“Build a long-term plan, and do some stuff now” – that was one of the key messages addressing sustainability in cinemas coming from “Greening The Big Screen Experience”, the two-day conference (March 21-22) presented by the UK Cinema Association (UKCA).
These were the words of Martin Waller, group operations performance and development director at Odeon Cinemas Group, who added that OCG has set up a new sustainability team with staff hires to measure base level of emissions at the company and map out a sustainability plan. However, “Everybody talks very forward-looking, and the reality is we have to do some stuff now.”
Waller’s comments were echoed by other speakers across the event. And the fact that the UKCA, for its annual get-together of cinema members at London’s Picturehouse Central, chose to make sustainability the exclusive topic of the 2023 edition tells its own story about the increasing focus the exhibition industry is now paying to the issue.
The changing regulatory environment, corporate responsibility, internal pressure from a typically youthful cinema work force and the rising costs of energy all emerged as key levers for more sustainable practices in cinemas.
And speakers agreed that this is not an issue where cinemas should be competing, but instead sustainability is a “pre-competitive” issue, with exhibitors coming together to agree common ground on how emissions should be measured, as well as sharing best practice.
In addition to Odeon, representatives from Vue International, the Cineworld-owned Picturehouse Cinemas and a range of independents shared their current efforts on sustainability, with a particular emphasis on energy reduction and efficiency, and on waste management, reuse and recycling.
Immediate action needed
The exhibitors agreed that while it’s vital to have a complete understanding of the full carbon footprint of your business so that you can devise a coherent strategy for reduction, it’s also important not to make that complex evaluation an excuse to delay immediate action.
In the case of Vue, group facilities manager Mike Flint shared that “low-hanging fruit” provided quick wins for the exhibitor – for example, voltage optimisation, which smooths out the current provided by the national grid, producing energy savings.
Waterless urinals save on energy, water and maintenance. And variable frequency drives allow the cinema to locally adjust fan motor speeds, offering energy savings from 30-50% in HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems, explained Flint. Intelligent business management systems are key to creating efficiencies – for cleaning as well as customer-facing operation – so that rooms are only illuminated and heated/ventilated as needed.
Statistics presented at the event showed that HVAC is the big energy user for most cinema operators – typically accounting for 65-70%. This measure does not include external factors such as the carbon footprint of customer transportation to the cinema.
On the first day of the conference, a spotlight on the Deposit Return Scheme, which is being implemented for beverage bottles across the UK beginning with Scotland in August 2023, drew the most interaction from the audience – reflecting exhibitor anxiety around issues including storage of bottles to be returned. Louise Wright, commercial sustainability manager for Britvic Soft Drinks, highlighted how the scheme will differ in scope in the UK across Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as also in Ireland.
A session on the distributor perspective, which included panellists from both Disney and Studiocanal, focused in particular on digital delivery of films, obviating the need for couriering of hard drives to cinemas, and the transition from physical to digital marketing materials. Stuart Henderson, head of UK marketing at Studiocanal, who also heads up a UK distributors’ task force on sustainability, revealed that for the company’s latest release – What’s Love Got To With It? – more than 90% of deliveries to UK cinemas were digital, “which even a year ago wouldn’t have been the case”.
Carly Brown, EMEA director of theatrical operations at Disney, highlighted the challenge of data storage with the energy and water needed to keep cloud systems cool, and the attendant carbon footprint. Efficiencies can be created in the storage and delivery of picture and audio assets so that common elements across versions are not duplicated.
Geraldine Moloney, senior advisor at the UK’s Film Distributors’ Association, said that prior to the pandemic, the carbon footprint generated by talent travel for film premieres, events and publicity “seemed almost insurmountable”, with companies resistant to any change in the traditional model. While the pandemic saw a dramatic change in behaviours, “looking over the last few months, we are getting back to that pattern of travelling”.
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