Sony Pictures achieves ISO14001 Certification
While Sony Pictures strives to “light up screens around the world” with quality content, the company is also committed to continuous environmental improvement to ensure we leave our world a better place that we found it. To assist with continuous improvement, SPE utilizes an environmental management system (EMS) known as ISO 14001.
IS0 14001 is a set of international guidelines that set standards for businesses' environmental management efforts. It is a standard that Sony Pictures, alone among major production studios, adheres to rigorously.
Eric Busch, Executive Director, Environmental Health and Safety at Sony Pictures, says that the ISO 14001 standard works by "providing tools to assess a company's environmental impact, and to set up systems to reduce that impact over time."
A practical example of one of those systems: On any production, there is always paint that is left over after the set has been painted. Normally that paint gets recycled through a certified hazardous waste company. However, on Sony Pictures’ productions, paint now goes into a contraption that looks part oil drum, part cake mixer, where it turns into a neutral shade of gray, and is then used to paint the floors of Sony stages.
"Instead of paying to properly dispose of [our leftover paint]," says Busch, "we are using it to improve our stages, so they look nice and encourage other people to rent them. You can see how that dovetails really nicely with sustainability."
IS0 14001 standards touch nearly every aspect of Sony Pictures' operations, including policies related to: the treatment of hazardous and solid waste; energy use; water use; contracts with vendors; purchase of hazardous materials; frequency of management review and internal audits, etc. As an example, these standards led to Sony Pictures-shot productions to reuse 6,700 set pieces in 2010, resulting in a savings of approximately 718,000 pounds of materials.
The ISO standard is a product of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), an international standard-setting body based in Geneva. In order for a business to receive an ISO14001 certification, it has to be audited by a third-party organization. Sony Pictures submits to these external audits every two to three years, but it also performs its own rigorous internal audits on its facilities on a nearly ongoing basis. And although efforts have primarily focused on US-based facilities up to this point, a rollout program was launched in early 2011 to expand the ISO 14001 program to Sony Pictures facilities in London, Gdynia, Tokyo, Singapore, and others across globe.
"It has taken us a few years to get to the point where people were really paying attention to this thing called 'ISO' and it is still a little unfamiliar to many,” says Busch, "But with [SPE co-Chairman and CEO] Michael Lynton and [SPE co-Chairman] Amy Pascal being such big believers, it has really blossomed."
