For years, Hollywood has celebrated Earth Day in order to raise awareness about environmental issues and to strike up a memorable dialogue about sustainable practices. And the film studios’ embrace of Earth Day has only strengthened over time. From PSAs to Paramount’s new micro-turbines, we take a look at the industry’s dedication to spotlighting one of the most important advocacy dates on the calendar.
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In 1990, the holiday got a pretty big boost from Hollywood when Time Warner called on some of their favorite talent to hammer home proactive things Americans could do to reduce their footprint on the planet. (Our favorites? A pony-tailed Kevin Costner teaching Meryl Streep how to recycle and Neil Patrick Harris as Doogie Howser giving a press conference about the health of his patient, “Mother Earth.”)
But in 2013, the film business’s efforts have far exceeded PSA productions, and the good news is that a lot of progressive practices like electric car fueling stations, composting, a ban on plastic bags in commissaries, and required carbon emission reporting have become all but de rigueur on most major lots. As each of the main studios shoot to achieve “100% sustainable” status in the coming years, the pressure is on to determine creative ways to be the first to get there, and then some. In honor of Earth Day, we take a look at some of the ways Hollywood is committed to ‘greening’ up their practices:
- Since 2010, Disney has employed individual environmental stewards on all productions to evaluate, implement and oversee any possible greening practices that limit their impact on the environment while filming. A campaign revolving around the April 2012 release of Chimpanzee generated enough funds to protect 130,000 acres of chimpanzee habitats and educate 60,000 children in the Congo about animal conservation, and they’ve also upped their on-set recycling efforts so that films like the upcoming Saving Mr. Banks have diverted 89% of waste from landfills.
- Paramount installed four micro-turbines whose natural gas-fueled electrical generation provides 20% of the studio’s baseline power needs. They’ve also installed a network chilled power plant that provides central cooling to their studios and stages, using 66,000 gallons of water, replacing the amount of electricity required to power 900 homes.
The Face of Climate Change graphic courtesy earthday.org
Read more at the Credits.