Inside Hollywood's Greenest Night: Shailene Woodley and Jaden Smith Honored at 2016 Environmental Media Awards

Both celebrities gave emotional speeches about causes they are passionate about

By McKenna Aiello Oct 23, 2016 6:39 PMTags
Shailene WoodleyTommaso Boddi/Getty Images for Environmental Media Association

Hollywood traded its signature red carpets for a greener shade Saturday evening at the 2016 Environmental Media Awards. 

Ian SomerhalderNikki ReedLance BassJamie Lynn Sigler and more celebrities came together in support of planet Earth during the Nicole Richie-hosted event held on the Warner Bros. Studios lot. Both Shailene Woodley and Jaden Smith received the EMA Futures Award for their contributions to the environment, a cause both actors are notably passionate about. 

Earlier this month, Woodley was arrested while protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline, an incident she broadcast via Facebook Live. The 24-year-old later plead not guilty to the charges of criminal trespass and engaging in a riot, and penned an essay in Time magazine about her experience. 

Shailene addressed the severity to protect our natural resources during her EMA's acceptance speech: "I want to make sure that my grandbabies don't have to buy a bottle of water for twenty dollars because clean water is impossible to find."

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Do-Gooder Gallery
Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Environmental Media Association

She later continued, "What is really important is standing up and making our voices so loud that they have no choice but to ignore us... The time is now; we don't have any more time. We cannot let this oppression continue. Not only to the indigenous communities of our world, but of the future children."

Smith, who felt support from parents Will and Jada Pinkett Smith as well as siblings Willow and Trey, picked up right where Shailene left off in sharing his own pledge to alleviating the global water crisis. 

"I will not stop this mission," the 18-year-old told the audience. "I will not stop this initiative until we are sustainable and [running on] 100 percent renewable resources... I am dedicating my life to this."

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Hollywood Going Green
Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage

Nikki and Ian concluded the powerful evening by presenting the EMA Missions in Music Award to animal rights activist and singer-DJ Moby

—Reporting by Sara Kitnick