Sunday, October 12, 2008
ETC Touts Green Gear, Business Practices
PLSN: "ETC (Electronic Theatre Controls, Inc.) is bringing attention to equipment and business practices that are environmentally friendly. The company says its policy is to foster “a healthy, safe and sustainable global environment,” and that the ETC meets and exceeds compliance with the European Union’s WEEE (Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment) directive."
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6 comments:
this reminds me of an article that came out last year about the US trying to ban the sale of all incandescent light bulbs. Does anybody have any idea what became of that?
Going green just saves money. Cutting out the toner, paper, misc stuff like that and designing your building with efficientcy in energy use as well as what it's for can save you buckets.
I know with the big HVAC systems I've worked with you can regulate based on all sorts of variables for example to save energy. Though you were really cold if you came to work on a holiday...
It is good to see that major companies are trying to go as green as they can. But there is a limit. With lots of major companies, there is incentive to being green and making green products. Overall it is a good move. The S4 fixtures always strived to be energy efficient and it is good to see that ETC is ahead of the times.
Its all marketing. We have all known for years that the Source 4 was the most efficient standard ERS out on the market -- that's not new news. Neither are companies building low impact facilities (not like there are any real serious attempts at "low impact" that this article describes), using semi-recycled papers, or auto-sensing lighting and HVAC systems.
Being Eco-friendly is the "hip" thing to do right now -- why else would ETC's president want to have this article ran in PLSN? Show us some REAL attempts at attempting to green the entertainment industry. Give me a Source 4 that runs on 100w with the same output (we HAVE the technology to make an LED based ERS, we just haven't done it yet). Or how about a zero-waste manufacturing facility that produces its own electricity? How about more than 8 measly skylights in a 78,000 square foot facility? Sounds like a pretty lame attempt to me....
While certainly presenting this priority is a good thing, it's really tough to know, without having a good understanding of environmental policies, to know if this is really meaningful or not. Most of the time I suspect it's just marketing. While the standards they are complying to look good, often these standards just give credence to poorly founded ideas. Many of the policies are formed by politicians without consulting the few scientists with a good, fact-based, understanding of the issues. The point has often been made that LEED buildings are very limited on materials they can use, but people in LEED-approved theatres often have to re-paint and replace their deck with phenomenal frequency because they can't use an appropriately durable material. Apparently, the specification makes no accounting for longevity or maintenance with respect to materials.
I agree with Jeremy's comments. While it is nice to hear about theatrical companies attempting to "go green" I think ETC is really just trying to flaunt that they are the lesser of all evils. They still create a fixture which eats electricity. Like Jeremy said, where are the LED S4's and LED S4 Pars? Maybe that's what that new factory addition is for. We can only hope.
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