by Executive Producer Diana Zahn-Storey
As an organization, we have been making small greening steps for the last couple of years. We held our first Green Day at the Los Angeles Film Festival two years ago in conjunction with the producers of Who Killed the Electric Car? We screened their movie in the morning followed by a street fair on Broxton Avenue in Westwood. The street fair had vendors telling the public about how to retro your vehicle to electric power as well many other green energy companies. Later that same evening we held a screening of An Inconvenient Truth that was attended by approximately 6,000 people. Al Gore and John Bon Jovi were in attendance. We held the second annual Green Day this past June in conjunction with Live Earth. We screened 50 short films on climate change commissioned by Live Earth and held a second street fair. So this is something that our organization has been thinking about for a while.
Not long after last year’s festival, a gentleman by the name of Tim Allyn—a greening expert and husband of producer Cathy Schulman, came in to meet with [Film Independent Executive Director] Dawn Hudson and myself. He wanted to discuss working with the organization as an adviser to help us green our organization and events. Unfortunately, we couldn’t afford to hire him full-time, but we did hire him as a consultant and he help point us in the right direction. Before we met with him the idea of completely greening the Spirit Awards seemed like an impossible task. But after speaking with him, I realized there are so many changes we could make that could make a really big impact. He gave us some initial ideas and then we kind of ran with it from there.
I couldn’t believe how easy it was to make most of the changes. As consumers we have a lot more power than we think. We need to us this purchasing power to leverage supplier practices, products, and decisions, for better environmental protection.
By increasing green purchasing preferences for products that have less environmental impact, we encourage manufacturers to: use recycled-content, design for recycling or reuse, consume less energy or water, minimize waste, or create less toxic products. In turn, we provide a market for environmentally and socially responsible products.
As an organization that supports independent filmmakers, we’re supposed to be forward thinking—independent filmmakers are forward thinkers, the first ones to do everything. An Inconvenient Truth was absolutely that—an independent film helping to lead the way. In the same way that we’ve worked towards raising the public’s awareness of independent film, we want to now take a leadership position in demonstrating how some simple changes can impact everyone’s world for the better.
I think most people just don’t know how easy it is, so they choose to ignore the issue. As a mother of a five year-old, I want to leave the planet for my child in some semblance of how I found it, or hopefully better-- which doesn’t look likely. All I can do as a producer and a mother, is try to lead the way and fix what is in front of me. In short, we decided to go green because we can and it’s the right thing to do.
Greening an Award Show a Very Un-Green Concept.
In reality there is nothing green about an awards show. You’re asking people to fly in planes from all over the world, come to a place that they don’t really need to go. They stay in hotels, they’re eating in restaurants, using limousines, cabs and extra cars, and most of them are on their own. You build a space that lasts a few days and then everything goes away. So, intrinsically, there’s nothing green about awards show! At least we’re on the same weekend as the Oscars, so we’re not asking people to come to LA twice.
Greening is Hollywoods new buzzword. There are a lot of award shows and production companies who say they are greening their productions. Unfortunately, the only thing most of these companies are doing is buying carbon credits to offset their carbon footprint. Basically they are paying someone else to clean up their mess instead of making changes. We want to do more.
Because it’s almost impossible to calculate the carbon footprint of everyone attending our show, we are not going to buy carbon credits. I won’t say we’re going to eliminate our carbon footprint, because we’re not.
Instead we are attempting to be a Zero Waste, low impact event. Changes are being from the way members are able to view and vote on nominated films, to the food served at the ceremony and the power source used to cook it. Our goal is to show that it’s possible to move towards a greener way of doing things without completely changing your life.
Financial Challenges of Greening the Spirit Awards.
Because we are non-profit organization budgetary implications are a big concern. Initially, I was worried about the costs of greening, such as, “Ok, if you’re really going green, everything has to be on 100% recycled paper and printed with special inks and we have to have organic food and all of these things cost more.” But what we found was we’ve been able to make changes in one area that helped offset costs in another. One decision was to decrease the amount of paper we used and move everything we could online. We chose not to print our nomination guide. Instead, we created an interactive nomination guide online. In addition, we asked our members to register to vote. This enabled us to decrease our printing and mailing costs because we only sent out voter packets to members that requested them. These simple changes more than covered the costs of using the more expensive recycled paper.
