Ginger Sledge was determined to make her film as green as possible

Boosters of the state's film production boom love to tout it as a clean industry. And compared to, say, a petroleum refinery, it is. But film shoots still have significant environmental impacts, especially the bigger feature films that are increasingly shooting in New Mexico.

A 2006 study by the University of California Los Angeles compared filming on location to moving an army. Production crews are often more than 100 people and the process can entail moving equipment and construction materials to a site. A production may even have to pave roads and prepare support services such as restrooms, holding areas and craft services (catering), which will need trash collection. There usually will be tremendous energy needs that sometimes require diesel generators. And don't forget all those vehicles needed for transportation.

Ginger Sledge was determined to make her film as green as possible. It was not without its challenges. Sledge is the producer of the film "Appaloosa," a Western that shot in New Mexico last fall, starring Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen and Renee Zellweger.

"We had a lot of four-wheel-drive situations," Sledge said. "So the people I put in [Toyota] Priuses had a really hard time and could not get to some of the destinations."

That did not deter her, however. Everyone on the set got a canteen and there was a large container of water for refills. Not everyone kept them through the whole shoot, but it did cut down on plastic bottle use quite a bit, she said. Their caterer, Tree Hugger Catering, used vegetable oil for fuel and biodegradable dinnerware and plates.

Sledge also had a company come to pick up recycling from the set. She sought out paints from Santa Fe company BioShield for set construction because they are low in volatile organic emissions. Only green cleaning products were allowed in the production offices.

"We paid a little extra to do all that, but in the end it helps everybody," she said.

Sledge is part of a growing legion of creative professionals who are trying to make filmmaking as green as possible. And New Mexico is doing its bit to help. The state film office launched a green filmmaking program last year that encourages productions to use green products, buy local, and recycle everything from paper to construction materials. The office lists resources at its Web site, www.nmfilm.com, to help productions find vendors that will help a film stay green. The city of Albuquerque's film office has a similar resource list at www.cabq.gov/film.

Going green is a topic of growing interest in the industry, said Taylor Grant, executive environmental advisor with the nonprofit Environmental Media Association in Los Angeles. The Association works to get green messages included in scripts, relying on the notion that people in movies and on television have a powerful influence on their audiences. Its EMA Awards recognize productions that incorporate environmental themes creatively.

It also has created voluntary guidelines on making productions green. And since Hollywood loves awards, the Association gives out Green Seal awards every year that acknowledge efforts made by production crews to be green in their offices and on-set.

The Association is now working with studios and other industry players to create a set of standards under which a film or television show could receive a Green Seal, indicating it followed certain environmental standards in production.

Like all green efforts, there is a continuum of options that can range from printing all documents on a set double-sided to making an entire production carbon neutral, as Warner Bros. did with "Syriana." The studio invested in renewable energy to offset its carbon footprint.

Jeremy Hariton, senior vice president with Albuquerque Studios, said more productions are asking for environmental resources, including information on renting hybrid cars (which sometimes means bringing them in from out of state if there aren't enough here) to finding green companies for buying products. The studios harvest water from the roofs for irrigation and recycle construction materials from productions to donate to various federal and state agencies.

"It's certainly a popular issue in Hollywood," Grant said. "Everyone wants to be at least environmentally aware or friendly. One of the issues now is that it really comes down to cost. That's the main barrier to getting this done. This is still a fledgling sort of movement. It's still more expensive to deconstruct a set than just demolish it."

That did not stop Paul Haggis from pushing for an environmentally sensitive shoot for "In the Valley of Elah," which he directed and shot in New Mexico in 2006 and 2007.

Anne Johns was production supervisor for the film during the Morocco shoot, but also worked on the main production in Albuquerque. Johns has been in New Mexico for four years and worked on numerous film productions.

"This was the first one that was really over-the-top conscious of being green, because Haggis was on the board [of the Environmental Media Association] and made a commitment to that," she said.

He wanted hybrid cars for the shoot, but there weren't enough in the state and it was too expensive, Johns said. Nevertheless, all the rental cars had to get at least 20 miles to the gallon. Recycling was de rigueur, including construction materials. The art department used paints from Diamond Vogel that had low volatile organic compounds. Christopher Windisch, the construction supervisor on "Elah," made sure his lumber suppliers found products that were not made from endangered old-growth forests.

"It takes someone in a power position to say this is the way it's going to be down the line," Johns said. "This is the first movie I've been on where it came from the director, from the top."

The caterer for the film, Reel Chefs Catering, composted 80 percent of its waste, said owner Steve Watson. Soilutions, an Albuquerque company located in the South Valley, handled all of Watson's composting. All of his dinnerware was made of potato- or corn-based materials that are biodegradable. Even the trash bags were compostable. He used sugar cane-based sterno for heating buffet foods and the cans themselves were refillable. His company, which is based in Los Angeles and has operations in New Mexico, recycles all of its cardboard and paper as well.