As of Jan. 1, everything’s gone green at Vancouver Film Studios. No, not as in Douglas Coupland, but as in ‘carbon neutral’ — a newly achieved status of environmental conscientiousness, and a first, it says, for any Canadian film and TV production facility, which it announced on Monday.

‘We did this for three reasons. One, as a corporation, we’re concerned about the impact the industry has on the environment,’ says Pete Mitchell, VFS EVP and COO, speaking to Playback Daily. ‘Two, our customers — Fox, Universal, Warner Bros. — all want it. There’s a clear top-down push from the studios, especially for L.A. productions, which represent 80% of our clients.

‘This makes us a value-added facility, and makes us more competitive,’ he adds.

A strong movement to reduce the environmental impact of motion picture and TV production has emerged among the major studios, according to Mitchell, noting that Fox Broadcasting and 20th Century Fox want to be carbon neutral by 2010, and that Sony has its enviro-minded Green 2010 initiative.

Carbon-neutral programs work by reducing emissions. Companies then buy ‘offset credits’ for any remaining waste they produce, which are then invested in renewable energies and other green practices by a third party, in this case Vancouver-based Offsetters Climate Neutral Society, which supports projects such as ground-source heat pumps at First Nations facilities in Canada and biomass stove installations in Latin America.

‘We spent $5,000 in consultant fees and one year of intense planning, analysis and on-site preparation,’ explains Mitchell. ‘The cost of carbon credits will depend upon usage — $20 to $40 a ton.’

‘The third reason we did this was that the B.C. government has been very supportive of the film and TV industry, and greening is a high priority of theirs,’ he adds. The province is looking to work with western U.S. states on green issues, in part because of the shared interest of B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Recent productions at VFS include Night at the Museum, X-Men: The Last Stand, the Fantastic Four movies and I, Robot. Currently shooting are Traveling and The Day the Earth Stood Still. It is also home to TV series Battlestar Galactica and Eureka.