Another concern was cost of increasing our rental items to eliminate the use of disposable cups, plates and silverware. Obviously renting these items is more expensive. Well actually, if you take into account the amount of trash you don’t have to dispose of you actually save money. The money we are saving on trash bins and trash removal is pretty substantial.
In addition, we’ve gotten a great deal of help from the City of Santa Monica. The city is supplying us with almost all the trash receptacles we needed because we are recycling all our waste.
Turns out we are actually saving money being more conscious.
Unforseen Issues of switching to Bio-Diesel.
After taking on the challenge to green the Spirit Awards, I came across some issues I had no idea would be a problem. For instance, we decided to use only bio-diesel in all of our generators. Bio-diesel is a domestic, renewable fuel for diesel engines derived from natural oils like soybean oil. Biodiesel blends of 20 percent and below will work in any diesel engine without the need for modifications. These blends will operate in diesel engines just like petroleum diesel. B20 provides similar horsepower and mileage as diesel. Finding reputable companies to supply the fuel was relatively easy. Finding a rental company that would let us put the fuel in their generators was another matter.
There is a lot of false information or myths about bio-diesel. Most companies don’t take the time to find out the truth so they are afraid to take chances with their equipment. The most common myths that were quoted to us about bio-diesel are:
Myth: Biodiesel is an experimental fuel and has not been thoroughly tested.
Fact: Biodiesel is one of the most thoroughly tested alternative fuels on the market. A number of independent studies have been completed with the results showing biodiesel performs similar to petroleum diesel while benefiting the environment and human health compared to diesel. That research includes studies performed by the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Stanadyne Automotive Corp. (the largest diesel fuel injection equipment manufacturer in the U.S.), Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, and Southwest Research Institute. Biodiesel is the first and only alternative fuel to have completed the rigorous Health Effects testing requirements of the Clean Air Act. Biodiesel has been proven to perform similarly to diesel in more 50 million successful road miles in virtually all types of diesel engines, countless off-road miles and countless marine hours. Currently more than 300 major fleets use the fuel.
Myth: Biodiesel does not perform as well as diesel.Fact: One of the major advantages of biodiesel is the fact that it can be used in existing engines and fuel injection equipment with little impact to operating performance.
Myth: Biodiesel causes filters to plug.Fact: Biodiesel can be operated in any diesel engine with little or no modification to the engine or the fuel system. Pure biodiesel (B100) has a solvent effect, which may release deposits accumulated on tank walls and pipes from previous diesel fuel use. With high blends of biodiesel, the release of deposits may clog filters initially and precautions should be taken to replace fuel filters until the petroleum build-up is eliminated. This issue is less prevalent with B20 blends, and there is no evidence that lower-blend levels such as B2 have caused filters to plug.
Myth: Engine warranty coverage would be at risk.Fact: The use of biodiesel in existing diesel engines does not void parts and materials workmanship warranties of any major US engine manufacturer.
Myth: Biodiesel causes degradation of engine gaskets and seals.Fact: The recent switch to low-sulfur diesel fuel has caused most Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to switch to components that are also suitable for use with biodiesel. In general, biodiesel used in pure form can soften and degrade certain types of elastomers and natural rubber compounds over time. Using high percent blends can impact fuel system components (primarily fuel hoses and fuel pump seals) that contain elastomer compounds incompatible with biodiesel, although the effect is lessened as the biodiesel blend level is decreased. Experience with B20 has found that no changes to gaskets or hoses are necessary.
This is just one example of purchasing power. If more production companies insisted on using bio-diesel on their sets the rental companies would have to make the change, and the increased business would force the companies to do theresearch. Luckily, we found a few forward thinking companies that understandthis is the way of the future.
