Environmentalist and actor Woody Harrelson, who devotes time to educating young people about sustainability, will receive an honorary doctorate from York University on Saturday, October 17. Harrelson is currently starring in Zombieland, the top ranked movie at the box office last week. Harrelson uses his celebrity to promote environmental causes — in 2001, for example, he went on a bicycle tour to promote simple organic living, stopping along the way to lecture at college campuses. “The challenges that we face when it comes to sustainable use of the planet are enormous,” said Professor Dawn Bazely, director of the Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability (IRIS) at York. “Mr. Harrelson’s understanding of why we each need to reduce our ecological footprint is authentic, and his efforts to inspire others to grasp and act on this concept provide an object lesson for those of us who teach.”