Film And TV Firms Work Towards A More Sustainable Future With New Initiatives

It’s undeniable that film and TV companies leave a massive carbon footprint on almost every production. Materials, labor, equipment and travel are only some of the measures needed that are inherently damaging. Since a recent report, many industry heavyweights are making an effort to move away from negative habits.

The report, emanating from a body of film and TV companies focusing on making the industry more sustainable called the Sustainable Production Alliance (SPA), came up with the statistics.

The report found that each major budget feature film had a carbon footprint of over 3,000 metric tons. The Environmental Protection Agency categorizes this as more than seven million miles driven by a regular vehicle.

Smaller movies had a footprint of around one million metric tons, so about one million miles driven. The report stated that the biggest and most frequent contributor to large emissions was fuel, mainly due to generators and vehicle usage. The stats also factored in housing, air travel, and utilities to reach the overall carbon emissions amount.

TV series are in a similar boat with fuel globally accounting for 60%, on average, of their emissions. The SPA has prioritized countering the damming report by initiating several procedures including more renewable energy sources around fuel promoted and available to projects – such as hybrid and electric vehicles – and battery-powered generator tech. Due to the early nature of the industry however large-scale rollouts are still proving difficult.

Film London recently announced The Fuel Project to lower emissions across the film and TV industry. Funded by Interreg Europe’s Green Screen, the project works to curb the industry’s current contribution to greenhouse gases and air pollution which is predominantly from fuel consumption. 50% of a production’s carbon footprint emanates from fuel use across land transport and mobile power services.

Commenting on the initiative, Daniela Kirchner, Chief Operating Officer of Film London and the British Film Commission, and Lead Partner of Green Screen said:

“The global growth in film and TV production, while exciting, will have significant impacts on our climate unless meaningful action is taken to reduce emissions. As 50% of a production’s carbon footprint comes from fuel use in transport and power services, we felt this was where the greatest impact could be made. So we are delighted to be publishing the Fuel Project report, to give suppliers of every size in the production supply chain the resources, information and timings needed to help our sector’s transition to low carbon fuel and contribution to tackling the climate crisis.”

“I would like to thank Interreg Europe for funding this Green Screen initiative, and Creative Zero for collaborating with us to produce this report. I hope production suppliers can benefit from the report and that industry leaders and partners alike can continue to collaborate to address environmental challenges.”

Emellie O’Brien, Earth Angel CEO, added, “There’s a lot of different actions that you can take, and I think it can feel overwhelming to people,”

“But really dialing in on: Okay for this project, we want to focus on eliminating single-use plastics for this project. We want to focus on getting as many hybrid and [electric] vehicles as we can onto this project, like really zoning in on what’s available to your project.”

Amazon Studios, Disney, NBCUniversal, NetflixNFLX
and Sony Pictures Entertainment are all currently part of the Sustainable Production Alliance and have made concerted and documented efforts to change their procedures as a result.

Netflix, for example, recently set a goal to reduce internal emissions by 45%, compared to 2019 levels, by 2023. NBCUniversal has committed to being carbon neutral by 2035 and Sony is taking on the mammoth task of having no environmental footprint throughout any of their products and activities by 2050.

“We’re guests in the communities that we’re filming in, and I think that there’s a real responsibility for our industry to leave these communities better than how we found them as well,” O’Brien said. “So, not just a do less harm, but also a do more good component.”

Another issue the entertainment industry is battling is plastic. Today, the world produces over 400 million tons of plastics a year. Almost half of that is for single-use items. The world uses 5 trillion plastic bags per year as it stands. That’s 160,000 bags a second. And it takes up to 1,000 years for one plastic bag to degrade. On average, a plastic shopping bag is used for just 12 minutes. By 2050, the world’s oceans could contain more plastic than fish measured by weight.

An entity that is focusing on dialing back the alarming and growing issue is award-winning firm Mosaic, designed to help end the single-use habit.

The retail industry has made plenty of initiatives over the last handful of years towards a more sustainable future. From eco-friendly packaging, to waste management, to utilizing game changing programs such as Beyond the Bag that limits the use of single-use plastics. The world uses 5 trillion plastic bags per year as it stands. That’s 160,000 bags a second. And it takes up to 1,000 years for one plastic bag to degrade. On average, a plastic shopping bag is used for just 12 minutes. Award winning solutions such as Mosaic by 99Bridges is starting to make its way into the market to address the problem.

“We, humans and the society at large, have grown accustomed to the single-use habit, said founder and CEO of 99Bridges Derek Mak, “Single-use plastic is easy, convenient, and clean. The downstream impact is catastrophic to the environment. Getting people back to a return and reuse habit is a significant challenge. That is why we built Mosaic.”

He added: “To the consumers, Mosaic is an app that reminds and rewards people to reuse. Now that we have the tool and a whole business model ready to help, getting people to know that this alternative exists is a challenge. It will take a lot of public education and marketing to get the masses to join the journey.”

Mak concluded by stating, “We would like Mosaic to be the operating system of choice that powers not only reusable bags, but cups, food containers, and bottles. Like Microsoft Windows, the operating system for PCs. We would like Mosaic to be the operating system for all forms of reusables.”

“Regardless of industry, I think what we need to start understanding is the real issue is not the bags or the fuel, it’s habits. I think if people are incentivized we will start to see more tangible change.”

What would it take to change habits? James Clear, author of the Atomic Habits, offers his thesis – The Four Laws of Behavior Change: 1) Make it obvious; 2) make it attractive; 3) make it easy; 4) make it satisfying.