Elle’s July issue is The Conservation Issue, devoted to profiling beautiful women and other people who are doing stuff for the environment. There are multiple cover subjects, including Doutzen Kroes, Naomi Campbell and Gisele Bundchen. I’m just focusing on Gisele’s cover and cover story here, but you can see Elle’s cover package here. As Elle states in their intro, the house is on fire. We cannot sustain this. The earth is dying and we’ll die too. So let’s spend time hearing about Gisele’s chicken coops and how she’s working to save her country’s water and rain forest.

What Gisele has at her home: Chicken coops, beehives, vegetable gardens, compost heaps. “I wanted my children to experience the same joy and connection to nature I did as a child.” She credits her Brazilian upbringing—she hails from the small town of Horizontina—with her appreciation of nature, and a 2004 trip to the country’s Xingu region with her eco-awakening.

Staying with a Brazilian tribe: She stayed there with the Kisêdjê tribe and “got to see firsthand the problems they were facing because of the pollution of the river. From that moment, I knew I had to do something. I’ve been advocating for social and environmental causes ever since,” including clean water, reforestation, wildlife preservation, and clean energy. “After all,” she says, “our survival depends on it.”

Founding Projeto Água Limpa (“Clean Water Project”) in Brazil in 2008: For five years, “we planted over 40,000 trees on the riparian margins of the stream and cared for the land until the trees grew strong,” which, she says, not only improved the water quality of her hometown but also helped restore its wildlife.

[From Elle]

I knew that Gisele was super-involved with environmental and conservation issues, but I didn’t know that her organization helped plant 40,000 trees. That’s amazing. I also didn’t know she kept beehives on her property! I’m fascinated by beekeepers and people who maintain beehives. I don’t get jealous about a lot of stuff, but I’d love to have that kind of time and patience to maintain a beehive or apiary.

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Air pollution is a global emergency affecting everyone. It’s a silent killer with approximately 7 million people worldwide dying prematurely every year from air pollution. To help #BeatAirPollution I’m committed to planting more trees, planting more food in my garden and composting whenever I can. Check out the link in my bio to learn more about simple changes we can make in our everyday lives to reduce the amount of air pollution we produce. Join me and @unenvironment for #WorldEnvironmentDay and share what you will do to beat air pollution. Let’s do this! 👊🏼🌎 🙏🏼 A poluição do ar é uma emergência global que afeta a todos. E apesar de silencioso, mata prematuramente aproximadamente 7 milhões de pessoas em todo o mundo. Para ajudar a #combaterapoluiçãodoar, estou comprometida a plantar mais árvores, mais alimentos no meu jardim e a fazer compostagem sempre que possível. Confira o link na minha bio para saber mais sobre as mudanças simples que podemos fazer em nossa vida cotidiana para reduzir a quantidade de poluição do ar que produzimos. Junte-se a mim e ao @onu_meio_ambiente ambiente para #DiaMundialdoMeioAmbiente e compartilhe o que você fará para combater a poluição do ar. Vamos juntos !

A post shared by Gisele Bündchen (@gisele) on Jun 5, 2019 at 6:39am PDT

Cover courtesy of Elle, additional photo courtesy of Gisele’s IG.