Mayor wants new guide to make London the green film capital

‘Green Screen’, is a collaboration between the London Mayor and Film London  – the organisation responsible for promoting and developing London as a major international film-making capital. It promises to offer practical information on how to cut emissions and save money at the same time through reduced energy bills.

‘Green Screen’ also quantifies the carbon footprint of the industry for the first time, calculating that the screen production industry in London alone produces around 125,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year – equivalent to approximately 24,000 London homes.

Boris Johnson has already said he wants London to become “the electric car capital of the world”. Today, while at the C40 Summit in Seoul discussing climate issues and opportunities for creating green collar jobs with other city leaders, he said the film industry can play an important role in creating the new low carbon economy. "In a sector known for being imaginative and forward-looking, this is another area that studios, producers and creative talent can take the lead," he commented.

Film London chief executive Adrian Wootton, who was among those launching ‘Green Screen’ at the Cannes International Film Festival, added: "London is one of the busiest productions cities in the world, so it is massively important the industry plays its part to reduce carbon emissions in the capital. The film and broadcast industries are also in a unique position to inspire and educate audiences of millions with this vital message.

"Making London the greenest place to film also has a commercial advantage as many leading directors and actors make decisions about the projects they work on based on their impact to the environment."

British actress Emma Thompson added: "It is really great that the film and TV industry has come together to show leadership but also take real action on this critical issue as it's time for warm words to translate into action and as of today I will be making changes in my own working practice to reduce my carbon footprint and fully play my part in helping make our industry greener and cleaner."

To help production companies increase efficiencies and save money, the guide provides a large number of wide-ranging and practical tips, some of them backed up with case studies.

For example, it suggests companies should recycle sets, props and costumes and cites Lesbian Vampire Killers as an example of how this can be done. It says Skyline Productions accessed a new service called Scenery Salvage which collects unwanted scenery from a location or studio and then sorts it into reusable, recyclable and non-recyclable material streams. Reusable items, subject to production approval, are photographed, catalogued and put on the company’s website for re-sale back to the industry.

The company also operates PropSupermarket, a facility for warehousing unwanted props and selling them back to other productions. The guide suggests this approach not only reduces the amount of waste going to landfill, but offers production companies a potential money-making opportunity.

In conjunction with the ‘Green Screen’ guide, Film London and the London Mayor have launched a carbon calculator, developed by the Carbon Trust, to help individual productions identify how much carbon and waste they produce and where best to make reductions. For the London screen industry as a whole, 40 per cent of emissions come from studios, 28 per cent from TV and film production activities, 17 per cent from location shoots, and 15 per cent from post production.

Green Screen is just one of a number of sector-specific campaigns designed to help meet the London Mayor’s ambitious aim to cut the capital’s emissions by 60 per cent by 2025 and follows recently-published Green Music and Green Theatre Guides.

The guide is the latest phase in the Green Screen initiative, kicked off by Boris Johnson’s predecessor, Ken Livingstone, and Film London in 2008. Supporters of Green Screen include 3 Mills Studios, AEAT, BBC, Carbon Trust, Channel 5, Ealing Studios, Framestore, Greening the Screen, New Zealand, ITVP, London Remade, National Trust, Pinewood Studios, Skyline Productions, Sky, The London Filming Partnership and Working Title Films.