June 23rd, 2010

By Tom Kessler
Green Right Now

Leilani Münter has jumped from an airplane, once worked as a stand-in for actress Catherine Zeta-Jones and her brother-in-law is Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead. She’s also a top-rated NASCAR driver, one of just four women in history to compete in the Indy Pro Series and – OK, this is where it really starts to sound crazy – she’s a vegetarian greenie! Yep, an actual environmentalist trapped in the 5-foot-3-inch body of a lead-footed speedster.

Münter is so green, in fact, that earlier this year she was named the No.1 eco-athlete by the Discovery Channel.

And in case you harbor any suspicions, the Minnesota-born racer is no Leilani-come-lately to the environmental movement. She earned a bachelors degree in biology with a specialty in ecology from the University of California, San Diego. While in college, she worked as a volunteer at a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center.

But Münter has another side that is less green — more black rubber smoking from her wheels. “This is the thing about racing… it’s so addictive,” she has said. The State of Arizona noticed and at the age of 16, she received a letter from the state “saying I was a danger to society” after racking up an exceptional number of speeding tickets.

So she soon took a path that included race driving school and that led to her current status as a professional racer – but one with an eco-conscience. Münter says she wants to not only win on the track, she wants to do it her way…with green sponsors and green fans in tow.

Early on, she saw that a woman in racing was going to draw a lot of attention. And she saw the potential to reach 100 million race fans in the U.S.  “Small changes, when multiplied by a million, can make a big difference,” she said.

So Münter decided to put that to work in spreading her message. She has a web site – CarbonFreeGirl.com — with a section dedicated to environmental news. There’s also lots of information about topics such as composting, recycling, organic food and algae-based bio diesel.

Among her stepped up green activities, Münter joined in lobbying Congress for energy legislation. In June 2008, she spoke at a Climate Action Rally on the steps of Capitol Hill alongside Senators Barbara Boxer, Joe Lieberman, and John Kerry.

“I want (Congress) to know the issue is so dire even a race car driver – someone whose livelihood is based on the internal combustion engine — can see the importance of energy independence and the move to clean, renewable energy from the sun and the wind and the ocean.”

Münter also is on a mission to green her profession. She wants to see every race car using clean, renewable biofuels and every race track following a recycling program. Tests on those fuels are underway, and could transform racing over the next five years. To make that happen and foster other changes,  she took to posting about environmental topics on NASCAR’s online forums. She stirred up a lot of passions “on both sides of the fence” and pretty soon she was getting some advice herself – just stick to driving. She recalls one particular online exchange that became very heated.

“When I got past the personal attacks, I sat back and thought, ‘Wow, I just started an argument about climate change on a NASCAR forum’,” she said. “I guarantee you this was the first time the people on that forum had started to argue about parts per million of carbon in our atmosphere – and that made me smile. I had become a bridge between the race fans and the environmentalists.”

And her message is being heard. She cites one email from a fan who wanted to adopt an acre of rain forest for his wife’s birthday present. Everywhere she races, she sees fans who are supportive of her efforts.

On a recent warm day in May, she had another group she was trying to reach – the members of the International Association of Assembly Managers who were gathered for the International Stadium Management Conference in Fort Worth. She had a new sponsor for this event, Green Mountain Energy, but her message was much the same as it has been. She told attendees they could make a huge difference with their fans and urged them to make sure they are recycling and cutting their carbon footprint by offering things like vegetarian food choices.

Münter told the group about having just returned from touring the BP oil spill in the Gulf. “This ongoing catastrophe is going to have devastating long term effects, not only for the eco-system but for all the fishermen who rely on the animals that come out of the Gulf,” she said. “Many of the fishermen that I was out there with are just now recovering from Hurricane Katrina, so now they have this to deal with.”

Speaking to a mostly male crowd that looked potentially carnivorous, Münter challenged them to think about their choices at the dinner table. She spoke about the enormous green house gases that are produced by raising animals, and the impact that reducing meat consumption could have on global hunger.  One acre of land can produce 165 pounds of beef or 20,000 pounds of potatoes, she said. It takes “23 gallons of water to produce a pound of tomatoes or 5,214 gallons to produce one pound of beef.”

You could sense that she saw this might not be a quick audience to convert.

“I know that not everyone in this room is going to become a vegetarian but please try to reduce your meat consumption. Do a meatless Monday – just give up meat one a day a week. Do it for the environment, do it for animal cruelty and do it for world hunger.”

As green advocates go, Münter is exceptional by every measure. She not only runs with a fast crowd on the racetrack, she regularly travels with celebrities and politicians as well.  In 2008, she became the official Ambassador for the National Wildlife Federation and landed a national ad campaign as a Lucky Jeans model with ads that appeared in Vogue, Vanity Fair, In Style, W Magazine.

Under her stylish image was the caption: “Leilani Münter, Race Car Driver and Environmentalist — Saving rainforests one race at a time.”

Pretty heady stuff, but not enough to impress Münter.

“I’m really just your typical recycling, composting, tree-hugging, vegetarian hippie chick,” she said. “I just happen to drive a race car.”

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