The Nature Conservancy in New York – Nature Conservancy Spring Gala to Focus on Healthy Forests, Green Buildings as Key to Climate Change Annotated

Goal is to slash deforestation, which accounts for up to 25% of global carbon emissions each year

New York, NY — April 1, 2008 — U.S. Treasury Secretary and former Chairman of the Board of The Nature Conservancy Henry M. “Hank” Paulson and New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg will join leaders from the world’s top financial institutions and other corporations to fight climate change by saving the earth’s forests and promoting the global development of green buildings.

More than 400 prominent New Yorkers will gather with Secretary Paulson and Mayor Bloomberg in Hearst Tower on Monday, April 28^th

“Climate change is the greatest environmental challenge that our world faces today and emissions from deforestation and forest degradation exceed those from every car, truck, train, ship and plane in the world combined.

says Stephanie Meeks, acting CEO of The Nature Conservancy.

“Rethinking how we both generate and use energy is a crucial step towards a sustainable business and a sustainable planet,” added Jerry I. Speyer, Chairman and CEO of Tishman Speyer, the developers of the Hearst Tower and owner of the city’s largest solar energy generation station in Manhattan. He explained that worldwide 30-40% of all primary energy is used in buildings, making the development of green buildings a critical piece in sustaining our world.

Among the evening’s highlighted projects is the Conservancy’s effort to help plant one billion trees along Brazil’s Atlantic Coast to restore the decimated forest and protect the watershed of the region’s 80 million inhabitants.

Closer to home, the Conservancy will showcase the organization’s work to protect New York’s forests and push for strong state and Federal legislation to regulate emissions.

The Hearst Tower, with its distinctive triangular frame, opened in New York City in late 2006 as the city’s first occupied Gold LEED® certified office building. The 46-story, 856,000-square-foot Midtown structure is defined by vertical and horizontal energy-saving, diamond-shaped bands of bright stainless steel.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. In New York, The Nature Conservancy has helped protect more than 500,000 acres in the past 50 years.