July 2, 2008—CBS Corporation and EcoMedia, the environmental media company, recently announced a ground-breaking strategic partnership to work with US mayors and local municipalities to “green” cities across the country. The project will utilize CBS’s extensive local resources, and will leverage corporate advertising and sponsorship revenue to improve the quality of the environment in key markets across the nation.
The collaboration is an extension of the recent success of Mayor Manny Diaz in greening Miami; the partnership he forged with EcoMedia and CBS’s WFOR-TV will serve as the model for this nationwide project. The effort earned Miami the title of “America’s Cleanest City” by Forbes Magazine.
EcoZone’s initiatives in Miami included the “City Hall Energy Efficiency Project,” which involved solar tree installation and a lighting retrofit, as well as the installation of filters into storm drains to protect rivers lakes and streams, the funding of Miami “Green Lab,” the Miami BayWash Program, and the planting of more than 1,000 trees at Virginia Key.
The first national project from this new partnership will be the CBS and EcoZone “Green Schools Initiative,” expected to launch in Miami, Chicago, and San Francisco this fall. A portion of the corporate sponsor revenues will fund a significant greening of a school in each city and create ongoing sustainable green projects and initiatives.
Future projects are expected to include helping to fund affordable green housing, solar installations, taking parks off the grid, tree plantings, and integrating hybrid and alternative fuel vehicles into city fleets, among others.
