As FOX's iconic sci-fi series The X-Files returned to television in January 2016, the cast and creative team worked to ensure that the show remained as timely and ambitious as ever. The new six-episode event reunited David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as FBI Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, and continued to enrich its mythology, introducing new characters and conspiracies at every turn. Yet, even as the series built on its own fictional history, it also built on its legacy behind the scenes, including its long-running commitment to environmental sustainability.

The previous entry in the franchise, the 2008 feature The X-Files: I Want to Believe, was one of the first films to go into production following the launch of 21st Century Fox's corporate sustainability program in 2007, and it was among the first to implement the green production practices that Fox helped pioneer, such as prioritizing alternative fuels and recycling materials used on set.

"When I first started working in the business, we would just take sets and throw them away," said series creator Chris Carter in an interview on green production for the movie's DVD release. "That's changing. There is a new directive, and I think Fox is at the forefront of that directive, using recycled materials whenever possible, recycling what you do use, and looking at it as a total approach. I was very excited about that."

The film's green efforts behind the scenes helped define best practices for the entire industry, so when the Fox Television Group gave Carter the chance to revisit The X-Files once more, he and the crew picked up where they left off, integrating sustainability into every department's daily operations.

However, the new series was not without its challenges. It filmed across 40 individual locations in British Columbia, with each requiring elaborate set construction, lengthy transportation demands, and long shooting hours calling for sustained electricity and fuel use. To mitigate these challenges, Fox brought on a dedicated green production consultant to work with each department, including set construction, transportation, wardrobe, props, catering, hair & make-up, and more, to find ways to make the production as efficient as possible.

Thanks to these efforts, the production managed to divert more than 81% of its total waste from landfill, recycle 100% of the aluminum and steel used in set construction, use only lauan plywood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), replace plastic water bottles with refillable ones, avoiding the use of 45,760 plastic bottles, and recycle more than 35 tons of "dirty" EPS foam used for set construction, breaking new ground for the entire industry.

For more information on green production behind the scenes of The X-Files, read our detailed case study and check out the exclusive video below published on 21st Century Fox Social Impact.

The X-Files airs Mondays on FOX at 8:00 PM EST/PST.

This article was originally published here: https://impact.21cf.com/what/2016/02/x-files-green-production.html

It is only a 3 to 4 hour drive from the nearest point of civilisation as we know it; yet it could be another world. It is the town of Karamea, at the top of the West coast of New Zealand’s southern island. And it’s a place where you can touch what could be the future for the rest of us.

There aren’t a lot of reasons to go there: either you are a travel-blog nerd and you stumbled upon one of the few posts about it, or you’re a serious adventure walker with the will to walk the “Heaphy track”, a gorgeous scenic 4-day hiking trail with no shelter that ends up (or starts) in Karamea. 

Karamea pops up, literally, “at the end of the road”. It’s precisely 100 kilometres from the nearest town, but is an island of community surrounded by a beautiful, green and lush national park. 

So, do people really live here? Absolutely. And this is exactly where things get interesting. As the documentary trailer for Karamea says, “Answers sometimes may be found where least expected”.

The Karamea documentary movie follows the inspiring journey of a bunch of modernhippies that have made this community their home, attempting to “change the world” from one of the most remote places on earth. They might be far away from mainstream civilisation, but this community is tightly knit and passionate about living the way they choose to.

As we meet Karamea’s people, we realise that they’ve managed to live… a little bit differently from the way most of us do. 

Instead of just talking about problems, how the world is drifting away or the social theories and ecological systems to save it, they are putting in practice an actual process toward sustainability where everybody takes their part in this “there is another way to live” project.

This is not a community of old-fashioned hippies, and there are no communal rules that impose how to live and behave with others. Instead, there is private property, and a economic system based on exchange or barter (either it’s food or work) to cover the majority of people’s needs. With fewer places to use it, money is spent wisely and less frequently, leaving no room for conspicuous consumerism.

The pillars of the Karamea lifestyle are also renewable energies, organic agriculture and permaculture design; but it isn’t just about solar power, water supply tanks or “growing your own tomatoes”. 

It is simply a philosophy of “quality over quantity” that the people of Karamea practice in every aspect, following the sustainable living playbook their own way. And the results are staggering: prosperity, community, success, and that elusive goal of people in the modern world, happiness.

Karamea becomes a sort of social, economic and ecological experiment where people can touch what really means to live sustainably. It is such a compelling place that travellers who plan to pass through for a night end up staying for months or years, getting involved in the unpredictable vitality of the town.

