Sustainability in Film & TV

Lockdown life was and is tough. People do what they can to get through it and one such thing for me, was watching TV in the evening. Escapism was easy and I am privileged to have access to free TV and films. 

Viewing my favourite shows however, I began to notice something that I hadn’t before. The vast majority of our TV and film productions are reflections of our own lives and reality. We see ourselves in the characters and how they live their lives and that’s often why we enjoy a show so much. The simple, daily tasks they carry out are much the same as ourselves.

Daily actions such as purchasing a takeaway coffee - how often do you see the character bring a keep cup? The storyline doesn’t have to revolve around this but for me, it should be normalised behaviour at the very least. Do they have a keep water bottle when working out on screen? Or is it a plastic bottle? Do they segregate waste as they discuss the latest local love affair in the kitchen?

Love Island for example, it may be car crash TV, but their commitment to reusables is certainly admirable! You never see a single use item on screen with all participants holding water bottles all day long, coffee cups, plates, etc are all reusable. Laughable or not, this sends subliminal messages to our brains, telling us that keep water bottles are “cool”. In fact, in 2018 inews.co.uk reported;

 “The water bottles, each of which bears the name of its respective owner, have proved a major hit with viewers – Love Island has sold over quarter of a million of the £15 bottles over the past eight weeks…”

The platform available to the film and TV industry should not be underestimated. It is a multi billion dollar business and one which visually reaches billions of people on a daily basis.

So if they’re not representing sustainability on even a small scale on screen, how are they doing behind the scenes?

Out of interest I did a bit of research on this and was unfortunately left quite disappointed because as world leaders announce targets for ‘net zero’ economies by 2050, there are many industries that aren’t feeling the pressure and this industry in particular - their carbon emissions go very much unreported.

In a report in April this year, the Sustainable Production Alliance released details of the carbon emissions of their members for the first time. The Sustainable Production Alliance includes industry giants such as Disney, Netflix, Amazon and Warner Bros.

“SPA understands that to address any problem, we must first measure our impact. That’s why we are publishing this data for the first time,”

 And although releasing this information is a step in the right direction, it seems this industry has miles and miles to go.

In the BFI’s study ‘ A new Screen Deal’, many glaring issues were highlighted - the average blockbuster film for example, with a budget of 70 million, will produce in excess of 2840 metric tonnes of carbon. To put this into perspective, it would take a 3700 acre mature forest to absorb that volume of CO2 in one year.

Meanwhile in the UK, BAFTA (British Academy of Film & TV Arts) revealed that to produce one hour of TV, means creating on average 13 metric tonnes of carbon emissions. That equates to nearly half of the carbon emissions that the average American produces in ONE YEAR.

I was delighted earlier this summer to get to interview a member of this industry so as to gain greater insight into what really goes on in terms of environmental impact on a film set.

She advised that many production companies are now incorporating sustainability into their contracts and on set. However these are often larger companies who have the budget to include a sustainability officer for example.

When I asked about what she thought the industry felt about making sustainability a priority, she mentioned things like waste segregation and reducing paper. All positive examples but is it really enough for an industry as colossal as theirs?

If 51% of their carbon emissions comes from transport alone, is recycling going to help reduce their impact?

A study conducted by UCLA back in 2006 had estimated that the industry giant, Hollywood, alone was producing over 15m tonnes of CO2 annually – and as we know, the industry has grown considerably since then…

My main question that I wanted answered in my interview was would she think the industry would pledge to use reusables not just for their crew, but in dramatic storylines too? She reckoned yes and it might seem an insignificant request, however we need visual representation of sustainability on screen and for them to respect the power they have through their platform.

We need to see that the 17 SD goals are represented, from inclusion, diversity, equality and beyond and we need to see a pledge from the multi billion dollar industry to report, measure and manage their carbon emissions with proper benchmarking.

At the very least, if they could ensure all filming sets and scenes promote reusable items and other subliminal messages related to a sustainable lifestyle, I firmly believe the effect could be great in society.