Lionsgate Goes Green for DVD Release of Weeds

SANTA MONICA/VANCOUVER,
March 18: Lionsgate will roll out an initiative to package many of its DVD
releases in environmentally-friendly materials, kicking off with the third
season of the hit Showtime series Weeds.

The
Weeds: Season Three DVD is
launching in stores on June 3. The trays on all environmentally-friendly DVDs
from Lionsgate will be made of 100 percent recycled materials and each tray can
be recycled. In addition, the paper used for the DVD packaging will be made
from 100 percent recycled fibers and is recyclable and compostable.

By utilizing 100 percent
recycled water bottles diverted from landfills for the trays on the company's
initial production run of Weeds: Season Three, 500,000 water bottles will be prevented from
ending up in a landfill. In addition, manufacturing the recycled tray utilizes
less than 10 percent of the total energy required to make a new Amaray case.

Lionsgate
also noted that its record label will be adopting environmentally-friendly
packaging for the Weeds limited-edition
soundtrack CD scheduled for release on June 17. The company is evaluating other
environmentally-friendly options throughout its filmed-entertainment
operations, including the development of standards for benchmarking the success
of various environmental initiatives and cost-benefit analyses of diverse
programs designed to promote environmental friendliness.

"We
are committed to extending our reputation for industry leadership and
innovation into the critically important area of environmental awareness,"
said Lionsgate’s president and co-COO, Steve Beeks. "We recognize the
importance of helping the environment and have been identifying ways to do this
while preserving the quality consumers have been accustomed to receiving with
our DVD releases and other product. We look forward to becoming more
environmentally friendly with all of our content going forward—the
release of is just the beginning of Lionsgate's 'Green' initiative."

—By Irene Lew