Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/130212
the around 35 people here, seven or eight of us bike to work. Biking to work means needing a shower, so Union struck a deal with the gym next door, and the building added a shower as well. This has helped encourage clients to start pedaling to the studio. "It's funny," says Raimondi, "because this stuff is contagious. It also becomes more than a green initiative, but a healthy one as well." Raimondi has also taken on the scourge known as the plastic bag. "At post houses, people hang out for long periods, and they are eating all the time, meaning we are grocery shopping every day. Having our runners bring reusable bags with them is huge. Even in LA, where they don't have plastic, the paper bags aren't great." When Union does send out reels and screeners they do so in reusable bags, but that process is becoming a thing of the past. "We do 90 percent of reels and master delivery online, which saves a fortune and is better for the environment," he says, adding that their New York studio follows the same green practices. Actually, most of what Union does is paperless, including banking, and when they do print they use recycled paper. For most boards and treatments they use iPads and look at them online. "There is no reason to print out a fullcolor 60-page treatment when you can look at it on your iPad," he emphasizes. Raimondi realizes that some studios might be concerned how clients react to the changes but assures us that once the clients get used to it, it all gets easier. "For instance, the bottled water thing was the hardest part, because people are so used to going to the refrigerator and grabbing a bottle of water. A, the bottled water is bad. B, people take three sips and put it down. Ninety percent of the time we were throwing away almost full bottled water. It's just so wasteful." Union installed a filter system and puts pitchers in bays. If they do get a request for a bottle of water, Union has glass bottles of water to hand out. "We cut our consumption of bottled water by 95 percent," reports Raimondi proudly. "Not only does it makes you feel good, it's so much more economical. We used to spend a fortune on bottled water." Another thing that saves money and helps reduce their carbon footprint? Anything that's battery operated uses rechargeable batteries. Union Editorial has been increasing its work on feature films lately, including The Brass Teapot, as well as Hateship with Kristin Wiig, Guy Pearce and Nick Nolte. GREEN TIP Avoid paper bills in the mail (along with the extra junk included with them) by either paying online each month or automatically linking to a credit card or debit. You still get the bill online each month to review. Also, cancel all the catalogs that come in the mail. If you call them, ask whom else they are linked with, so you hit several sources at once. — Producer/Director/Earth Advocate Lesley Chilcott RPA Isadora Chesler is a senior producer at LA-based agency Rubin Postear and Associates, best known as RPA (www.rpa.com). She had worked with RPA as a freelancer for many years before coming on full time about a year-and-a-half ago. She always knew the agency to be environmentally conscious and was aware they had a well-established "green team" in place. "Over the years, RPA has been implementing all sorts of different programs, continued on page 46 Shared Storage for Your Long-Term Archive. Winner of the 2012 Hollywood Post Alliance Engineering Excellence Award S Y S T E M S , I N C . S Y S T E M S , I N C . S Y S T E M S , I N C . ® Shared Storage for Your Long-term Archive StrongBox is a powerful archive solution, purpose-built to keep your files safe, accessible and at your fingertips. Files stored in this NAS target can be accessed from multiple editing stations or end users – no call to engineering required. Harness the cost-effectiveness of LTFS, empowering faster, more seamless workflows. Spend more time creating - less time managing data. Post0513_018-21 Going GreenRAV5FINALREAD.indd 21 Bring On Your Big Data! www.getstrongbox.com 5/3/13 1:05 PM