Fittingly, the film begins with a group of incredulous workers in hard hats listening to a project manager describe what a green building is. It turns out he doesn’t exactly know himself. “What does it give you?,” “what’s the point?” they ask. “I can’t answer that exactly,” he responds. But the skeptical laborers make jokes, dismissing the whole idea. After the manager explains that the condos will have “double flush” toilets, one man jokes, “I use that a lot - that system. One never seems to do the job.”

The film makers succeed by not explaining to us what green building is. Instead, they ask different people involved with the project to explain it, resulting in wildly different accounts of what it means to be green. One will focus on the location of the project, across the street from public transportation. One will speak of the regional materials used on the project. Another believes that everything in the building is made from recycled materials (not true - though many renewable materials were used and 90% of material hauled off the site will be recycled.) When asked why a tree was being taken up to the roof, one man guessed, “for good luck?”

What comes across quite clear in the film is the disdain many people involved, including the project owner/developer, have for greenies. Laborers huff about what a waste of time and money building green is. The owner/developer says that the building is not green in the sense of “eating simple cheeses or eating plain meats or something weird like that,” a comment that I had to rewind to make sure I heard correctly. A member of the waste management team says “I viewed green as dorky,” but then by the end of the project has a tattoo of a roll-off truck on her “bum,” which she shows off. I didn’t rewind that one.

The true star of the film is Wayne Phillips, a laborer who at first is skeptical but intrigued. But as he tries to explain his work with the Macallan building to his children he can’t hide his pride, and when his daughter continues to show interest in it - even asking if they can buy a condo there, he responds with a comment more profound than he intended: “I always tell you a good education will get you anything you want in life.” Green building, it seems, is viewed as a luxury for the wealthy, and even the local bar owner fears that buildings like the Macallan will price him and others (and perhaps the south Boston culture) out of the neighborhood. The class conflict in the film is subtle but well done.

The film shows the green successes of the building, rainwater collection tanks, FSC wood decking, energy saving windows, to name a few, as well as the failures. The bamboo flooring buckled, perhaps due to the new VOC free glues, and 72 floors had to be ripped up and replaced. The wheatboard cabinets swelled, causing installation headaches, but none, it seemed, had to be replaced. The green roof represented the largest disconnect between idea and installation, as every slow step had to be done by hand. The installers didn’t hold back their displeasure. And then all the plants died.

By the end, many of those working on the building come around to the advantages of green building, and even the man who joked earlier about “double flush” toilets argues the merits of green building. Others say that they will tell their grandchildren one day that they built the first green building in Boston. Mr. Phillips takes his daughter on a tour of the completed building. She says it makes her want to join a club at school on being green.

“The Greening of Southie” will air at 9:30 eastern and pacific.

For articles on other Sundance Channel “The Green” features, click below:
TV Review: Sundance Channel’s Big Ideas For A Small Planet - Wear Episode
Eco-Libris: A New Film from the Creators of “King Corn”
Sundance Channel Launches Season Two of “The Green” with “Garbage Warrior”

Gas 2.0 writer, Clayton B. Cornell, meets Mr. Biodiesel himself, Josh Tickell, at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Tickell is author of several books on biodiesel, including From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank and Biodiesel America.

Tickell was at Sundance screening his new film on biodiesel, Fields of Fuel.

This is the first car (I’m aware of) to run on biodiesel made from algae. It debuted at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. See the story here: First Cars Run on Algae Biodiesel; Breakthrough Production Possible - Gas 2.0.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a good documentary can change your vocabulary.

Josh Tickell’s new film, Fields of Fuel, has just won the Audience Award for Documentary at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. The film, which opened last Monday to a standing ovation, is a sharp, compelling look at biofuels and the history of America’s dependence on foreign oil. From home-made biodiesel to OPEC corruption, it covers the myriad reasons why we should be changing our fuel to change our lives.

Tickell, the man who essentially introduced the world to biodiesel, has brought us an outstanding contribution to the discourse on biofuels: Fields of Fuel says in ninety minutes what we’ve all been trying to sum up for years. Here’s the trailer:

But hey, I’m at Sundance.

For the next ten days I’ll be on the lookout for films and panels pertaining to biofuels or the planet. It looks like Josh Tickell, the well-known author of From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank (who’s primarily responsible for the biodiesel homebrew movement in the last decade) has a film this year. It’s called Fields of Fuel.

I’ll also be collaborating with a colleague here to finish a short documentary we filmed last year called Veggie Truck. If it isn’t totally embarrassing (I haven’t watched the footage in almost a year) I’ll be posting it here.

Until then, I’ll be watching movies and fighting off frostbite.

For the fourth episode of their Big Ideas For A Small Planet series, the Sundance Channel takes on the challenging topic of dressing green. The first three episodes of this original documentary series have gotten a large amount of critical acclaim for bringing environmental issues to the millions of Americans who tune in. So far, the topics of fuel, building construction, and city development have been examined, offering up three different topic-specific ideas of how to enhance our lives and reduce our carbon footprint at the same time in each episode.

Premiering this Tuesday, May 8th at 9pm Eastern and Pacific, the Wear episode features commentary from Ali Hewson (Bono's wife and founder of Edun Clothing), Simran Sethi, Carson Kressley (the wonderfully flamboyant blond fashion guru from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy), and Graham Hill (founder of TreeHugger.com). I must admit that when I saw Carson come on screen, I was worried that the episode might end up being less than serious, but he had a unique point-of-view to add to the subject of green fashion, acting as a voice for the many that see style as an integral part of their life, just like eating or sleeping. Helping to show people that wearing sustainable fabrics has little, if anything, to do with tie-dye and hippies is one of the most important factors for the growing green fashion market, and this episode does a darn good job of getting that point across.