A Sincere Story in tune with Eco-responsible Video Production

We began preparations for the shoot in March of 2023, and it lived up to expectations for energy conservation over the 4-day shoot in June on the French Basque coast with a crew of 40 people. We are proud to share this unprecedented collective venture with you.

Helping each team stay in tune with our goals for this production was a major part of this project. To maintain awareness for each team member, we posted information sheets that everyone could use as guidelines. This information kept everyone on the same page and made this project a success. Throughout the production, we also collected data on energy consumption for each team. The information we collected was then shared with team members and partners so everyone was in the loop.

The eco-referent performed their role in raising awareness about the issue of waste, shedding light on the importance of adopting practical measures to conserve energy, and mitigating the environmental repercussions stemming from digital practices. This not only highlighted the environmental aspect but also underscored the overarching significance of responsible resource utilization.

It goes without saying that craft services can create a lot of waste. Fortunately, we were able to cut down this as well:
1. Organic, local, and sustainable food
2. Canteen located near shooting location - on-site delivery
3. Rental of reusable cutlery and plates
4. Offered fish and white meat options to eliminate red meat from the menu and further reduce the carbon footprint
5. Uneaten meals were collected and distributed by the Red Cross
6. Coffee beans: eliminated all pods from the set (saving around 3
pods/person/day)
7. Use of individual reusable bottles for water available at the ‘zero-plastic’ control table
8. Rental of water fountains for filling reusable bottles

While equipment, post-production, wardrobe, and design on set can cause high energy consumption and waste, we used the steps below to dramatically reduce this throughout the production:

Equipment and Post-production
1. Replaced high-consumption bulbs with low-energy LEDs and used natural light when possible
2. Used a 5000kW energy box charged by solar panels
3. Limited battery usage and used rechargeable batteries
4. For file transfers and to optimize digital exchanges, the data were stored in a single location (cloud) and locally in order to avoid the multiplication of e-mail dispatches, thus creating geo-redundancy

Wardrobe and Set Design
1. 50% organic and/or certified organic materials used
2. 90% reusable accessories
3. Costumes and unused items were returned, while some of the costumes were donated to the film crew, the rest being put back into circulation in a virtuous circular economy

Through our efforts, at the end of the shoot, 90% of the waste was returned, reused, recycled, or composted.

In order to ensure we were effectively using sustainable practices; we reported our data to relevant organizations for thorough auditing. We worked with agencies like AETO (ateo.eco) and A Better Prod (abetterprod.com) to be certain we met our goals related to carbon emissions and more. Additionally, the calculation tools Bilan Carbone® and Carbon'Clap Calculator were also used to evaluate carbon emissions and the overall eco-production score is being evaluated by AFNOR (a French government agency). The agroforestry project helped to further offset our carbon footprint by planting trees as we’re reporting to AFNOR so that we can make sure everything is as sustainable as possible.

To meet the challenges presented by this project, tenacity was key, especially in the case of data collection for every detail, every hour, from beginning to end. Invoices, expense claims, certificates, meal lists, photos, emails, tickets—every action needed official evidence to validate the rating criteria.

Some Key Figures to Summarize the Project
1. 4-day shoot with 2 sets and 1 campaign across 7 media formats
2. Total CO₂ footprint: 23.84 T-CO2 eq.
3. CO₂ footprint/day of shooting: 5.96 T-CO2 eq.

* The data from tentpole productions showed an average carbon footprint of 3,370 metric tons – or about 33 metric tons per shooting day.¹⁾
* Figures calculated according to the standards of the Sustainable Production Alliance (SPA) consortium in the US.
1) https://greenproductionguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/SPA-Carbon-Emissions-Report.pdf