Girls Gone Green – An Eco Calendar for Charity
by Brian Merchant, Brooklyn, New York on 10.12.08
Image courtesy of Habana Works
Girls Gone Green. This is the kind of sexy environmental idea that makes you wonder why it hasn’t been done much before. And it’s a wonderfully cheeky concept—a calendar full of girls posing for the sake of green.
Meet the Habana Girls
Sean Meenan, the owner of eco-eateries Habana Club and the Habana Outpost, has released the 2009 Habana Girls calendar. Each month features one of the waitresses from the restaurants posing seductively—while doing a sultry eco-friendly deed like collecting harvested rainwater or lasciviously tending a wildlife habitat.
All of the proceeds of the calendar go towards Meenan’s non-profit organization Habana Works, which provides free environmental workshops to children, green school supply giveaways, and classes on composting.
The calendar itself, which features the eco-loving ladies on green roofs, at compost stations, even atop the hood of a Lincoln Continental that runs on vegetable oil, is printed with soy ink on recycled paper, and is completely biodegradable. Not that you’d ever want to see these lovely, proactive women—or the principles they’re promoting—be buried under any circumstance.
If you’re in New York, drop by either of the ecoeateries, and snag the calendar there. Or if you’d rather the girls from afar—they don’t mind, really!—visit the Habana Works website.
More on Green Calendars:
Calendar of Climate Change 2007
500 Beautiful Sierra Club Calendars for TreeHugger Readers
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- Middlebury College Writes First Green Paper
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- Green Eyes On: Three Green New Year's Resolutions
Objectifying women is sexism. Calling grown women "girls" is sexism. Using the commodified bodies of women to sell things--even good things--is sexism. You don't get a free pass on this because you are a green.
Enough of the sexist crap. Stick to actual environmental news, not misogynist publicity stunts, please.
Ack! AmI the only one that noticed the photoshopped phantom limb? Just the designer geek in me I suppose. Other than that, looks like a good idea.
Without piercings and tattoos, there's nothing special about these girls. no buy!
@ kreepyk
Your name certainly fits. Get over yourself and see the bigger picture. Men love attractive women (no I won't spell it with a damn "y" either) If a typical man sees this calender and goes green because of it what's the problem? Sexuality isn't something to be ashamed of and, last I checked, NYC was in a free(ish) country. Nobody forced anyone to do the calender and nobody's forcing you to get one. You, on the other hand have forced me to type this response to your overly whiny post. Sexism my heiny!
@Raiyn I agree.
hey Kreepyk, sure the calendar has pics of women on it. so what? sex sells no matter what you say!!
"Sexism is the belief or attitude that one gender or sex is inferior to or less valuable than the other"
I'm sorry, but this isn't sexism. One could argue that this objectifies women which LEADS to sexism, but that is a different statement (and given this has an agenda driven message, I would argue it is far less likely).
Oh, and I hear grown men referred to as boys ALL the time as well. I think it is the nature of the statement that can make it belittling, not woman vs girl.
On the first hand, nice and funny way to reach some important objectives and involve people. Good job! On the second hand: do we really still need nice girl in fool poses to convince people in doing the "right things"? I would say, be democratic, at least show both boys and girls, otherwise I can agree with the sexism accusation :-)
Thanks for making my point, folks. Sheesh.
Wow! What a brilliant, novel Idea! A man came up with the concept of using provocative photos of women to sell something?? This IS big news!
Whew. Good thing you've got your boy on the beat to cover publicity stunts like this and report on it like it's something new, interesting, innovative and done as a charitable act of selflessness to save the Earth, rather than a way to make money for the promoter's business in a sagging economy! (Silly boy, don't be fooled by "all the proceeds go to his non-profit" line. One goes to his RESTAURANT to buy the calendar, darling.)
Gee, thanks Treehugger, for keeping me informed of the world's pressing issues, and for doing it in a way that allows you to use the word "cheeky." Are you sure you're not really Austin Powers?
Come on, it is not sexism just because there are not both men and women in the calendar. It's just that not as many people would buy it if it were a calendar of manskin. Everyone knows that girls are just much prettier than boys.
This is not a new idea. I have a calendar someone gave me for 2007 that did this same thing. But they did it better!
Not only did ecobabes.org put out a calendar, but it featured real women, not "objectified" (quite as much), who actually ARE enviros and not just waitresses posing as them.
The founder is a woman, the group who created it are all women, and they volunteered, knowing that a decent photograph of women and nature could not only provide a beautiful calendar, but also help change people's minds about "green" and give good ideas in the process (each woman has a blurb on her month about what green means to her, what she does that is green, etc.)
And the funds go to education on green.
For my money the original...the ecobabes...far outstrip (pun intended) this tackier version.
Nonetheless, does it matter if people come to green because of money or beauty or sex or greed? Is this really any different than all the big companies who claim to suddenly "be green" despite making any real effort? In the end isn't it enough that people start getting the clue, no matter what grabbed their attention at first?