01 September 2010
For Immediate Release                                                                             

Unitec joins campaign to 'green' the screen

All organisations leave their footprint on the environment and the screen industry is no exception. Film and television organisations in New Zealand use tons of paper every year.

In recognition of that, Unitec has joined the Greening the Screen campaign.

The Department of Performing and Screen Arts is holding a Tree Planting Day on Sunday, 19 September at Muriwai Beach, west Auckland. The event will be held during New Zealand Conservation Week on 12-19 September.

Head of department, Athina Tsoulis is calling on the local community to join Unitec staff and students in doing their bit towards preserving the environment they live and work in.

"This is a small contribution that we can all participate in to sustain the environment and hopefully it will be a fun day too," she says.

Screen production lecturer, Larry Justice says the idea for the tree planting day came from his own students who were inspired to do something positive for the environment after shooting a conservation-themed television commercial as one of their projects.

"They've come to realise now how both fragile and important the environment is to their work. There will be fewer locations for making films and television programmes if we continue to destroy our environment. We've started with little things such as using double-sided paper for our scripts," says Justice.

"We hope this can become an annual thing for our students," he says. "There are many positives - it becomes an important part of their learning with the awareness and they will have a good time giving back to the community by planting trees at beautiful Muriwai Beach as well."

Greening the Screen is a campaign started by the Ministry for the Environment in 2005 and now licensed to Film New Zealand. The result was an online toolkit to help screen industry organisations become more environmentally responsible.

New Zealand's screen production industry is now a world leader in environmental sustainability because of such initiatives. This reputation is important has the environment is the local screen industry's biggest selling point and a major focus of international marketing campaigns. New Zealand's "clean green" image has made it a favoured film location for screen production companies worldwide.

ENDS/

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