BAFTA expands green initiative to film

To coincide with the ‘Greening the Screen’ panel held yesterday (Nov 12), BAFTA has revealed that the UK’s first carbon calculator for the film and television industry, Albert, is now suitable for use by film productions.

Since its launch in Nov 2011, Albert, created by the BBC and administed by BAFTA, has gathered data from 266 TV productions.

Results have revealed that the production of an hour’s on-screen content is responsible for 5.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, the equivilant of one UK citizen at work in one year, with the most significant carbon impacts associated with travel (38%) and the production office (30%).

The findings will now be benchmarked against future years to assess what improvements are being made.

As part of his keynote speech, Tim Cagney [pictured at the event], deputy CEO of the BFI, outlined the measures the BFI is embracing for the adoption of sustainable practices within the film industry, including undertaking an audit of its own sustainable practices across every area of the organisation and adopting BS 8909, the British Standard for film industry sustainability it launched in Cannes in 2011.

The BFI has also refreshed and updated the www.greeningfilm.com website to integrate the Albert calculator, as well as convening and leading the UK-wide film industry sustainability group which has members including Pinewood, BAFTA, BECTU, the Cinema Exhibitors’ Association, Creative Skillset, the Mayor of London’s Office, National Screen Agencies, Directors UK, Film Export UK, Equity, the Production Guild, Film London and others.

“The adoption of more sustainable business practices across the film industry is not just desirable; it is – now more than ever before – essential, and as yesterday’s event highlighted, adapting our approach to make our work more sustainable needn’t be an onerous task,” commented Cagney.