Syriana Goes Climate Neutral
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 01.19.06
Syriana, the geopolitical oil flick from Participant Productions starring George Clooney, (for which he just won a Golden Globe -- congrats, George!) has announced that the film has gone "climate neutral." Accomplished by offsetting 100% of carbon dioxide emissions generated by its production, an estimated 2,040 tons have been offset through investments made in renewable energy. TH pal NativeEnergy helped the film's producers calculate all carbon dioxide emissions from all of Syriana's production activities, including filming, air travel, rental car and truck emissions, hotel energy use, diesel generators used on location, office and warehouse energy use, and emissions from shipping, and then purchased renewable energy credits from renewable energy projects to achieve neutrality.
The press release claims that the film is "the first major motion picture to be 'climate neutral' [through] investments in renewable energy"; as we all know, The Day After Tomorrow was the first big-budget film to attempt "climate neutrality" of any kind, though they did it with tree-planting rather than renewable energy. Syriana and Participant have received praise on these pages before, for their efforts to promote of TerraPass and raise awareness through the "Oil Change" campaign. ::Syriana, ::Participate.net and ::Participant Productions via ::Gristmill.
The film Sweet Land (http://www.sweetlandmovie.com/index.html), was actually the first independently made carbon neutral film. I had the immense joy and honor of being an editor on this wonderful film. I hope more filmmaker's follow suit and strive to be green in their productions.
Ah, a slight oversight on my part. Noted and changed.
It's great that Syriana has gone "climate-neutral". Now perhaps George Clooney can explain how he's going to make his new $3 billion Las Vegas casino project climate-neutral:
http://insider.tv.yahoo.com/news/2941/