Screen industry not green enough yet, says a new report
A sustainability audit for Goalpost Pictures’ telemovie Panic at Rock Island found that more planning is required to achieve a lower environmental impact.
“There are some things in there that I’m very proud of but, to be brutally frank, there are some other outcomes that are quite disturbing. Early engagement is crucial to better cost and environmental outcomes,” said managing director Ben Grant.
“There’s been a lot of talk about ‘greening’ the industry over the past couple of years but there hasn’t been a lot of clear direction on the best way forward. At Goalpost, we decided the best way to genuinely review our practices was to have a thorough and professional analysis done during production under real-time conditions, when everyone is in the thick of things and operating at lightning speed and under pressure,” he added.
The company commissioned GreenShoot Pacific to prepare the audit. The film, shot last year and set to screen on the Nine Network, required hundreds of extras and a full live concert rig to be transported to the location in the middle of Sydney Harbour. A total of 63.85 tonnes of carbon emissions was recorded, including power (24 percent), accommodation (4 percent), and travel and transport of cast, crew and equipment (72 percent).
The report found that the production company had in place policies to manage traffic, noise, waste and the local environment. It commended Goalpost for its salvage efforts – some sets were deconstructed and recycled or donated.
However, it also found that better allocation of time, money, resources and communications could help achieve a diversion rate of 100 percent away from landfills. One of the recommendations is the development of a procurement policy to direct all departments to purchase sustainably.
GreenShoot managing director Jane Fullerton-Smith said in a statement that although time is often a luxury for screen productions, environmental knowledge and practices must become second nature to embed sustainability along with creative and financial concerns.
Other Australian productions have also looked at their environmental impact; Love the Beast and My Year Without Sex were carbon-neutral projects by offsetting their emissions.
