CEH Director Will Receive Compassion in Action Award Tonight

San Francisco - Tonight, Michael Green will be presented with the Compassion in Action Award, for "his tireless work for children's and community health as Executive Director of the Center for Environmental Health (CEH)." The award is a joint project of the Committee of 100 for Tibet and the Dalai Lama Foundation, and is given annually to individuals who "embody pure motivation and compassionate concern for the well being of others, world peace, ecology, and global responsibility." 

"It is a tremendous honor to receive this award from organizations that are made up of so many of my heroes, people who have made the world a better place, not only through their activism and political work, but also through the way that they are as people in the world," said Green. "I've had the incredible good luck to make a career out of working to protect children and families from environmental health hazards. I am humbled to receive this award for our work at the Center for Environmental Health."

Michael Green will accept the award tonight at the opening of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts showing of the exhibit The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama, hosted by master of ceremonies Sharon Stone (details here). The Missing Peace is a multi-media art exhibition bringing together 88 artists representing 30 countries, in an exploration of the idea of art as an interpretation of and a catalyst for peace.

In over ten years as founder and Executive Director of CEH, Michael Green has coordinated the organization's groundbreaking work to protect children and families from chemicals that can cause cancer, birth defects, and other illnesses, and to promote safer alternatives for a more sustainable economy. Most recently, Green has been a national leader in the movement to expose and prevent hidden lead hazards to children from toys and other products. Just this year, CEH has identified lead-contamination in toys, vinyl baby bibs, school lunchboxes and backpacks, leading to product recalls and changing production practices for entire industries. CEH has previously identified and won legal agreements to end lead hazards in other children's products, including diaper creams, children's medicines, home water filters, and children's jewelry, among others.

Green has also made CEH a leader in working with "green" businesses to promote healthier production and operations. For example, CEH is a leader in the movement for healthier production and management of computers and other electronics, promoting safer e-waste and computer take-back programs and demanding production of electronics without toxic chemicals. CEH currently works with the top purchasing staff at Kaiser Permanente, the nation's leading non-profit health care corporation, on standards the health care leader can use to demand safer computers, televisions, and medical electronics from their suppliers.

Prior to founding CEH, Michael Green volunteered with Mother Theresa's mission in Calcutta, India, and later traveled to Tibet. On December 10th, 1988, International Human Rights Day, in the Tibetan capitol of Lhasa, he witnessed young Chinese soldiers shoot and kill a group of Tibetan nuns who had unfurled a Tibetan flag in the historic Barkhor, a center for religious pilgrimage. Green later worked for the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, which was founded by the long-time legal counsel to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and with the Tibetan Government-in-Exile in Dharamsala, India, where he developed a solid waste management plan for the Tibetan community. He later served for many years on the Board of Directors of the Tibet Justice Center.

Mr. Green worked in government with the U.S. Department of Energy and at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Working Group on Environmental Equity, the forerunner of today's Office of Environmental Justice. In 2007, he was awarded The California Wellness Foundation Leadership Award.

For more information on CEH, see www.cehca.org