afta’s Albert Consortium was established in 2011 and supports the film and TV industry to create positive environmental change, primarily in the UK. The organisation hosts regular educational opportunities – sometimes aimed at individual departments – offering facts on the climate crisis as well as techniques for lowering carbon emissions, reducing waste and improving wellbeing. It also provides a free online carbon calculator, allowing companies to crunch sustainability at the top of the agenda (read our Genius Interview with Harris on p78). She was the producer of Oscar-winning First World War film, 1917 , the first big-budget film to receive a three-star Albert certification for sustainable practice. Harris is also executive producer on UK period TV drama Call the Midwife, which has also pioneered low-waste, lower-carbon production. “There’s an increasing awareness and concern about the numbers of their carbon emissions. Pippa Harris, deputy chair of Bafta, has pushed to put environmental issues,” Harris told FEED , “but I think it’s a patchy picture across the industry as a whole. Television has led the way, primarily because there is more television production going on and the companies that make TV are getting much more experience of working in sustainable ways. With film, they may only be shooting one production across the year and may not get to shoot another for another couple of years. There isn’t the throughput that allows them to set up sustainable systems.” Last year, Bafta partnered with mega design firm Arup to delve into the data collected by Albert and find some practical, actionable steps to get the industry to adopt sustainable practices and reach net zero as soon as possible. Many broadcasters, including ITV and Sky, have already set 2030 as a deadline for reaching net zero carbon emissions. While a full decade away, 2030 still precedes the UK government’s legally binding mandate to achieve net zero nationally by 2050, which itself is ahead of most internal legislation in just about every other country.
No one can say now they don’t know how to make a production sustainable. Bafta’s
Screen New Deal report gives clear instructions on how to green your shoot
ONEDAYOFBIG-BUDGET FILMINGPRODUCES ONE PERSON’SANNUAL CARBONFOOTPRINT
Arup has been responsible for building some of the most environmentally friendly buildings in the media industry. Its Sky Studios design in Osterley, West London, has been hailed as one of the most sustainabile facilities anywhere, and the new Sky Studios Elstree, currently in the design phase, is set to be even greener. Arup itself has committed to becoming a carbon-neutral company by 2030. “In the first meeting with Sky, it became quite clear that they weren’t just looking for a ‘studio of the future’ design,” says Arup’s associate director Tim Snelson. “What was needed was to close up the circle between productions and studios. Productions say, ‘We could do more sustainability, but there’s only so much we can do with the facilities we’re given.’ And studios say ‘Well, we could do more sustainability, but most of the work is carried out by the productions branch.’”
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