Sustainability in creativity: fighting climate change one production at a time
Tags: Climate Change, Sustainability, Climate, Film, Paris Climate Agreement

By Paul Evans, Co-Founder Greenshoot

2020 — a year defined by uncertainty, reflection and transformation — has shone a spotlight on the increasingly urgent need to address the climate emergency — an existential threat to us all and a relentless global pandemic for our natural ecosystems. The trailblazing London Climate Action Week that launched last week was a great opportunity for climate professionals and communities to unite to develop innovative, collective solutions and continue to pave the way forward.

At Greenshoot, we have been reflecting on our own contribution and how we can transform our industry further. For more than 10 years, we have been dedicated to revolutionising production practices on our mission to work towards a carbon-neutral industry, in support of the 2015 Paris Agreement. With president-elect Joe Biden outlining a $1.7 trillion plan to invest in clean-energy in infrastructure over ten years and pledging to rejoin the Paris Agreement on his first day in office, the message couldn’t be clearer: this is a unifying moment requiring a whole society response to the climate emergency. Individuals, leaders, scientists, cultural institutions, policy-makers, professionals and communities are altogether essential to the transition to a net-zero carbon world.

The Greenshoot family is incredibly proud to celebrate a decade of leading and mobilising the creative industries to take action on environmental sustainability and climate change. Fuelled by an ever-growing commitment to innovation — to help the TV, film and advertising production industry shoot sustainably — we are more driven than ever before to continue to shape the creative movement towards environmental and societal prosperity. Showcasing how sustainability in entertainment does not result in a lower ‘wow factor’, but simply requires more conscious operations. Today, as global audiences take in season 4 of Netflix’s smash hit The Crown, we are proud of our role as its sustainability partner ensuring a move through each season towards a carbon-neutral production process.

Founded by myself, production veterans Melanie Dicks and Cathy Green, ever-motivated by a passionate intention to put the planet first, we are honoured to have been the first of our kind globally, becoming a fundamental source of inspiration for our peers and their own sustainability initiatives. Using the new Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG) standards, in 2009 we created the first filming-specific carbon calculator, which subsequently expanded to cover all scopes relevant to fixed businesses, with our fantastic development partner Jane Burston, now MD of the Clean Air Fund. Alongside The Crown, Greenshoot has supported hundreds of commercials for companies Waitrose and John Lewis, IKEA, Tesco, Nike and independent feature films like Lady Macbeth, Jamie The Musical and the upcoming indie, The Eye.

Working to equip the industry with the tools necessary to transform production into a planet positive practice, we recently revamped our website and have released a new innovative pre-production carbon assessment tool. Effectively, the tool gives producers and directors insight into the primary causes of their carbon footprint prior to shooting, so they can take pre-emptive, direct action to reduce their impact.

We also help productions achieve carbon neutrality through in-depth carbon assessments, footprint analysis and an offsetting scheme with our globally-recognised partners, including the United Nations REDD programme; which plants trees in the UK and prevents deforestation in vulnerable regions like the Amazon.

With a hands-on approach, we believe in working at the grassroots of the industry — with the producers and directors of tomorrow — to ensure sustainability is at the root of all production practice. We have been training film makers for the past seven years, helping them get their first break into the film and TV industry as green stewards, and have seen an overwhelming 35% uplift in enquiries in the past six months.

Meanwhile, our Green Screen Environmental Production Programme, a social enterprise launched in 2016 with our partners Film London, has overseen 580 productions, including 495 commercials in 26 countries, reducing their energy consumption, carbon emissions and costs. Our renowned ‘Green Screen certification’ is awarded to productions that qualify for one of three levels; Green, Silver or Gold. We have been thrilled to certify over 515 productions worldwide, with the support of the IPA; the Institute of Practitioners of Advertising. Many of the London boroughs are supporting our Green Screen programme, along with organisations like English Heritage and Network Rail. In London with over 16,000 filming days a year, there was a 17% decrease in carbon emissions in 2019 from the shows that use the Green Screen programme — demonstrating the profound and positive impact it is having across the industry.

We have grown a global network of over 60 production companies and 22 advertising agencies, whose work with iconic brands such as Coca Cola, John Lewis, Amazon, M&S, Tesco, Nike, Audi and Playstation has helped us collectively change the industry standard. Our work on sets such as Sherlock Holmes and Fast and Furious 6 led to the game-changing implementation of the ongoing sustainability programme for Left Bank Pictures, The Crown. Each Green Screen production implements specific sustainability measures, including a training for the whole production, including a Green Steward who also manages the distribution of unwanted production assets to charities — clothes, food and props. Our education, legacy and donations programmes are at the heart of the Green Screen sustainable production process, which, since inception, has enabled over £200,000 worth of clothing, food and props to be donated to charities and schools in the UK and 26 countries.

Reflective of our commitment to a grassroots and equality-driven approach, we provide free sustainable production training for producers, crew and also hold regular Green Steward training days in conjunction with Film London and theMayor of London’s Equal Access Network for individuals from diverse backgrounds. This training has launched the careers of many by helping them get their first break in the production industry; on set of The Crown, Britannia, Quiz, Outlander and numerous commercials. There are now over 390 trained Green Stewards championing sustainable production and sharing Greenshoot’s methodology and ethos with the wider world. The training has supported the real need to enable the UK production industries to be fit for purpose across climate change and sustainable production.

Never has there been a more urgent time for cross sector collaboration. Greenshoot’s crucial work demystifying, assisting and instructing in sustainability, carbon reduction and offsetting is now even more relevant with production slates shifted back and many environmental initiatives stalled. In these unprecedented and uncertain times, people across the world are calling out for change and cooperation.

The creative industries have been presented with an opportunity to lead by example, and to turn intention into action as we build back a better world. Echoing the words of London Mayor Sadiq Khan, “as we recover from Covid-19, we can’t replace one health emergency with another — we need to come out of this crisis embracing a new normal which puts tackling the climate emergency at the heart of everything we do.”

After a decade of innovation Greenshoot stats speak for themselves; 45,000 tonnes of CO2 being removed from the atmosphere, over 500,000 single use plastic bottles saved from use, 13,000 crew engaging and collaboratively growing the initiative, through to a zero waste to landfill policy across 80% of our film sets.

With Joe Biden’s incoming administration, we can all look forward to a more sustainable future and in the words of John Kerry, “It’ll be an honor to work with our allies and partners, alongside rising young leaders in the climate movement, to tackle the climate crisis with the seriousness and urgency it deserves’.