Green Light

This year at InfoComm, Christie Digital Systems talked about its yearlong effort to green its business. I liked the way the company was undeterred by the obvious point: It's hard to get 20,000 lumens without taking a big bite out of the grid.

That equation may one day change or at least improve — current R&D in light sources is nothing short of remarkable. But Christie isn't waiting. This year, the company became fully compliant with the European Union's (EU) RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) directive requiring that all electrical and electronic equipment sold into the EU not contain certain toxic substances.

With the launch of the CP2000-ZX digital cinema projector, Christie went with its first 100-percent recyclable packaging; company-wide, the company claims to recycle 65 percent of materials. One of the most interesting parts of the green initiative involved shifting production staff to a 10-hour, four-day workweek. Christie calculates a savings of 375,000 driving miles a year and 15-percent increase in efficiency and productivity.

Christie is not the only industry manufacturer to pursue lower energy costs and resource impact. Intel and AMD compete to claim the most energy-efficient chips. HP and IBM are increasing cooling-system efficiency. Canon Americas' Environmental Charter, like Christie's, includes the product itself, the procurement and production processes, and corporate office practices.

Of course, digital cameras themselves are greener than film processing. However, there will be many, many more digital cameras than film cameras made. Proliferation of technology is inherently un-green — at least in the short term as more gear is made and disposed of and more electricity is demanded to use it. So Christie's willingness to make a non-green product in a more green way seems less contradictory and more common sense. Human existence has always been high impact — and more so as there are more of us. That's the price of human consumption and innovation. However, waste is now becoming old-fashioned, and innovation is seeking modern options — as innovation always does.

The way Lynelle Preston Cameron, director of sustainability at Autodesk, sees it, green is not the point. “Smart design will take environmental impact into consideration as a matter of course,” she says. “It will be demanded, and those who can provide it will have a competitive edge; it will provide better, more efficient, more successful solutions. Ultimately, my job will not exist because there won't be green design or green practices; there will just be smart design and smart practices.” So before you're tempted to get buzz-weary with the green propaganda, consider how rapidly the AV industry must innovate just to keep breathing. And understand that new ideas in our industry are converging with new ideas in energy, electronics, materials, design, and culture.

Or consider this: Next month, the NSCA presents a webinar on how to accumulate LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) points to meet the new guidelines of the U.S. Green Building Council. That's mainstream green.