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Industry Star of the Month
	Veronica Miles, EcoSet July 1, 2011 - For the past few years, Veronica Miles has been at the forefront of the green movement taking place in the entertainment industry. As the eco-manager at EcoSet, an environmental production resource committed to implementing customized, practical and sustainable environmental solutions for commercial productions, she’s working with crews and vendors to make sure that a production’s materials get reused and recycled instead of ending up in a landfill. After graduating from the New School, Miles took her interest in recycling and interned with the Department of Sanitation. During her time there, she came across the Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting and its NYC Green Screen, a section of the website with resources to help productions go green, and reached out to the office. Working closely with Jennifer Lenihan, OFTB’s director of client relations and community outreach, Miles helped to make NYC Green Screen more detailed and added new resources. She’s been with EcoSet since 2009. “I communicate with the production team and connect with the vendors,” she said. EcoSet was on hand when a Target commercial recently filmed in the City. “We handled waste disposal and handed out reusable water bottles to the crew,” she said. “We donated materials to the local community and repurposed materials that otherwise would have been thrown away.” EcoSet also set up recycling and composting bins on set. “A big part of my job is to talk to the crew about what we’re doing,” she said. “We want to make it a positive, easy transition. We had such a great response from them. They want to do it.” To make any eco-friendly production successful, Miles recommends having a point person who oversees all of the initiatives. This can be someone who already has a role on the production, or someone who has the sole responsibility of everything green. “Since production is so fast-paced, it’s difficult to add extra steps on top of the job that already needs to be done,” she explained. “We’ve found that having that work lifted from production and left to a point person or team has made the process very positive and streamlined.” Miles estimated that half of the waste produced by the Target commercial was recycled, 35 percent was composted, and only fifteen percent went to the landfill. In two years, EcoSet has managed to divert 61 tons of waste from being thrown away, prevented over 42,000 disposable plastic water bottles from being used and donated to over 100 donations. “The best advice I can give to anyone that wants to be a part of the movement to green the film industry is to connect with the existing green production community, which is strong in New York,” she said. “This movement will thrive if we connect and collaborate with each other.” “I’m happy to be a part of this movement,” she added. “There are so many people involved. It’s exciting to be a part of something that’s just starting and not going away.”