This other way to live comes to life through the stories of those that created and are living this dream in Karamea: Is this the end of the road? In 2014, Marco Gianstefani and his crew shot the first part of the documentary, collecting content for a first trailer release and a future crowdfunding campaign that will be launched in early 2016.

[video:https://vimeo.com/125299567]

To share this story with the world, the team is fundraising to complete the shooting and post-production process, and to create the original score so that Karamea can be presented in major international documentary festivals. By telling this fascinating story, we hope to show that the real sustainable living of Karamea is far from the end of the road; it is just the beginning of it.

Connect4Climate participated in the international conference on Communication/Culture and The Sustainable Development Goals (CCSDG): Challenges for a New Generation held in Chiang Mai, Thailand, from 17 to 21 December 2015.

The themes of the Sustainable Development Goals and Climate Change is very timely, so soon after the COP 21 in Paris. But, as Prof. Rome Chiranukrom, the Vice President for International Relations and Alumni Affairs at Chiang Mai University, reminded us, the focus on the role and place of communication and culture has added additional value to these themes, which are normally monopolized by economics, engineers and politicians. Prof. Rome warned that “the future of our planet and the peaceful and harmonious survival of us as a human race” are at stake! More than a choice on the basis of technology assessments, economic or political models, this challenge appeals on our moral and ethical values as people.

The “new” problems we face may take years, and in the case of climate change, several generations of the world community to resolve. How do we build consensus and muster the altruistic intent of the present generation to consume less, de-escalate conflict, and subject ourselves to medical research so that future generations who will exist long after we are gone may inherit a habitable planet?

The tried and tested methods of agriculture extension, social mobilization, community participation, and multi-lateral negotiation are unlikely to succeed on their own as these systemic problems grow in their severity and people submit to innate human instincts for self-preservation and compete even more keenly for rapidly dwindling natural resources, ratchet-up violence, resist Hippocratic principles to share limited supplies of vaccines and medicines, hoard energy and water, and close markets to international commerce. We do not have appropriate strategies to begin addressing these “new” and highly complex challenges. That’s the challenge the conference participants were challenged to come to grips with in order to formulate realistic and sustainable solutions for future generations.

About 150 people had initially expressed an interest in this conference. After the first selection 70 abstracts were invited to be submitted as full papers. Of these 70, 51 were accepted forpresentation during the conference. Covering a wide range of topics, the presentations were organized in three plenary sessions – “Sustainability Redefined,” “Strategies for Commons Transition and Sustainable Development” and “Learning the Practice of Rural Development Professionalism: Challenging the Professional 2.0,” – and 15 panel sessions ranging from “Mindfulness, Religion and Social Communication” over “Small, slow and big data for Sustainable Development” to “Migration, Ethnicity and Identity,” with special case studies on Thailand, Myanmar and China. After further peer review, a selection of the best conference papers will be published either as special issues in academic journals or considered for book series.

In addition, Action4Climate winning films were showcased in one afternoon as well as presentations on “the Mekong Land Forum”, “Indigenous People and Communication”, “Migrant Workers and Communication”, and “Human Trafficking.”

About 100 participants, coming from ASEAN and other Asian countries like China, India, the UAE, and Taiwan, in addition to scholars from the US, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, The Netherlands … engaged in lively discussions on the above topics.

The following questions guided the discussions and deliberations:

                     a) How do you make a complex subject like sustainable development or climate change simple and understandable to a general audience?


                     b) What are the main opportunities and challenges you face when trying to communicate to your audiences on the need for sustainability or climate action?


                     c) What is communication for sustainable development, or climate change communication doing right? What is it doing wrong? How can it be more effective?


                     d) What kinds of messages have you used that successfully motivated and engaged people to care about sustainable development or climate change?


                     e) How do we bridge the gap between communication for social change awareness and action?


                     f) How can what you do be scaled up and replicated?


                     g) How do we broaden the discussion and diversify the movement?


                     h) How can we communicate the outcomes of our conference and what needs to happen next
to citizens around the world?

Prof. Jan Servaes presented a set of recommendations for a research/academic agenda for the future of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (2015-2030): https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/start-sustainable-development-goals-academicresearch-agenda-servaes?trk=prof-post

The conference was hosted by the Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development (RCSD) at Chiang Mai University in partnership with the Asian Congress of Mass Communication (ACMC), BGreen Project, Connect4Climate, RMIT Melbourne, Southeast Asia Research Centre (SEARC) and the Department of Media and Communication at City University of Hong Kong, and Wageningen University. Additional support was received from UNESCO’s Communication and Information Sector both in Paris and the Bangkok office, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).