U.S. Green Building Council President, CEO & Founding Chair Rick Fedrizzi today declared that the neighborhood being built by Make It Right New Orleans, the post-Katrina housing initiative launched by actor Brad Pitt, is the “largest and greenest community of single-family homes in the world” at the annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York.

Make It Right, which was announced as a “commitment” at the 2007 CGI meeting, has already LEED Platinum certified 13 homes and is building at least 150 sustainable, storm-resistant LEED Platinum homes in a Lower 9th Ward neighborhood of New Orleans wiped out by the Hurricane Katrina and that
was nearest to the disastrous breech of the Industrial Canal levee.

“Through Make It Right we are reminded that our work is not about buildings, but rather about the people within them,” said Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO & Founding Chair, U.S. Green Building Council. “In facing our nation’s unprecedented economic and environmental crises, we must change the way the
places in which we live, work, learn and play are built and operated. What we’re seeing with green building goes beyond energy-efficiency to a transformation of entire communities – and the lives of the people who live there. Make It Right has proved that green building can be both affordable and high performing.”

After the presentation of the award, President Clinton, Brad Pitt, Rick Fedrizzi, Make It Right Executive Director Tom Darden, Architect William McDonough and Dr. Nawal Al-Hosany, Director of Sustainability, Masdar City, UAE International, addressed the progress Make It Right has made, as well as how green building should play a role in revitalizing the nation’s economy and tackling environmental challenges, in a session moderated by White House Domestic Policy Adviser Melody Barnes.

Tags: Brad Pitt, CGI, Chad Griffin, Clinton Global Initiative, LEED, Make it Right, Melody Barnes, Rick Fedrizzi, U.S. Green Building Council, William McDonough, Yusef Robb

A lawsuit first filed in federal district court last Friday, May 22, states that Proposition 8 — which eliminated the right of same sex couples to marry in California — creates a class of “second-class citizens” and thereby violates the U.S. Constitution. The suit also calls for an injunction against Proposition 8 until the case is resolved, which would immediately reinstate marriage rights to same sex couples.

The suit was filed by two same-sex couples who wish to be married but, because of Proposition 8, have been denied marriage licenses. The plaintiffs are represented by Theodore B. Olson and David Boies. Olson, a former U.S. Solicitor General, represented George W. Bush in 2000’s Bush v. Gore, which decided the presidential election. Boies represented Al Gore in that case. Olson, widely regarded as one of the nation’s preeminent constitutional lawyers, has argued 54 cases in the U.S. Supreme Court. Boies ranks as one of the leading trial lawyers of his generation, having secured landmark victories for clients in numerous areas of the law. This is the first time they have served alongside each other as co-counsel.

The plaintiffs and attorneys will be announcing the case at a press conference in Los Angeles today.

“Yesterday, the California Supreme Court said that the California Constitution compels the State to discriminate against gay men and lesbians who have the temerity to wish to express their love and commitment to one another by getting married,” Olson said. “These are our neighbors, co-workers, teachers, friends, and family, and, courtesy of Prop 8, California now prohibits them from exercising this basic, fundamental right of humanity. Whatever discrimination California law now might permit, I can assure you, the United States Constitution does not.”

“Mr. Olson and I are from different ends of the political spectrum, but we are fighting this case together because Proposition 8 clearly and fundamentally violates the freedoms guaranteed to all of us by the Constitution,” Boies said. “Every American has a right to full equality under the law. Same sex couples are entitled to the same marriage rights as straight couples. Any alternative is separate and unequal and relegates gays and lesbians to a second class status.”

The plaintiffs in the case are Kris Perry & Sandy Stier, and Paul Katami & Jeff Zarrillo. They issued the following joint statement today: “We and our relationships should be treated equally under the law. Our goal is to advance the cause of equality for all Americans, which is the promise that makes this nation so great.”

The case is a project of the American Foundation for Equal Rights.

Watch the press conference live (and on replay) here:

Tags: American Foundation for Equal Rights, California Supreme Court, Chad Griffin, David Boies, Discrimination, Equal Rights, Griffin|Schake, Jeff Zarrillo, Kris Perry, Kristina Schake, Matthew diGirolamo, Paul Katami, Proposition 8, Sandy Stier, Ted Olson, Yusef Robb

Kaiser Permanente opened its largest hospital today, a $600 million, 800,000-square-foot hospital complex in Los Angeles. The new Los Angeles Medical Center replaces the hospital next door that has served the Los Angeles community for more than 50 years.

This flagship hospital is a cutting-edge facility that will treat 750,000 patients annually and be home to the largest cardiac surgery center in the Western United States, a Level IIIc Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, and an all electronic patient information and records system known as Kaiser HealthConnect. In this way, the hospital is an answer to President Obama’s call for all Americans’ health care information to be digitized in five years.

The hospital will serve as a showcase for Kaiser’s model of care, which focuses on prevention and new technologies to keep people healthier, thus creating an efficient system where maximum resources are directed to patients who do require care.

Media were invited to cover the day-long, multi-staged transition from the circa-1950s hospital to the new hospital next door.

