Industry reduces DVD's carbon footprint by 11%

Exceeds Wal-Mart mandate of 5% by 2013

By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 4/2/2009

Bob Chapek
Chapek

APRIL 2 | The home entertainment industry has not only met, but exceeded Wal-Mart’s mandate that DVD’s carbon footprint be reduced by 5%—and achieved it five years early. The impact: the elimination of 130,000 tons of CO2.

During a DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group Webinar, produced Thursday by VB and ContentAgenda.com, DEG members shared their progress on environmental sustainability and pledged to further green packaged media.

DEG created various task forces that worked in tandem to slim the DVD carbon footprint (which contains all emissions from disc creation to retail distribution) last year in response to Wal-Mart’s mandate for studios to cut a title’s environmental impact by 5% by 2013. The task forces have since succeeded in reducing a DVD’s footprint by 11% to 0.98 lbs of carbon emissions per unit in 2008.

Larry Wilk
Wilk

The footprint has been squeezed by such activities as studios lightening the Amaray case weight by 83 grams to 53 grams. Also, studios are employing lighter wrap paper, as well as using recycled materials made up of 30% post-consumer waste.

Companies also are now recycling chemical DVD byproducts, such as handing over acetone used in disc manufacturing to the furniture industry for finishing their products.

However, the DEG task forces will continue their work this year, looking to achieve cost savings and higher sustainability. One key goal is to start greening multi-disc packaging, covering such products as TV season and film box sets.

“Wal-Mart was the catalyst, but we became much more aware of what we can do,” said Dan Miron, vice chair of the DEG operations committee task force and executive VP of worldwide supply chain management at Warner Home Video. “Through collaboration, this is something we can do on an ongoing basis.”

Larry Wilk, DEG Green Ambassador, added that pushing further for conservation will benefit the environment as well as boost the DVD business.

“We’re using fewer materials, so that makes things cost less,” said Wilk, also VP of worldwide operations at Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. “This also helps us drive sales of environmentally themed products.”

Beyond greening the multi-disc set, studios and DEG members also are looking at even lighter single-disc casings. A number of studios are testing 44 gram boxes, according to Wilk, marking another almost 20% reduction from today’s weight.

Also on the drawing board is encouraging rival studios to ship titles from replicators to retail in consolidated shipments to lessen transportation emissions and wear and tear on the environment.

“It’s a long-term goal to tackle multi-studio collaboration” on shipments, said Mark Pierson, chair of the DEG logistics/distribution task force and director of supply chain logistics at Paramount Home Entertainment.

Closed-loop recycling also is being considered, in which discarded packages are ground up and then used to make new cases.

Overall, the DEG task forces are gearing efforts toward cutting emissions on most DVD processes except the materials that go into the disc itself. It’s important that members support a quality product overall.

The DEG green task forces expect to report on more accomplishments by this time next year, despite the challenging economy.

“We see further reductions in waste,” said Miron. “We’ve made significant improvements. But we have a full agenda for the year that has been approved by the [DEG] board.”

“The fact that 30 to 40 companies are involved [during] this down economy is impressive,” said Mike MacDonald, chair for DEG’s replication and retail execution task force and executive director of operations/production services at Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

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