DRIVEN TO ECO AWARENESS.

Byline: Evan Henerson

Staff Writer

Davis Guggenheim, director of the Oscar-nominated global warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" will do the ecologically responsible thing on Oscar night. Ditto, environmentally conscious nominee Leonardo DiCaprio.

And while the stretch limousine has yet to be produced in hybrid form, more than a handful of Oscar nominees will sacrifice some of that extra leg room to travel to the award show in green transportation.

Hybrids and electric sports cars, Toyota Priuses and Mercedes E320 CDI will be mixing with the traditional mass of stretch limos and sport utility vehicles.

"We are maxed out (for Oscar night)," says Dot Findlater, vice president of the company ECOLIMO, adding that the company's "A-list" clients cannot be named.

Global Green USA has lined up 30 cars to transport Oscar nominees to the Kodak Theatre and to after parties. Stars who have arrived in green vehicles at past Oscars include Charlize Theron, Will Ferrell, Harrison Ford, Penelope Cruz and Salma Hayek. Cruz and DiCaprio kicked off Global Green's Red Carpet / Green Cars Oscar campaign earlier this week.

And are bigger and better green luxury vehicles on the horizon? Perhaps, says Jeff Greene, president of the National Limousine Association, as long as certain design obstacles can be overcome.

"The environmentally friendly vehicles weren't really designed or built for the kind of duty our industry demands of the vehicles," says Greene. "There are no stretch limo hybrids because of the electrical requirements and the additional weight of the engine required to absorb and pull."

Evan Henerson, [phone]

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