How to Make Movies Without a Huge Carbon Footprint

Image source, BBC/Mammoth Screen/Mike Hogan

The green memo sent by the production team of u program me Poldark requested that the location service use low carbon lighting suppliers and reusable batteries whenever possible.

The request was vague and unclear expectations. But these requests are becoming more common and reflect the film and television industry's growing awareness of its carbon dioxide emissions.

In film and television production, the main sources of carbon emissions are transport and energy. According to the Screen New Deal report, the average production of a big budget film produces 2,840 tonnes of CO2 equivalent. It would take 3,709 acres of forest per year to absorb that amount.

Half of that comes from fuel, 30% from energy utilities and 16% from air travel.

Louise Smith focuses on transportation and energy when advising a film or television production on reducing its carbon footprint. She has worked on films including the latest James Bond installment No Time to Die and Jurassic World: Dominion. Unusually for people in this position, his background is in environmental science, rather than film and television.

"Usually, I try to get me involved as early as possible," says Ms. Smith, sustainability consultant at Neptune Environmental Solutions. filming to see power or mobile power needs. For filming on set, the studio ideally already has a renewable electricity contract.