Report: "Sustainability in Production" (EFA)

European Film Academy | "Close-Up" Magazine | Winter 2019

The re-usable black water bottle of Spain-based production service company Fresco Film is a minor Instagram celebrity. Like the garden gnome from AMÉLIE, the Fresco bottle has been photographed at tourist sites around the world, including the Colosseum in Rome, Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and the skyline of Bangkok.

“It’s a symbol,” explains Esmeralda Ruiz, Fresco’s Head of Marketing and Environmental Sustainability, who says this one conservation effort has helped avoid the use of more than 250,000 plastic water bottles on film sets in 2018 and 2019. Fresco slips a note explaining its sustainability efforts inside each of the bottles it passes out to crews – including on projects like HBO’s GAME OF THRONES, Sony’s SNATCH and Netflix’s WARRIOR NUN – “so whoever uses that bottle is aware of how much they can do.”

Awareness of the impact of every individual action is a key component to motivate more productions to “go green,” say sustainability experts across Europe, as is sharing information about success stories and best practices.

While there are plenty of resources available online to help European filmmakers take the initiative, the impetus has to come from the makers and backers of the movies themselves, and efforts toward reducing a film’s carbon footprint can and should start at the earliest stages of production – and be measurable afterwards.

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EFA Close-Up - Winter 2019.pdf

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