Hollywood Goes Green: Less environment, more sponsorship

If GreenXchange was the conference that went beyond business to tie the many facets of a green future together, Hollywood Goes Green was the one that sold out to big corporations.

Sure, Hollywood Goes Green started out great, with keynotes from Allen Hershkowitz of Natural Resources Defense Council and actor-activist Ed Begley Jr. But it went quickly downhill from there. The next 4 keynote sessions came from each of the conference's title sponsors. Yes, that means big corps like IBM and Subway got a half hour to pitch their products from center stage -- nevermind that Subway isn't exactly in the entertainment biz.

The weirdest choice for a keynote, though, was the GM speaker -- Susan Docherty -- whose bio bragged that she'd managed the Hummer brand, helping launch the new H3 "which increased Hummer's sales by greater than 70%." Why exactly was a Hummer woman giving a keynote at a supposedly eco conference? No real reason, it seems, except that GM was a title sponsor.

Even the gold sponsor, COPAN, got to take the stage for a 10 minute presentation before lunch. Which meant that the breakout sessions with actual experts didn't start until 2:15 -- and even these sessions were infiltrated by speakers from the title sponsors! IBM managed to get a record 4 speakers into these panels.

Yes, Hollywood Goes Green DID bring in some enviro experts. But many of the speakers had a different problem -- With only tenuous ties to the entertainment industry, they couldn't really speak to moving Hollywood in a green direction. The wonderful experts on the green building panel, for example, covered everything from prefab to LEED certification -- but didn't really talk about the entertainment business until an audience member asked how one might go about convincing those in power not to simply pick the cheapest set materials. Greg Reitz, principal at REThink Development, kicked off the response to that question with a less-than-promising "I don't know enough about the entertainment industry to answer that very well, but...." He then said people need to "widen their view" and look at the environmental impacts of the materials they use. True, but not actually a helpful or practical answer to the question at hand....

It all left me with the impression that Hollywood has few experts in the industry that have actually gone green, even if some of its celebrities are individually moving deeper into environmentalism.

And it made me think that Hollywood Goes Green's organizers cared about sponsorships first and the conference second. Because the sponsorship hoopla didn't just end with the miserable keynotes. We had sponsor logos glowing on the walls and, at the cocktail reception, in the hotel pool. In fact, we had to stop by the Chevy Volt model to get our drink tickets.

Perhaps the reception was the best part of the conference -- and not just because of the free VeeV drinks, mixed by bike-powered blenders. Despite its faults, Hollywood Goes Green did bring some cool people together, and I ran into many who are actually doing real green stuff.

I still opted out of going to the second day of the conference on Wednesday though. I hope it was more productive, since it wasn't filled up with sponsor keynotes --

More from the conference: A lot more green TV and GM vs. electric cars

Photos by Siel

Comments

[Charisse McAuliffe]

I have to agree with you. We were one of those sponsors (GenGreen) and it was really embarrassing to be next to some of these people. I remember one company was handing out plastic massagers made in China that ran on batteries that they were handing out (the mass produced cheep kind to boot) I even told the guy.... "you would get these things thrown at you at another green conference." The Rosevelt also handed out plastic waterbottles to the crowd like they were going out of style without any recycling bins convientlly placed anywhere in site. I did meet some great people like yourself, but even so, we won't be going back.
Thank you for making a point to call them out on this - I don't think anyone else has.
Charisse McAuliffe
Founder
GenGreen.org