Green Filmmaking
How Green is the Film Industry?
The answer to this I fear is, not very. In Los Angeles, the entertainment industry is the second biggest polluter after the Petroleum Sector. London’s film and television businesses produce more than 125,000 tonnes of carbon emissions a year, that’s equivalent to 24,000 London homes.
Doing a little research (on the internet) into how the film industry is approaching environmental sustainability led to pages and pages of rather dry policies and recommendations from different screen bodies around the world.
Green Screen, an initiative from London included practical advice like;
- turn off lights between shoots (i.e. during break periods)
- encourage the art department to find methods of set construction which enable easy dismantling and recycling
- encourage car sharing
- buy 100% recycled paper
It ain’t rocket science- and you have to wonder why these sorts of practices weren’t already in use for purely financial reasons at least. But for all the endless reports being written (on recycled paper- they promise), will there be substantial changes in the industry? For that, we’re going to have to wait and see.
But for now in a world where it is very easy to pledge to go Green, here are some examples from the entertainment industry that have proved it with action:
The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
The second film in the Wachowski Brother’s Matrix trilogy took a novel approach to set dismantling. 97% of the material used in the sets was recycled at the end of the shoot. As well as having an environmental impact, this action also had a significant social impact in Mexico, where tonnes of wood from the film was sent to build 100 low-income family homes.
Native Energy
Syriana (2005)/ Inconvenient Truth (2006)/ No Country for Old Men (2007)
What do George Clooney’s film about political corruption, Al Gore’s thesis on the environment and the Coen Brother’s Oscar winning film have in common? They all worked with NativeEnergy to calculate their films’ CO² production, including filming, air travel, rental car and truck emissions, hotel energy, generators on location, emission from shipping and office and warehouse energy use, and then purchased renewable energy credits to offset their environmental impact. These credits went towards projects in Native American and Alaskan communities, helping to create sustainable economies for communities in need.
The Nativity Story (2006)
The Nativity Story’s director Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight) and producer Marty Bowen donated $USD15,000 of their own money to off-set the environmental impact of their production.
“I consider myself pretty conservative, especially by Hollywood’s standards. I don’t hug trees. I like my creature comforts. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have a responsibility to clean up my own mess.”- Marty Bowen
Evan Almighty (2007)
This Steve Carrell comedy was film studio Universal’s first attempts at an eco-friendly production. Director Tom Shadyac implemented practical on-set measures like recycling sets and bikes for crew members and using solar power and diesel fuels. Universal also had the film’s carbon emissions calculated and then offset them by donating 2000 trees to The Conservation Fund.
Love the Beast (2009)
It is kind of ironic that Eric Bana’s documentary, which is a love-letter of sorts to the gas-guzzling car, joins the list of environmentally friendly films. ‘The Beast’ of the film’s title being Bana’s beloved 1973 Ford Falcon Coupe. Featuring car enthusiasts like Jeremy Clarkson (Top Gear) and Dr. Phil, the film doesn’t seem to have sustainability as its focus. Bana’s company, Pick Up Trucks Pictures, got in touch with Climate Positive, a not-for profit Australian company, and together they calculated the film’s emissions. Love the Beast’s carbon footprint was then off-set by a range of renewable energy projects.
Roland Emmerich- Director
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)/ 2012 (2009)
Emmerich’s disaster films about environmental apocalypses are designed to show the potential devastation that will be caused by climate change. Emmerich is obviously a man who practices what he preaches. He cast Kenneth Walsh as the American Vice-President- an actor who bares an uncanny resemblance to Dick Cheney in The Day After Tomorrow; undoubtedly a criticism of Bush’s failure to adopt the Kyoto Protocol. Emmerich also used USD200,000 of his own money to offset the film’s carbon emissions. This money went towards planting trees and renewable energy sources. With 2012 Emmerich went a step further to mitigate his film’s carbon footprint, not only were carbon offsets purchased, he used biofuel for the film’s generators, and all the sets were either recycled or donated to Habitat for Humanity.
