How They Green

In the August issue of Live Design, you'll see a column by Bob Usdin about environmentally conscious practices, and I have a short rant in there in my editorial letter about how well we're doing taking care of our planet. Talking with designer Patrick Dierson about issues he's had trying to be as green as possible, I was heartened to hear that his company, Artfag, certainly does its share. Here's what the designers at do, so far...

-donate to "1% for the Planet," an organization that accepts 1% of a company's sales and distributes it to environmental groups across the globe who are actively trying to protect & restore the environment.

-promote the goal of creating carbon neutral productions wherever possible, encouraging clientele to embrace it without making them feel guilty about it. "It basically comes down to offering the client possible environmentally sustainable solutions and not having them have to go out of their way to attain them," Dierson notes.

-where possible, specify recyclable and/or sustainable materials for construction of scenic pieces and sets.

-alter and reuse existing scenic pieces and sets wherever possible to keep them from ending up in a dump somewhere.

-use LED and other energy-efficient light sources in designs to lower the overall energy consumption of a production

-promote the use of bio-diesel fuel in generators, tour buses, and trucking

-utilize pre-visualization technologies as much as possible to promote energy savings by not having the equipment fired up for days on end just to appease our need to program shows

They're not suffering for their efforts either. Have you seen the roster of tours they've done this year alone?