As the citizens of the world strive to live greener, we asked ourselves, "What are we, and other members of the commercial production community, doing for the environment?"
Every step, big or small, is a step in the right direction, and we casually put the question out to some people to see what steps they were taking toward a cleaner, greener world.
Many are learning to go with the flow. We were pleased to learn that many companies, including Union Editorial, GARTNER, tight, Outsider USA, and über content, have done away with plastic water bottles in the office and even on set. The land-filling staple has been replaced with filtered water and reusable glasses or personal water bottles. Union also has replaced the company water cooler with a filtration green cooler that supplies both hot and cold tripled filtered water, and added recycling containers to every room.
You can eat your meat and potatoes…with potatoes. Union Editorial also has replaced convenient plastic utensils with stainless steel or potato utensils. That’s right – there is a biodegradable plastic fork replacement made out of potato or corn starch that can be reused for up to five years, and is biodegradable when its life is over – who knew?
It’s time to run production by the book…without the book. GO Film has officially done away with the hard copy pre-pro book. The commercial production formality has been replaced with reusable flash drives containing all of the necessary job info – there must be some happy PA’s around that office, too; putting those books together has never been a highly coveted assignment!
There are ways to light up a set, and not burn fuel. über content has brought their greening efforts to the set, where – in addition to boycotting bottled water – the company spends a little extra to use generators that run on bio-diesel and corn-based power. Speaking of less-wasteful light, Union has placed all of its lights on motion sensors, so when a room or bay is empty – it’s dark.
If Ed Begley can do it, so can you! In an effort to cut down on pollution, Bryan Farhy of restless has been biking to and from work for years, giving one of Hollywood’s most prominent envrionmentalists a run – or ride – for his money. Director Jordan Brady of über drives a 100% electric car to the office (über has installed a paddle to charge Brady’s ride as needed) and home again (Brady’s home is solar-powered…FYI).
It’s a start! With its establishment in 2006, Raging Artists set a standard for ad biz PR as a paper-free firm, distributing all of its releases and pitches online. We’ve employed electronic press kits to replace the traditional paper books, and archive client press online rather than in a binder. Not only do the East and West Coast offices of Raging Artists recycle all paper and plastic waste, but Managing Director (and burgeoning artist) Kristy Thomley also creates art using out-of-date magazine pages, and draws on 100% recycled drawing paper.
