A Recap of the Sustainability For Film Series: Sustainability 101
On August 29, 2024, The Chicago Film Office and ECOFIXR hosted the webinar, “Sustainability For Film Series: Sustainability 101,” marking the first of a three-part series aimed at promoting sustainable practices within the film industry. Jonah Zeiger, head of the Chicago Film Office, opened the event by articulating the pervasive necessity of sustainable growth in the industry. He primed the conversation with an image worth sitting on: the carbon footprint of an average large-scale shoot is equivalent to 11 trips to the moon; it would take 165 trees a whole year to absorb the CO2 from a single advertising shoot.
The panel featured prominent stewards of sustainability within the industry, including Jessie Nagel and Kat Fris, two of the co-founders of Green The Bid. They discussed the baseline measures of sustainability in film, like using renewable energy, limiting or re-envisioning transportation methods, reducing on-set waste, and incorporating eco-conscious narratives as a normalized practice within cinematic worldbuilding.
As addressed by the GTB co-founders, some of the benefits of adopting sustainable practices include increasing the life cycle of props/materials, mitigating risk, and opening up the potential for recognition from clients, stakeholders, and audiences. Nagel outlined Green The Bid’s mission to provide free resources and frameworks (such as coordination with industry stakeholders and best practice guides) to help the industry embrace sustainability. She emphasized the importance of thinking of sustainability as an actual department within film production – with the same necessity that a film requires development, cameras, editing, or distribution.
Kat Fris articulated the crucial role producers play in implementing sustainability on and off set. She believes that producers have the responsibility to educate themselves and their teams about sustainability, to incorporate initiatives into project bids (with 1-3% of the budget allocated for green measures), and to use tools like the Green The Bid resources and the PGA Production guide. She provided a detailed example of a sustainability budget breakdown, covering aspects like labor, rentals, composting, recycling, and transportation.
Ellen White, founder of EcoFixr, discussed the role of a sustainability coordinator. She explained that these coordinators act as advocates for sustainability, managing tasks such as data collection, ensuring green technology usage, and overseeing waste management. The coordinator’s role extends through the shoot’s lifecycle, from planning to post-production, including producing sustainability impact reports that detail waste diversion, community contributions, and carbon footprint analysis. White showed how hiring a sustainability coordinator can simplify the seemingly-daunting task of making a production sustainable, and urged filmmakers to consider them as a non-negotiable aspect of their project.
Emily Plunkett, founder of Adgreen, brought up the importance of carbon calculation on a film shoot. She introduced a global calculator from the Ad Association to the webinar audience, which measures the carbon footprint of various aspects of a production – including travel, equipment, and waste. By analyzing this data, productions can identify trends and make adjustments to reduce their environmental impact.
This first part of the Sustainability For Film Series brought forth the achievable sustainability initiatives that filmmakers can implement into their projects. The speakers and their insights urge filmmakers to reckon, revise, and renew. With small transformations and growing resources to amplify them, it is without a doubt that the film industry has the capability for an environmentally-sound presence under this moment of climate crisis.
Watch the full webinar recording here.
Join upcoming sessions of the webinar series here.
Check out the wide range of resources available from Green The Bid, Ecofixer, and Adgreen.
