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Eco Racer Leilani Münter Launching 200mph Eco Education Project in Racing in 2012: Seeking Eco Conscious Companies Who Think Outside the Box
Interactive Program Designed to Educate and Engage 75 Million Race Fans and Inspire Them to Rethink Their Day to Day Choices For Our Planet
MOORESVILLE, NC (December 8, 2011) Race car driver and environmental activist Leilani Münter has announced plans for her 200 mph eco education program designed to educate and engage 75 million US race fans and inspire them to rethink their day to day choices for our planet. The program seeks twenty environmentally conscious companies to collaborate so Leilani and her eco race car can send powerful environmental messages to millions of race fans and call them to action. By having twenty eco partners in the program, the cost to become a partner on the car will be much more affordable, making it possible for smaller green companies to participate. The interactive program will include a smartphone application and a solar powered eco education center that will travel with Leilani and her eco race car to the races. Using these vehicles, Leilani's program will call to action millions of race fans to do their part to make a difference for our planet. Leilani and her team are seeking companies who are environmentally conscious and think outside the eco box.
Leilani has no problem keeping busy: from her trips to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, to Washington DC to fight for clean energy on Capitol Hill, to her ongoing work to end the brutal slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, Japan where she has traveled three times and documented the horrific killing firsthand - she is a woman living life in the fast lane. This week Leilani will be in New York to participate in flipping the light switch to red at the Empire State Building to raise awareness for the dolphin slaughter, alongside the Academy Award winning filmmakers of The Cove and actor John Leguizamo. She is the first Ambassador of the National Wildlife Federation and visited with members of Congress with their climate change scientists to discuss clean energy legislation. Leilani has given over forty keynote speeches at green events, and all her hard work for the earth has earned her the honor of being named the #1 eco athlete by Discovery's Planet Green, beating out household names like Lance Armstrong for the top spot. Glamour Magazine called her an "Eco Hero."
But one thing has been eluding Leilani: the corporate sponsorship it takes to continue her career as a race car driver. She has been racing since 2001 and has many accomplishments: she is the first woman to qualify in the forty year history of the Bettenhausen Classic late model race in Indiana, she set the record for the highest finish for a female stock car driver at Texas Motor Speedway, when she finished fourth in 2006, she is the fourth woman in history to race in the Indy Lights Series (the development league of IndyCar) where she was looking at a top five finish in her debut at Kentucky Speedway until a car in front of her blew a tire, causing an accident and taking her out of the race. She has 19 top ten and 9 top five finishes in her 42 starts and last year became one of only three women to qualify on speed for Daytona's ARCA race, alongside Danica Patrick who was making her stock car debut. Her accomplishments at the racetrack earned her being named one of the top ten female race car drivers in the world by Sports Illustrated.
Leilani's innovative 2012 eco education program is the result of years of work to bring these issues to the forefront of her sport. Leilani has been using her voice as a racer to address her environmental issues since 2005. In 2007, she made the commitment to adopt and protect an acre of rainforest for every race she runs in order to offset the carbon footprint of the fuel she burns during the race. She has partnered with several environmental companies since then including SMART Papers, NextEra Energy Resources, GREENandSAVE, LED Savings Solutions, NativeEnergy, groSolar and most recently Operation Free, a group of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan fighting for clean energy on Capitol Hill. She has also starred in a national ad campaign as a model for Lucky Brand Jeans which landed her on the pages of fashion magazines Vogue, Vanity Fair, In Style and W Magazine; her ad read "Leilani Münter, Race Car Driver and Environmentalist: Saving Rainforests, One Race at a Time." Perhaps because of her activism and her desire to work with only with environmentally conscious sponsors, Leilani has struggled to find the full time funding necessary to continue her on track career. But she feels that the world has evolved since she first spoke about environmental issues in 2005, and she believes there are many more companies out there that have green initiatives and also understand the value of bringing the green message to the number one spectator sport in America.
"As an environmentalist, I recognize that the place where I can make the most difference is at the racetrack: it is where I have my biggest audience and I am not preaching to the choir. Racing gives me a platform to speak to millions of race fans about our environmental challenges," says Münter, "that's why I want to take my conversation with the race fans to the next level. In 2012, I am developing a 200 mph eco education program: the goal is to educate and engage 75 million race fans in the USA and inspire them to rethink their day to day choices for our planet."
The program requires a collaboration of twenty environmentally conscious companies, which makes it possible to reduce the cost to participate in the program significantly. It includes a smart phone application and a solar powered eco education center which will travel with Münter and her eco race car to the track and will be a resource for race fans trackside to learn about clean energy, electric cars, biofuels, etc. We are seeking companies who are environmentally conscious and think outside the eco box.
To any executive that second guesses putting an eco logo on a race car, consider this statement from Tom Rawls, the Vice President of Marketing at NativeEnergy:
"How does NativeEnergy reach people who are not already converts on the issue of climate change? Anyone who is engaged in any broad effort to speak to the public faces this question: Do I talk only to friendly audiences, or do I face the doubters and the hostiles? If we only address those who already agree with us, nothing changes. And if we work only with people who already believe in what we do, who is going to change the minds of those who don't? Leilani Münter is a proven and committed environmental advocate. That has been demonstrated beyond a doubt. Leilani is also a race car driver, and racing leaves an over sized carbon footprint. So there's a contradiction. And in that contradiction lies and opportunity: To reach some 75 million individuals who are avid racing fans. My guess is that a fair share of them are not troubling themselves about global warming. That is why we decided that it makes perfect sense to support Leilani and her mission. Is car racing "bad?" Are 75 million fans damnable? Surely not. Rather, those 75 million fellow inhabitants of our planet present a rich vein of possibility that we want to explore. And explore we will, following the guidance of Leilani, the carbon free girl."
**NOTE TO INTERESTED PARTNERS**
Companies interested in Leilani's 2012 eco education program in racing, please email ecoteam@carbonfreegirl.com for more details.
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