Sony Pictures Studios believes in creating a culture on their Culver City campus. For CEO Michael Lynton and Co-Chairman Amy Pascal this includes a culture of environmental responsibility and sustainable stewardship, according to Jon Corcoran, VP, Corporate Safety and Environmental Affairs and John Rego, Director, Environmental Sustainability for the movie studio.

During a recent tour of the facilities, they each pointed out that education and employee awareness were key to behavior changes when it comes to environmental stewardship. This philosophy is in keeping with the Japanese tradition of creating an employee culture, a loyalty that reaches beyond the standard employee-employer structure, and one that gives and takes both ways. [Pictured: John Rego, Sony Studios; Paige Donner, Greening Hollywood; and Jon Corcoran, Sony Studios; photo by Ann Burkart]

Case in point: On June 29th, as part of Sony Studios “Links Green Series” they hosted a lunch time “Residential Solar and Hybrid Car Program,” presentation. This is an incentive program, offered through the studio, that gives employees a check for up to $5000 when they either buy a hybrid electric vehicle or install solar voltaic panels on their residence. This incentive “payback” is above and beyond the State and Federal tax incentives. Believe me, I asked. Don’t everyone blast your resume off to Sony Pictures Entertainment now!

Read more of this story »

According to reports, the DVD cases will be made with 20% less plastic, and the paper will be 30% post-consumer recycled content. They’re also doing away with any cardboard outer sleeves. From Green Biz:

By switching to the lower-impact packaging, Sony Pictures expects to reduce its annual carbon emissions by 2 million pounds by the end of the year.

Changes to packaging for DVDs and CDs obviously has the potential to lead to widespread impacts due to the sheer volume of discs being produced, shipped and sold.

Other movies, like eco-friendly kid film Wall-E have been released with more sustainable packaging in the past, and we’ll likely see more of this in the future.