Today on our WorldChanging mother site, Joel Makower writes about a recent special issue of Variety Magazine, which outlines the "greening of Hollywood."

The issue is timely, as the UCLA Institute of the Environment recently included an analysis of "The Industry" in its Southern California Environmental Report Card 2006. The analysis had some interesting things to say about an industry that likes to present itself as being at the forefront of all things sustainable. The study's authors, Charles J. Corbett and Richard P. Turco, focused on quantifying the environmental impacts of filmaking, which include "energy consumption, waste generation, air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and physical disruptions on location."

The study uses a tool developed by the Carnegie Mellon Green Design Institute called Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment (EIOLCA) to determine the economic activity in all sectors of the U.S. economy associated with each dollar of output by the film and television industry (FTI). This activity is then translated into environmental impacts, using a set of coefficients for each sector of activity.

The upshot of the analysis are these findings:

- The film and television industry is the second largest contributor of criteria air pollutants in the Los Angeles Metro area, emitting less than the petroleum refineries but more than the aerospace industry.

- The film and television industry is the third largest contributor of greenhouse cases in the Los Angeles Metro area, behind the petroleum refining and aerospace industries.

The authors note that this is likely due "to the heavy reliance of the FTI on transportation and energy consumption in its normal operations, coupled with the sheer size of the industry in Los Angeles and California." This then raises the question, what kind of changes does the industry need to make to decrease these negative effects? The authors conclude the analysis with some highlighted "best practices." These include:

- Roland Emmerich, director and co-writer of The Day After Tomorrow, contracted with Future Forests to offset the production's carbon dioxide emissions by planting trees or investing in climate-friendly technology.

- After the production of the two sequels to The Matrix, Warner Brothers engaged the city of Alameda (where production took place) and a nonprofit called The ReUse People to recycle 97.5% of all the set material. The recycled waste totalled 11,000 tons, which would have represented 10% of the total annual solid waste processed by the city of Alameda.

However, the authors conclude that

"Nevertheless, our overall impression is that these practices are the exception and not the rule, and that more could be done within the industry to foster environmentally friendly approaches."

It seems that, like many industries, Hollywood's green movement has yet to reach its "tipping point." Stars such as Robert Redford and Cameron Diaz do a great job of raising the profile of thinking green, but those of us that live in LA also see the production trailers burning through fuel, the arc-lamps wasting heat, and the diesel generators spewing particulates. Each of these practices has a green solution, and one hopes that the industry takes the time to address them. As Corbett and Turco write, "more careful planning of the overall project and of actual shooting could ultimately provide...more time to consider and implement environmental mitigation policies."

So, let this be a challenge for all of you "industry types" out there -- make it happen!