New this year is the support of third-generation oceanographer andenvironmentalist FabienCousteau, the grandson of legendary oceanographer Jacques Cousteau. "I met with Lexus a few years back because I was impressed with thecompany and wanted to explore how we could partner on spreading the wordabout my environmental concerns, so when I learned about the Lexus EcoChallenge, I was excited to participate," said Cousteau. "I'm a believerthat once people realize how simple it can be to help protect ourenvironment, they'll get involved. The Lexus Eco Challenge brings thisrealization to the next generation who will be most affected if we don'tbegin to find solutions to our environmental challenges today."

The Lexus Eco Challenge has two distinct elements:

-- Standards-based supplementary educational materials -- encouragesteachers to integrate creative lessonplans into their classrooms to help teach students about theenvironment.

-- Competition to reward environmental action -- helps young people applywhat they've learned in class through the program and empowers them to makeimprovements in their community by participating in any of the threeenvironmental team challenges.

"We were so impressed last year at the breadth and depth of the ideas andprograms implemented by participants in the Challenge," said Mark Templin,Lexus group vice president and general manager. "We saw teens discovertheir potential to make a difference, and we heard from teachers that theywere truly inspired by what their students accomplished. We have highhopes for this second year as even more young people join us in helping toimprove the environment."

The Challenges and Rewards

The Lexus Eco Challenge registration opened on Sept. 15, 2008, and willconclude with the announcement of the first-place and grand-prize-winningteams during Earth Month, April 2009. Middle and high school teams,comprised of 5-10 students and one teacher advisor, are invited toparticipate in three initial challenges, each addressing a differentenvironmental element -- land, water, and air/climate.

For each of the challenges, teams will define an environmental issue thatis important to them, develop an action plan to address the issue,implement the plan, and report the results. Teams are invited toparticipate in as many of the three challenges as they choose. Submissiondeadlines are: Challenge #1 (Land) -- Oct. 24, 2008; Challenge #2 (Water)-- Dec. 12, 2008; and Challenge #3 (Air/Climate) -- Feb. 6, 2009.

Each of the three challenges will have 16 winning teams -- eight middleschool and eight high school teams. The winning teams will each receive atotal of $10,000 in scholarships and grants to be shared among thestudents, teacher and school. In addition, the winning action plans willbe featured on a special Web page to inspire other students to take actionin their communities.

In mid-February, the winning teams from the first three challenges will beinvited to participate in the Final Challenge. Teams will be asked toreach beyond the local community and inspire environmental action aroundthe world through innovative ideas that are communicated to a wideaudience. From the Final Challenge entries, 14 first-place teams and twogrand-prize-winning teams will be selected. Each of the 14 first-placeteams will receive a total of $30,000 in grants and scholarships, and thetwo grand-prize-winning teams will each receive $50,000. The money will beshared by the students, their teacher advisors and their schools.

Judging Criteria

All entries for the initial three challenges will be judged on a variety ofcriteria, including the overall action plan and team effort, the quality ofwriting, and supporting materials. A select panel of judges will considerquestions such as: does the action plan show the team's clear understandingof the environmental issue; does the action plan clearly describe theresults; does the action plan communicate a persuasive argument; and doesthe action plan communicate team effort?

Full program information including rules and entry details can be viewed atwww.scholastic.com/lexus.

Helping Teachers Inspire Students through Education

The Lexus Eco Challenge educational materials developed with Scholastic aredesigned to align with national teaching standards for science, socialstudies, civics and language arts.

In addition to providing teachers with the information necessary toparticipate in the challenges, the Web site (www.scholastic.com/lexus) alsohas extensive tools for them to use in their classrooms. For eachchallenge, the Web site has lesson plans and teacher instructions includingquestions to help guide a discussion about the current challenge topic,facts about the topic, and guidelines for a specific classroom project.

Lexus' Environmental Efforts

Lexus is the leading luxury automotive brand in the United States, both insales and in environmental stewardship. Lexus was the first luxury brand tosell hybrids and currently offers three low-emission hybrid vehicles with afourth hybrid coming next year. When Lexus began selling hybrids in 2005,it helped advance the concept of sustainability without sacrifice. Tobring like-minded individuals together, it also developed the Lexus HybridLiving site (www.lexus.com/hybridliving) that serves as a portal forpeople seeking a way to incorporate luxury and environmentalism into theirlives.

The Lexus Eco Challenge is part of The Lexus Pursuit of Potential, aphilanthropic initiative that generates $3 million in donations each yearfor organizations that help build, shape and improve children's lives.

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Media Contact:Holly FerrisEmail Contact(562) 429-6456