Leonardo DiCaprio

Academy-award-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio is more than just one of the best actors in Hollywood. He is also an influential environmentalist dedicated to spreading awareness of climate change, biodiversity, wildlife protection, ocean and forest conservation, and more.

In a 2023 poll by The National Research Group, DiCaprio was named “the most trustworthy famous authority on climate change and other environmental issues,” Insider reported.

And during his acceptance speech for the 2016 Academy Award for Best Actor, which he received for his role in The Revenant, DiCaprio used the moment to stress the importance of doing something about climate change.

“Climate change is real. It is happening right now,” DiCaprio said during his speech. “It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating.”

Here's a look into some of DiCaprio's most important environmental work.

Leonard DiCaprio founded an environmental nonprofit after Titanic.

Not long after DiCaprio took appeared in Titanic opposite Kate Winslet in 1997, he founded the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to “protecting the long-term health and well-being of all Earth’s inhabitants.” He was just 24 when he founded the organization in 1998.

In 2014, DiCaprio was presented with the Clinton Global Citizen Award for his work with the foundation, and he was designated as a United Nations Messenger of Peace. According to InfluenceWatch, by 2019, the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation had distributed over $100 million in grants to more than 200 projects.

LDF was folded into two organizations: Earth Alliance in 2019 and Re:wild in 2021. As of 2023, DiCaprio still sits on the Re:wild board of directors. He is also a board member for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and Global Green USA, as well as an ambassador for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

DiCaprio has been involved with several environmental projects.

In his work with various environmental agencies, DiCaprio has been involved in several projects to help the planet. In 2021, DiCaprio and Re:wild launched a $43 million restoration project in the Galapagos Islands.

In 2019, DiCaprio was one of a group of philanthropists to back a debt restructuring plan for the Seychelles aimed at helping the island protect its areas of marine biodiversity. Under the “debt-for-nature swap,” DiCaprio and the rest of the group bought the island’s $20 million in sovereign debt, with plans for repayments to go into a trust for environmental protection projects.

DiCaprio also uses his Twitter (aka X) page to garner support for global environmental issues and discuss his activism with his 19.2 million followers.

DiCaprio invests in eco-friendly companies.

DiCaprio has even been eco-minded in his investments. Although it’s unclear whether DiCaprio is a vegan or vegetarian, he has invested in several eco-friendly companies. His investments include:

• Beyond Meat, a plant-based meat alternative company

• Neat Burger, a U.K.-based vegan fast-food chain

• LØCI , avegan footwear brand made in the U.K.

• Mosa Meat, a European lab-grown meat company

• Aleph Farms, an Israel lab-grown meat company

• Perfect Day, a dairy-free ice cream company

• Kingo, an off-grid solar energy company from Guatemala.

DiCaprio has also produced documentaries about the environment and climate change.

DiCaprio has also shared his environmentalism and concern about climate change through several documentaries, starting with the web documentaries Water Planet and Global Warming, which he produced when he founded LDF. He produced and co-wrote the 2007 documentary The 11th Hour, which won an Earthwatch Environmental Film Award.

In 2014, DiCaprio produced the Netflix documentary Virunga about a group of people fighting to save the world’s last mountain gorillas. The film was nominated for a 2015 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary Series or Nonfiction Special. He also was the executive producer of the 2014 Netflix documentary Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret about the environmental impact of animal agriculture.