Automakers
Tiegs went to the Los Angeles auto show last year, and she noticed that regular four-door sedans looked like dinosaurs next to the newer green cars. "They're so outdated. Then you see the electric cars, the hybrids. They're designed so well, they're sleek, they're the sign of the future. Car companies have no choice. They have to come out with something more fuel efficient and smaller. I think we're going to say 'bye-bye' to the Hummer and vehicles like that."
Green Endeavors
In her own life, Tiegs tries to live a green lifestyle. She meditates daily, practices yoga, and in summer 2007 embarked on a trip to the Arctic to meet explorer Will Steger, who was wrapping up a four-month expedition studying the effects of global warming.
"It was one of the most incredible trips of my life," she recalls. "You cannot walk outside without your sunglasses because its glaring bright sun. Your clothes -- the layers have to be put on the right way because it's often 20-40 below," she says. "Grizzly bears -- it was very vulnerable, but I absolutely loved it. Sitting in the tent with an explorer who had just come from that expedition and finding all signs of global warming. And having a sip of scotch -- up there you needed something to warm you up -- we would see the midnight sun, which would just sort of kiss the horizon and go back up."
As part of her environmental work, she also represents Cambria countertops, which do not emit radon as do some other stone countertops. "This is naturally ground-up quartz, so they've given me the platform and I'm going around the country talking about how to green up your own home."
But whether people can afford a new green car or countertop, Tiegs says people can do small things for the environment. It harkens back to the frugality of the older generation who lived during WWII -- recycling clean water to water plants or bringing canvas bags to the store.
"We're going to have to get back to that," she says. "The silver lining to this horrible economic situation we're in is that we're going to get back to doing things like, whenever I buy groceries, I have bags in my trunk. If I've forgotten my bags, I've been known to put it in my coat, wrap it up, tie the arms and take it out. I will do anything for the environment, I don't care if I have to go out of my way. I don't care if it's a slight inconvenience. This is our world."