The Day the Earth Stood Still is a remake of a classic sci-fi thriller about an alien (Keanu Reeves) who visits Earth to warn humankind that it is about to cause an environmental disaster of epic proportions.

And if art imitates life, it’s no wonder the Vancouver-shot, eco-friendly story was also one of 20th Century Fox’s first green movie productions.

‘Fox has a strong sustainable policy and are really taking the lead,’ says Warren Carr, the Vancouver-based production manager on the film, which shot between December 2007 and April 2008, and was released before Christmas.

Carr also notes that Fox’s parent company, News Corp., has a mandate to be carbon neutral by 2010, yet he is the first to admit that there continue to be some major hurdles when attempting to green a movie production.

So while the set of The Day the Earth Stood Still reduced both paper and Styrofoam, recycled the set and reused materials wherever possible (as outlined below), it was not yet free of rainforest wood, known as lauan.

Reducing or eliminating lauan – a ‘cheap’ grade of mahogany that has long been a staple of the film industry – is still one of the biggest challenges in this industry around the world, even though it is harvested from rainforests in Southeast Asia, which are, in turn, being devastated by logging.

Carr believes lauan is slowly being phased out of the film industry (although there is little evidence of that) as alternatives become more available.

On The Day the Earth Stood Still, Carr found a local supplier that mills lumber from B.C. trees that have been killed by pine beetles; and wood beams were sourced from a local mill that harvests wood from fallen trees.

‘There are now cost-effective alternatives to lauan,’ Carr explains, ‘and the industry is working hard to move away from products that are not sustainable. A few years ago, lauan was less than $10 per sheet and the alternative was double [that]. That has changed. The prices [of alternatives] are coming down.’

Carr also says that supply can be an issue. ‘In many cases it is difficult to get the volume of sustainable lumber required by a production. You have to take the time to look for it. We had to occasionally blend lauan in with these other sustainable products.’

The film’s director, Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose), also got involved in the green movement on his set and used digital storyboards, rather than paper boards, in keeping with the film’s ‘virtual production office,’ aka a website, where all departments posted information, such as concept art, location stills and costume photos.

Water stations with cardboard cups were used to reduce the number of plastic water bottles, and caterers were told to use biodegradable cutlery and recyclable paper plates made of sustainable bamboo.

One of the other major contributors to a movie’s environmental footprint is fossil fuel consumption, so the shoot plugged into hydro transformers to avoid using diesel generators, and when unavailable, bio-diesel was used.

Hybrid vehicles were made available to anyone renting a car, and Reeves provided a great example, as he was adamant about driving only energy-efficient cars.

The construction crew used recyclable materials and eco-friendly solvents, dyes and low-VOC paint whenever possible.

Styrofoam is another stumbling block for the industry. It is made from petroleum, a non-renewable resource, and takes hundreds of years to decompose in landfills. Styrofoam is used to quickly sculpt design elements used in set construction.

‘There is no viable, cheap substitute for Styrofoam, and that is one of our biggest problems, because how do you dispose of it?’ says Carr. ‘Due to the design of our sets we required very little Styrofoam. But it is a huge challenge for some shows.’

The area in which Carr feels The Day the Earth Stood Still made big strides in reducing its environmental impact was after the movie wrapped. Every effort was made to ensure very little waste ended up at a landfill.

This is not an easy feat, because taking apart a set so that reusable pieces can be salvaged is a lot more expensive than dumping it into landfill sites.

‘Dismantling a set triples the costs because of the labor involved,’ says Carr. ‘One of the sets was 110 feet long, 80 feet wide and three stories tall, so it had to be taken apart safely and slowly, and all the wood separated from metal and other materials. But Fox really showed its support of going green by approving these costs.’

Fox’s next Vancouver-shot movie, The Tooth Fairy, took a substantial amount of Earth’s wooden structures and steel, and some set pieces were sold to other productions. Smaller pieces of lumber were donated to a First Nations school that teaches carving to kids and to a local art school.

‘We recycled five bins of metal alone,’ says Carr.

Cars that were destroyed in action scenes were sent to scrap dealers or salvaged for parts. Wardrobe was stored for future Fox productions or donated to homeless shelters.

There are additional costs when a shoot goes green, says Carr.

Many sustainable products are more expensive than their less-green counterparts. For example, bio-diesel is 20 cents more a liter, and biodegradable cutlery and recycled paper are more expensive.

This is why reducing consumption and using more efficient sources of power is critical.

‘If everyone turns down the thermostat by a degree or two, turns off their lights and computers at the end of the day, and closes the stage doors so heat doesn’t escape, it will bring costs down, says Carr. ‘I have seen a construction shop with the doors wide open in the middle of winter and heat blasting inside. That’s absurd.’

At the end of the day, Carr says that going green increased the budget by about five percent, ‘but when you look at it in the broader picture, the costs are probably negligible. We recycled over $1 million in sets and other materials to other Fox shows. This brought their costs down significantly.’

In other words, even the savings got recycled.