Article: Hollywood Eagerly Embraces Environmental Cause

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Tue Apr 22, 2008 11:37am EDT

By Stephen Galloway

LOS ANGELES - In the early 1990s, some 100 environmental activists stormed an Indonesian freighter bringing rain forest wood to the major studios.

"We pulled up in a small Zodiac," recalls Atossa Soltani, now executive director of Amazon Watch. "People used climbing equipment to rappel up the side of the ship and unfurled a huge banner that said, 'Rainforest Wood Out of Hollywood.'"

That scene now seems like ancient history.

Studios that once ignored green demands now have flotillas of staff catering to them. Actors, agents and executives who formerly made indulgence their mantra are among the leading environmental activists. And the watchdog groups that once hounded the industry are increasingly singling it out as a relative do-gooder.

...Fox has done its part, offering employees up to $4,000 in incentives toward purchasing a hybrid. It also commissioned a top-to-bottom study of carbon use in one key product: DVDs. The report analyzed the 20 different companies that take part in the making of a DVD, says Kyle Tanger, founding principal of Clear Carbon Consulting. Tanger concluded that the total carbon emission per DVD was .75 pounds of carbon dioxide. "That is like having your computer on at the office all day," he says.

What was particularly notable about the Fox DVD study was the studio's willingness to share it with rivals.

"It is not like that in most industries," Tanger says. "(The studios) don't see energy efficiencies as giving them a competitive advantage against one another, (unlike) a mining or metals company."

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