SAG Awards Go Green: The sequel!

Hybrid limos. Recycled paper. Re-used furniture. By partnering with the Environmental Media Association, the SAG Awards help Clooney, Bullock, Timberlake and more go green tonight — simply by showing up on the red carpet.

Hollywood superstars, including George Clooney, Sandra Bullock, and Justin Timberlake are expected to walk the red carpet at the 16th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards this evening. But they might as well be walking the green carpet, considering how eco-friendly the show will be.

Tune in to TBS and you'll be sure to see "hybrid limos" — chauffer-driven Priuses and town cars powered by alternative fuel sources — pulling up in front of LA's famed Shrine Auditorium. Discerning viewers may even notice that the red carpet and staging, saved from years past, will be putting on an "encore" performance tonight as well. And that's not all.

SAG has partnered for a second year in a row with the Environmental Media Association to make the star-studded awards show an earth-friendly spectacular.

"It will be a fun — and environmentally low-impact — event," says Taylor Grant, an environmental consultant at EMA, which works with celebrities and others to get the word out about being environmentally conscious and reducing carbon footprints. "SAG already had a strong green policy in place. Now it's doing its best to reduce any environmental impact it has with this year's show."

Indeed, says SAG Awards Producer Kathy Connell, "Reducing the environmental impact of the SAG Awards was an important goal for us this year."

Mimimizing the amount of waste produced at the show — which is considerable at an event of this size — is one of SAG's and EMA's biggest goals, says Grant. "We are pretty much reducing the waste to zero," he says.

After the celebs at the show are finished with their red carpet photo ops, scooping up their awards (or not), sipping champagne and dining on haute cuisine at the glittering post-show gala, everything that's left over will be taken to a composting facility and turned into rich soil.

"Everything organic, from the flowers to leftover food, will be donated or composted," says Grant.
They are also cutting down on waste by reusing as much as possible from previous SAG Awards shows. "We are reusing, recycling and repurposing all of the staging materials from past years, from the stage and the scaffolding to the lighting and the step-and-repeat (the backdrop on the red carpet)," says Grant.

That includes draperies, flooring, couches, chairs, tables and other furniture for the after-party. "The look of the stage and the after-party will be different than in past years, but the skeleton of the stage and the furniture used aren't new," he says.

The sumptuous dinner the stars will enjoy will also be environmentally friendly, he says. "The menu will feature organic, locally-grown produce and humanely-treated and sustainable ingredients," he says.

Even the crew's gifts are green. "This year, the gift will include a journal made out of recycled paper and pen."

While the crew was busy building the set with trucks and other vehicles pulling up non-stop to the Shrine Auditorium, SAG implemented a no-idling zone, says Grant. "That's a great way to reduce emissions," he says. So is having the stars arrive at the event in a hybrid car such as the Toyota Prius or town-car powered by alternative fuels, if they so choose. "We want to reduce the amount of emissions produced while stars are waiting in line to walk the red carpet as much as we can," says Grant.

The Screen Actors Guild and the Environmental Media Association both learned a lot by going green for the first time at last year's show. "Some of this can take some getting used to," he says. "Some of it is trial and error. But overall the event was successful."

One of the toughest things about going green has been using recycled paper, he says. "Believe it or not, that was something that took some doing," he says. "To put this event together, SAG has to use a lot of paper, especially in the production phases. Switching to recycled paper took a little while. But it's important to do."

SAG has limited production printing and is using double-sided printing where possible. SAG has also implemented a comprehensive recycling program in all of its production offices, and at the Shrine, and has asked vendors and others working at the show to participate in the program, he says.

An added benefit? Going green is often cost-effective. "Reusing things certainly saves money," he says. And doing so leads by example: "When a high-profile organization like SAG goes green at an event like this, it gets people thinking about it," he says. "Some people may look at this and say, ‘I can do this, too.' And since it's not much harder or more expensive to go green, why not do it?'"

The 16th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will air live on TBS at 8 p.m. (ET/PT), 7 p.m. (CT), 6 p.m. (MT). An encore presentation will air on TNT at 11 p.m. (ET/PT). For satellite and HD viewers, the live presentation can be seen on TBS and TNT at 8 p.m. (ET)/5 p.m. (PT), while the encore can be seen on TNT at 11 p.m. (ET)/8 p.m. (PT).

SAG Award photo by Getty Images

Recycled Red Carpet photo by korafotomorgana