Eva Radke, President and founder of New York-based Film Biz Recycling and a veteran in the film business, had an epiphany about all the waste in the film business. Radke was working on a commercial shoot that misused both its budget and its materials. From then on out, her reuse passion could not be stopped. “[Reusing materials] started as a social movement, because I just wanted to give it all to charity,” Radke recalls. “My green education came with doing this. I didn’t realize how bad [waste in the film business] was until I started thinking about it.” Since January of 2007, Radke has run Film Biz Recycling as a way to reuse all sorts of materials from on set — everything from paint and lumber to custom-made trinkets. Radke laterally moves everything she can to charities, saving it from the landfill. In 2009, the company accepted items from 33 commercials, 26 films and 12 TV shows — 90 different sources — and diverted 75 tons of potential waste. About 75% of that went to charities, while 25% went on sale in the Film Biz Recycling boutique in Long Island City, NY.

Later in the show, Tom Rooney of SPG Solar describes how the solar company is growing, saving valuable resources in the process. Rooney, a serial entrepreneur and a true believer in sustainable energies, has extensive experience in the energy industry. SPG Solar has quickly become a leader in the Western United States, with more than 1,200 grid-connected photovoltaic systems and counting. Rooney reveals how solar photovoltaic systems are saving the state of California thousands of tons of carbon emissions and millions of gallons of water, not to mention all the energy saved in generating the power. Rooney describes the “Water Energy Nexus,” the concept of water needed to create energy. Rooney’s goal is to use the least amount of water possible while creating clean, usable solar energy. “One of the reasons I was so excited about coming to run a leading solar company is that in the whole world, there are probably only two technologies that fix both sides of the [energy] equation at the same time, or at least don’t do harm to one while fixing the other,” Rooney says. “One is solar.” Podcast: Play in new window | Download (48.2MB)