Natalie Portman
As well as being a beautiful and talented actress, Portman (Leon, Garden State, Closer) is also an eco warrior. Portman, along with fellow actresses Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer) and Chloe Sevigny (Big Love), has fronted campaigns to get Americans to switch to energy efficient, compact fluorescent light-bulbs. She has travelled to Rwanda to learn about the plight of Mountain Gorillas there, making an Animal Planet documentary Saving a Species: Gorillas on The Brink. Portman has also worked with Shoes4Africa, lending her voice and face to their campaign, and keeping with the shoe theme, she launched her own line of 100% vegan shoes in 2008 (unfortunately the chain that stocked them went out of business during the credit crunch).
Leonardo DiCaprio
Child actor extraordinaire turned Scorsese muse, DiCaprio (What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, The Aviator, Shutter Island) is a committed environmentalist. Well known for his hybrid car, DiCaprio has been vocal about his environmental concerns establishing The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation in 1998. Its aim is to expand global awareness of environmental issues by promoting current Green campaigns. In 2007, DiCaprio’s documentary 11th Hour came out, which he wrote, produced and narrated. With a strong message about changing our environmental behaviour, a website 11thHourAction was launched to help individuals and communities work towards sustainable goals.
Robert Redford
A Greenie from way-back, Redford has served on the board of Natural Resources Defense Council for over 30 years. Redford has been promoting the benefits of solar energy since the ’70s, producing a short film, The Solar Film (1979) about solar energy that was nominated for an Academy Award. Redford has used his film festival Sundance to spread his environmental message, fighting to preserve the Utah wilderness that houses the iconic festival and introducing eco-programming to the Sundance Channel.
Edward Norton
Norton best known for his roles in Primal Fear and Fight Club is also a social and environmental activist. Norton negotiated the Solar Neighbors Program with British Petroleum, which sees BP donate a free solar power system to low-income families in LA, every time one is purchased by a celebrity. Norton has lent his star power to environmental issues, hosting the award-winning National Geographic program, Strange Days on Planet Earth, which looked at global environmental issues. Norton helped raise over USD750,000 last year for the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust, when he ran the 2009 New York City Marathon with a team of Maasai warriors and celebrities.
Hi Beth
Just read your article and am wondering why Sarah Watt’s Australian film “My Year Without Sex” was not listed in the article. The film was produced by Bridgit Ikin of Hibiscus Films and was launched nationally on 28 May 2009. On the basis of the film’s efforts, it won the GRASS Award in 2009 for feature film.
The film sets the benchmark for how films should address their greenhouse impacts and sustainability. It is (1) more comprehensive in its coverage of emissions than other films, (2) it went past carbon neutrality to actually reduce emissions beyond its own identified footprint, and (3) it separately supported an indigenous sustainability initiative.
Beyond Neutral® was engaged to provide environmental/sustainability advice for the production plus the full range of climate change services (carbon footprinting, emissions management and reduction, and offset advice and retirement).
Reducing the film’s footprint and environmental impacts and improving its sustainability meant raising the awareness of the people involved in making the film of key issues, getting them to rethink how they did things and guiding them to undertake important changes to their procedures and practices.
After acting where possible to reduce their internal energy use, emissions and environmental impact, a detailed analysis of My Year Without Sex’s carbon footprint was carried out, attempting to extend the boundary of the footprint out to the third parties that supply the services that Australian films rely on.
A case study was produced examining how and why the footprint was calculated, what was found, the problems encountered and the key issues and areas for future action by individual films and the wider industry. A synopsis is provided at http://www.beyondneutral.com/what-weve-done/case-studies/carbon-footprint-my-year-without-sex/
High quality Gold Standard verified carbon offsets were purchased which address the twin imperitaves of climate change and sustainable development. 100 tonnes of offsets (50% higher than the identified footprint) were purchased and retired. The Gold Standard accredited project combined renewable energy with sustainable development.
Additionally, a sizeable contribution was made to an Oxfam Australia indigenous cultural/ social sustainablity program