2025: WHAT’S IN STORE?
NEAL ROMANEK CO-FOUNDER, THE FLINT
T his will be a make-or-break year for sustainability in our industry. As climate impacts continue to diminish production days and push up insurance rates, we’re in a race against physics to stop the use of fossil fuels across all sectors and maintain a manageable future. Global film and TV production remains very much affected by what goes on in the US. The UK film industry largely provides services for US-based producers, with some pioneering practices. While sustainability got a bump under President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the newly elected US president is flooding the incoming government with science deniers and fossil fuel executives. High- profile strategy documents are prioritising
the closing of major scientific offices like the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This could radically impact the way businesses approach sustainability. The president-elect has promised to go after media outlets once he’s in office, so they’re starting to tread carefully. Even prior to the election, top media companies – including The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times – went out of their way to show friendly faces towards the incoming president. In December, he brought a suit against ABC News , which the company immediately settled. We shouldn’t be too surprised to see major media companies roll back sustainability conversations.
DEI and sustainability policies are being considered vulnerabilities – targets for the incoming administration. Legislation can create business changes very speedily, but the reverse is true too – if businesses aren’t required to invest in our common future, most won’t. Big workshops for US productions, like the UK and Canada, will need to do some soul searching in the months ahead. It’s going to be easy for the global industry to use the imminent changes in the US as an excuse to backtrack – the old ‘if [insert country] isn’t bothering, why should we?’ excuse. But this year will provide an incredible opportunity for production centres outside of the US to become hubs for sustainable innovation.
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