During Sunday night’s 79th Annual Academy Awards, Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio announced that, for the first time, the Oscars had “gone green.” The Natural Resources Defense Council made this landmark change possible by offering guidance and assistance to the awards ceremony production team. With the considerable impact that Hollywood trends (both negative and positive) have on the world, last night is bound to set precedence for environmental awareness and action. Here’s what NRDC had to say about the effort on their website:

The Academy Award’s first-ever greening initiative — which included a variety of energy-saving solutions — was led by NRDC in collaboration with Oscar producer Laura Ziskin. The effort included offsetting carbon emissions of the pre-show, the red carpet event, the telecast, and the Governor’s Ball; incorporating environmental features into the greenroom design; promoting recycling and reducing waste generated by the annual event; and using recycled materials in paper products, including the Oscar ballots themselves……This innovative project, which will be further enhanced at Oscar events in years to come, targeted ecologically significant impacts, including global warming pollution and energy use, paper products, set design, transportation, and food service.

In keeping with the greening of the show, Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” won in the Best Documentary category. Gore shared in the award for the documentary which centered around his lectures. He was welcomed to give a brief speech. “My fellow Americans, people all over the world, we need to solve the climate crisis. It’s not a political issue, it’s a moral issue.” Gore continued, “We have everything we need to get started, with the possible exception of the will to act. That’s a renewable resource. Let’s renew it.”

In the Best Song category, “I Need to Wake Up” by Melissa Etheridge was performed and also won the award.

Also, worth mentioning is Martin Scorcese’s win for both Best Director and Best Film for “The Departed”.

You can download the original versions of these two clips at C&L