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Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin in It's
Complicated

When we last reported on green filmmaking at FilmInFocus, the Focus Features’ release Away We Go had just released an environmental impact report that executive producer Mari-Jo Winkler called “the most detailed carbon footprint measurement anyone has ever done on a film.” Documenting not only the strategies the filmmakers used to curb waste and promote environmentally friendly filmmaking practices, the report, in an industry first, also documented the movie’s carbon emissions and environmental impact across the whole range of production activities.

Now, on the occasion of Green is Universal Week, we checked in with Meredith Bergmann of Green Media Solutions, the company that works with Universal to devise and help implement green filmmaking practices, to learn about the latest efforts. Among the recent Universal features Bergmann’s company worked on was Nancy Meyers’ holiday comedy, It’s Complicated.

“The goal with It’s Complicated was to try to apply sustainable filmmaking practices to a major motion picture and to figure out what the obstacles are,” says Bergmann. The difference in scale between Away We Go and It’s Complicated brought into relief a whole set of different issues that the filmmakers, Universal and Green Media Solutions attempted to address.  For example, comments Bergmann, “We started to realize how important the role of set dressing was when the production used one ton of produce in order to recreate a farmers market. Normally a portion of the produce would be given away, but, however, most would be discarded and would end up as landfill. So, instead, over one ton of fruits and vegetables used during the Santa Barbara farmer’s market scene were donated to a local soup kitchen. The donation was coordinated for NBC Universal through Green Media Solutions and Rock and Wrap it Up, and the produce was donated to Casa Esperanza, a local soup kitchen in Santa Barbara. That ton of food fed 500 people for a week. Our obstacle, then, was to get the food off set as soon as possible because we had to be out of the location. Our goal was to find a vendor that offered a turnkey solution, and the solution is what Rock and Wrap it Up provided.”

“As a result of this experience,” she continues, “NBC Universal has established an ongoing relationship with Rock and Wrap it Up, who, going forward, will find beneficiaries for all edible leftover foodfrom NBCU productions. This initiative will: fight poverty by helping to reduce hunger; improve our environment by diverting waste from landfills; and reduce the production’s bottom line by reducing waste disposal costs.”

Wrote Susan Kirshner of Casa Esparza to the production, “Bringing all that food back to our shelter did a lot for the morale of our members. We got members to help, who generally do not help out. Our chef used those beautiful red, orange and yellow peppers to make a delicious rice dish.  Our green salads were full of tomatoes, broccoli, peppers, and cauliflower, which is much more than we usually have. Our fruit salads were filled with fresh apples, pears, grapefruit, oranges and bananas. We have a number of satellite programs who got extra special meals today.”

A second program piloted successfully during the It’s Complicated production looked at how a production could work with alternative fuels. Says Bergmann, “We used biodiesel for the principal production, and not just for a generator for a base camp but actually for the work of lighting the stage. From May through the end of June we used biodiesel, B20, for both generators for the main stage. There was no flickering. Nobody noticed, nobody knew.”

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Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

Continuing, Bergmann follows up in an email, “With the support and cooperation of the transportation and lighting crews, the team selected a B20 biodiesel processed from locally (inter-state) grown soy. The fuel provider, Metro Energy, is a third generation New York City-based supplier, located less than a mile from the stage. This fuel replaced the fossil fuel that had to be trucked in from Staten Island. Cat Entertainment provided a 1250KW (14,000 amps) generator that is biodiesel-compatible. Over the course of five weeks, when shooting on stage, each generator ran an estimated ten-16 hours a day burning 20-75 gallons per hour.”

The result? “A total of 3,690 gallons were purchased for the stage generators during the final five weeks of production for an average cost of $2.20, a $0.27 cents savings over the standard diesel fuel cost at the time, and a total saving of almost $1000 over the course of the final phase of the production. So, using the biodiesel achieved the following impressive results: it reduced the transport and carbon costs expended to deliver the fuel; it reduced the carbon released in the atmosphere as a result of burning the fuel during stage production; and it bolstered the local (city and state) economy.”

Other successes from within the NBC Universal family include the set construction of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.  Leo Yoshimori, set designer, began working with Showman Fabricators before pre-production to determine ways in which they could improve the sustainability of the set. Sets were constructed with FSC (Forest Sustainability Council) plywood—wood that has been responsibly harvested. Bamboo floors were used throughout the interview area (bamboo is highly sustainable due to its fast growth). Seats were reclaimed and refurbished from Radio City Music Hall. Some of these practices are being shared by Saturday Night Live, which is also using low-or-no VOC paint and FSC luan.

Finally, the Green is Universal Sustainable Film and Television Production Guide has been published. It shares the knowledge that has been gathered on all these various productions, offering a comprehensive approach to the implementation of eco-practices and describes how entertainment production can benefit and realize cost savings. These guides are now being used by Universal Media Studios division, Universal Pictures and Focus Features film divisions, and NBC Universal is making these guides available to the media industry and the public.

In addition to offering solid interview and step-to-step guidelines on greening film and television, the guide is a morale boost to employees who want to bring their own environmental consciousnesses to their job. “There are a lot of closet green people,” says Bergmann, “and when you come to them about what you want to do, they are really on board. But they have wanted to have the support of the company, and [the Green is Universal initiative and guidebook] has set them and their imagination free.”

In terms of upcoming productions, Bergmann is excited about the latest green-lit film from Focus Features, It’s Kind of a Funny Story. It’s one of those productions where the natural tendencies of the filmmakers towards realism and location shooting dovetail with green filmmaking values. Of Jane Evans, Focus’s Executive V.P. of Physical Production, Bergmann says, “Jane is amazing, one of the greenest people out there. She has taken green filmmaking practices and put it into the DNA of Focus. From something like Away We Go, which was kind of an experiment [in green practices] to what they’re doing now, it’s amazing to see how far they’ve taken it.”

All of these various initiatives, when taken together, finally demonstrate that implementing green practices doesn’t have to cost more money. Says Bergmann in a resonant observation for our times, “The ‘throwaway culture’ ends up being more expensive. When you start looking at ways that are more sustainable you wind up saving money. People are thinking more thoughtfully now and making long term investments for upfront savings.”

For more info, visit: www.greenisuniversal.com and www.greenmediasolutions.net.