>> Watch the KCBS 2/KCAL 9 story here.

>> Listen to KPCC’s coverage here. 

>> Read the LA Times story here.

>> Read the Contra Costa Times story here.

Tags: Griffin|Schake, Health Care, Kaiser Permanente, Launch Events, Media Strategy & Relations, President Obama, Strategic Communications, Yusef Robb

Griffin|Schake client Shangri-La Construction today unveiled its first major project, the world’s first solar-powered airplane hangar.

The aviation facility, the first to achieve Platinum certification (highest rating issued) under the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Green Building Rating System, was unveiled at a ceremony announcing the newly formed business unit and the completion of the hangar at the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, California.

Hangar 25 was featured in a Los Angeles Times piece that dubbed the facility “the ultimate plug-in recharger.”

A team of Southern California developers today is taking the wraps off what may be the world’s greenest aviation facility, one capable of powering a Boeing 757 with solar energy while the aircraft is on the ground for maintenance.

The new 60,000-square-foot structure at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank is believed to be the industry’s only solar-powered airport hangar. Its rooftop photovoltaic panels provide enough juice to operate the building’s lights and to recharge electric-powered ground equipment such as forklifts and tow vehicles. The array can also keep an airplane’s electrical system humming inside the hangar while mechanics perform their chores.
Green construction and solar-powered buildings are nothing new in California. Still, the Burbank facility, known as Hangar 25, appears to be a clean step forward for the aviation industry, which has a massive carbon footprint.

“I haven’t heard of anything like it before,” said Steve Howards, executive director of the Clean Airport Partnership, a nonprofit based in Lakewood, Colo., that promotes energy efficiency and sustainability at U.S. airports. “A facility that generates enough renewable power to support [aircraft] maintenance equipment? That’s a precedent setter.”

Read the full article here here.

Tags: Green, Griffin|Schake, Hangar 25, LEED, Los Angeles Times, Matthew diGirolamo, Media Event Production, Media Strategy & Relations, Message Development, Shangri-LA Construction, Solar Power, Strategic Communications, Sustainable, U.S. Green Building Council, Yusef Robb

The National Academy of Sciences announced today the creation of “The Science and Entertainment Exchange,” an initiative designed to connect entertainment industry professionals with top scientists and engineers to help the creators of television shows, films, video games, and other productions incorporate science into their work.

Griffin|Schake clients Director Jerry Zucker and his wife, producer Janet Zucker, actively support the initiative.

“The Exchange will provide filmmakers with an invaluable connection to scientific truth, but more importantly, we will have the ability to invent and explore the unknown with the great visionaries of science,” said Jerry.

Janet Zucker added, “The Exchange will provide a place where scientific and artistic minds can come together to inspire each other, building a two-way street for both communities to learn and create.”

The Exchange was launched at a press conference produced by Griffin | Schake featuring NAS President Ralph Cicerone, Jerry & Janet Zucker, Seth MacFarlane, Lawrence Kasdan and other Hollywood notables, as reported by Variety.

Read the full Variety article here.

Tags: Griffin|Schake, Hollywood, Janet Zucker, Jerry Zucker, Media Event Production, Media Strategy & Relations, National Academy of Sciences, Science and Entertainment Exchange, Seth MacFarlane, Variety, Yusef Robb

Earlier today, Griffin|Schake’s client, the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), announced that the six major movie studios will include anti-smoking public service announcements produced by the California Health and Human Services Agency on millions of youth-rated DVDs of motion pictures that include scenes with tobacco use.

Governor Schwarzenegger and Motion Picture Association of America President Dan Glickman joined EIF President and CEO Lisa Paulsen to announce this unprecedented partnership.

Read Variety’s coverage of the announcement here.

Through this campaign, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Company and Warner Bros. will place California’s anti-smoking public service announcements in the opening minutes of DVDs of all new movies with tobacco use that are rated G, PG and PG-13. This is an important component of the studios’ continued effort to reduce and mitigate the depiction of smoking in movies.

Working with Griffin|Schake, EIF brought the State of California and the Hollywood studios together, negotiated the agreement, and handled the production details to make this first-of-its-kind initiative a reality.

“The State of California is a great partner, having produced some of the most successful anti-smoking public service announcements. California’s Tobacco Control Program PSAs have helped the state achieve some of the lowest adult and teen smoking rates in the country,” said EIF President and CEO Lisa Paulsen. “We’re proud to have played a role in bringing the state and all the studios together.”

At the end of each 30-second PSA, viewers are directed to www.TobaccoFreeCA.com, for information on the dangers of smoking and for help in quitting and helping others quit. Resources are available in all 50 states. The PSAs were developed by the state’s Tobacco Control Program, which is operated by the California Department of Public Health, one of 12 departments in the California Health and Human Services Agency.

Watch the anti-smoking PSA “Icons” here: Anti-Smoking PSA \"Icons\"

Tags: Anti-Smoking, Entertainment Industry Foundation, Government Relations, Governor Schwarzenegger, Hollywood, Issue Campaign Management, Matthew diGirolamo, Media Event Production, Media Strategy & Relations, Yusef Robb