International Research, Efforts, & Best Practice Resources

You can get inspired by these international initiatives:

PER COUNTRY:

  • Belgium: The Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF) is one of the regional film funds in Europe who have taken green filmmaking to the next level, with the appointment of an eco-manager in the e-mission program. They offer an extensive list of best practices and advice. All in Dutch.
  • The UK:  One of the main reports related to green filmmaking comes from the UK, and is the BFI established best practice standard for the film industry. It is called the BS8909 ( don’t get fooled by the name, it is in fact a very inspiring overview), and offers some of the most in-depth and detailed production sustainability guidelines presently out there. The well established BAFTA also shares many documents related to their ‘ Greening Film’ initiative, and research into media sustainability. Check greeningfilm.com for the basics, and mediagreenhouse.co.uk for news, updates and production examples from within the UK industry. And don’t forget to stop by greenshoot.com, for insight into the work of a media sustainability consultancy firm.
  • France:  As one of the first national industries to address the need for a sustainability shift within media production, France is home to the established Ecoprod initiative. Though their on-line resources are published in French, they are extensive, insightful, and can be translated into your language with the help of on-line translators. Many prominent institutions of the French film industry are directly affiliated and involved with Ecoprod signifying it’s industry presence, and effectivity. Secoya Eco-tournage offers direct support on set.
  • Germany: Germany based green filmmaking pioneer Michael Geidel, has spear headed the Green Film Initiative. Also greenfilmshooting.net is a German publication that offers great in-depth and international articles ( in German or English).
  • USA:  The Producers Guild of America addresses green filmmaking with their established PGA Green Division. Check out how they do it in Hollywood here. You can download their best practice guide here. PGA Green is also responsible for publishing, alongside green filmmaking-star Emmelie O’Brien, a ground breaking report and production case-study on the financially lucrative nature of sustainable production. It is entitled: “Going Green by Saving Green: A cost-benefit analysis of sustainable filmmaking”. Presented numbers are based on large scale Hollywood productions, but this line of thinking can be easily translated into production industries of other sizes. At the PGA Green site you can also find a report from the early days, a real classic: Sam Mendes’ Away We Go (2009), greened up the whole production and wrote a good report about it, which sparked green filmmaking initiatives around the globe. Download the report here.
  • Australia and New Zealand: ‘Green Shoot Pacific‘ (partnered with GreenShoot in the UK) released the free “Good Green Production Bible”. You can find it here.
  • Scotland: The ‘Creative Carbon Scotland’ initiative covers all areas of the arts and does not exclude film. Check it out.
  • Finland: Ekosetti released a sustainability guidebook for Finland. Available in English.

MULTINATIONAL:

  • Green Screen Project – Interreg Europe: Green Screen is an Interreg Europe funded partnership project working across eight EU regions to improve policies and achieve measurable success in reducing the carbon footprint of the film and TV industries. Green Screen aims to align the practices of these successful industries, standardise environmental practices and improve regional policies so that sustainable measures for producing films, TV and audiovisual content can be adopted across Europe. Through Green Screen, participating regions will improve policies to motivate and equip the current and future workforce to adopt sustainable practices and thus reduce CO2 emissions. Participating countries are: UK, Sweden, Romania, Belgium, France, Spain, Poland, Slovakia.
  • Green Regio: Cine-Regio is a network of 43 regional film funds that span twelve EU member states, in addition to Norway and Switzerland. In 2012, a number of Cine-Regio members decided to form the Green Regio subgroup, whose aim is to raise awareness and share knowledge on sustainable film production tools, measures and policies.
  • EBU Green production work group: Group of the European Broadcasting Union that aims to understand green production, how to implement it and deliver sustainable production transformation.
  • Agora for Sustainable Filming: Open Facebook group for people working on the intersection between sustainability and audiovisual industry. They exchange interesting case studies, dates of green events, inspiring examples, links to instruments.