ROUND TABLE
filters in a wrap made from potato starch; becoming a nil-waste company, generating most of its energy from 55KW of solar panels on its roofs – these all make a difference. We bought our first EV in 2018 and will have migrated the majority of our vans by the end of 2024. MG: The very concept of rental houses lends itself to the reuse of equipment, but of course there’s more to it than that. Panalux’s newly opened London facility demonstrates our commitment to sustainable practices, with features including EV charging points and a photovoltaic array on the roof to power the backbone infrastructure. At the completion of construction, the building earned an energy performance certificate (EPC) rating of A+, with net- zero carbon emissions. On the production side, LED lighting solutions are helping to reduce power consumption. Our Panalux Power i-Series rechargeable battery arrays and our h-Series hybrid generators are eco- friendly alternatives to traditional power generation. Logistics also plays a pivotal role, with many productions needing to make changes to equipment or requiring extra equipment during shoots, which means additional transportation. At Panalux, we replaced fossil diesel with HVO fuel to run our fleet of vehicles and generators. Ultimately, the industry will benefit from more standardised sustainability guidelines and incentives that make it clear what productions need to do to transition to greener filming practices. MC: On the whole, the industry is moving toward being far more energy efficient. For Panavision, one of our key focuses is to reduce the amount of waste. The model of a rental house is inherently more sustainable, allowing filmmakers to deploy equipment multiple times over one sole use case. As a company, we’re incredibly careful to invest in technology that has the longevity to continue to successfully drive the rental model. Our heritage also lends itself to this idea. Panavision has lenses well over 50 years old which are still used today and have remained sought-after despite many changes in industry trends.
social impact to provide guidance to our customers and the industry. This not only ensures sustainability is at the forefront of decision-making, but also benefits local communities. Additionally, our partnerships, including BAFTA albert, British Film Institute and the Production Guild of Great Britain, ensure that we’re working alongside industry professionals to drive change. From supporting climate skills masterclasses to developing craft and technical workshops, we continue to work with crews and broadcasters to implement greener applications. We are also supporting production and sustainability consultants on all things such as data monitoring and implementing uniform standards. MB: At Hireacamera, we’re always trying to make strides towards a greener future, with the end goal to become a net-zero organisation. We select our equipment with durability in mind, and all our kit is transported in flight cases rather than single-use plastic and cardboard. Our offices run exclusively on low-energy automated LED lighting, and we review our energy providers regularly to keep track of more sustainable and innovative
options. We are especially proud of the recent completion of our ‘paperless project’, designed to end the need for paper instruction manuals, checklists, invoices and conditions reports to ship with our orders. We firmly believe that all these relatively modest adjustments add up to huge changes, helping shape our world for the future. And, remember, we are a hire company, so we’re recycling equipment every single time an order leaves the warehouse! BB: Sustainability isn’t merely a buzzword any more. As an albert-certified, carbon- neutral organisation, VMI’s commitment to reducing its negative environmental impact and building a more socially equitable company is one it takes very seriously. Unusually, VMI committed to become a net-zero company by 2030, posting its annual carbon audits on the web every year. VMI, as a recognised albert supplier, has taken great strides to reduce its impact on the environment – and continues to do so going forward, wherever and whenever possible, becoming fully, albert-certified carbon neutral for the first time in 2022 and, in just three years, has halved its group carbon emissions. Being more sustainable is possible just by making a few tweaks, such as wrapping cables with recycled paper bands instead of plastic; wrapping
EVERY STEP OF THE WAY Panavision’s prep team, film and digital engineers and lens technicians offer support around the clock
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