Hollywood and the entertainment industry has always been on the forefront of issues like the environment, long touting that we reduce, reuse, recycle. But when push comes to shove, some of us out there don’t practice what we preach when it comes to our own productions. It’s time that we took a carbonfoot-step back and made all of our productions a bit GREENER! Here are some tips.

End the Paper Trail!
There is no greater waste of paper than a production in full swing. Schedules, scripts, call sheets; the printing goes on and on and on.  The best way to get around this? Take advantage of everyone’s iPhones and Blackberries and do more stuff virtually, online. Plugging our own site of course, FiveSprockets offers a few compelling virtual features today and will be rolling out more and more features over time to “green” your entire production. Today, use us to collaborate with others in developing and writing your stories; use our job boards to find cast and crew; and use our detailed personal and project profiles to promote yourself and your work (so you can get gigs). And we’re hard at work on lots of new features to aid and reduce the paper-madness throughout your entire production. Stay tuned.


No More Water Bottle Bingo
It may seem cheap, at first, to buy those big cases of individual plastic water bottles for your cast and crew. But after a day or two of shooting, every PA can attest that your production is just tossing water down the drain. No one keeps track of their water bottles, the plastic begins to pile up and it’s one big waste.  Want a better solution? Get a nifty production logo’d stainless steel water bottle for each person on your production and get a water cooler. Everyone can mark their water bottle and keep it with them the entire production. Simple. No more water waste. Plus they make nice mementos and can help promote your project. You can find them pretty cheap online

Signage and Set Dressing!
I was an extra on a TV show not too long ago, and we did a scene in a park for a pet-adoption fair. The set designers were fabulous. They had this entire park jazzed out so perfectly that I truly thought it was a real event. The sad thing was, every single poster, banner, sign and adoption certificate was fake.  At the end of shooting, it was horrible to see all the stuff just gathered up and tossed in the garbage. Seeing as how there are actual REAL businesses (and probably charities) that could benefit from all that signage, why not contact them before hand? Get permission to use their logos, promote a good cause and donate everything to them after you wrap.

White Boards!
Always have one of those nifty white boards on set, with plenty of Dry Erase markers available. It’s great to post lunch breaks, lines or any other information on. Plus, you just swipe and write again! No more poster boards! YAY!

Carbon Offsets
Some Hollywood productions have even taken it a step further and offset the carbon footprints of shooting! Check out this nifty article about the filming of Sweet Land. 

There are lots of other nifty ways Hollywood is going greener, like using hybrid vehicles on set, or biofuel for your generators and using LED lights for your sets.


The most important thing to remember is this, start small and every little bit helps. By sending a message your production is going greener, you are continuing a great effort at educating and training people to be nicer to our planet.