Zak Sawyer

Zak Sawyer is currently a senior in high school at The Berkeley Carroll School in Brooklyn, N.Y.  Zak has always had a passion for the environment, and in 2006 he was inspired by hybrid technology at the New York City Auto Show and later "An Inconvenient Truth," and so TheWeeklyplanet.org was born.  Zak created The Weekly Planet to show people how easy it is to save the environment and save money at the same time, using helpful household tips to reduce your carbon footprint.  Every week Zak sends out a tip that ranges from simple environmental practices such as unplugging appliances to more elaborate ones such as reminding people to turn their lights off for one hour on Earth Hour.  In 2007, Zak was asked to be a guest youth speaker at a "Step It Up" rally in downtown NYC in front of 2,000 people who rallied for cutting green house gas emissions 80 percent by 2050.  Zak has worked at restoring damaged coral reefs in the Caribbean for three weeks, worked on refurbishing damaged hiking trails on the Appalachian Trail, and was also an eco-ambassador for the Weather Channel.   At his high school, Zak is class president and has worked on making sure plastic, glass and paper are being recycled, getting rid of bottled water in the school vending machines, helping to organize an "Awareness Day" focusing on water issues, and raising class funs by selling "Chico Bags"; reusable shopping bags.