kingdom as well as some small-scale sustainable development ventures overseas. Indeed, last year we made our first million pounds for charity which is something of which I am extremely proud."

The Outstanding Public Expression Award recognizes outstanding efforts by a celebrity, style professional or public figure that uses their high profile position to bring attention to pressing social and/or environmental issues. This award is selected by the SSF boards and advisors following nominations from the SSF membership.

Image copyright © Merian Kiernan/Epoch Times.

[2006 OSSA Jury]


Lynne Barker | City of Seattle, Green Building Team>

Josie Briggs | Studio Celadon, interior designer

Dr. Leslie Burns | Oregon State University, Apparel, Interiors, Housing, and Merchandising College of Home Economics and Education

Thor Peterson | City of Seattle Sustainable Building Program, single family homes

Dave Rider | Copernican Design, sales and marketing

Deborah Vandermar | Fashion Group International, Seattle Chapter Chair

Shanle Vandermeer | University of California, Santa Cruz, student, community studies

[2006 OSSA Awards]


Communication & Communication Design

Designed Environments

Arts & Entertainment

Fashion & Beauty

Food & Restaurant

Industrial Design & Consumer Products

Mobility

Sports

Travel

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