vision
“You have to think about the carbon footprint, and you have to think about the cultural impact. Both are important, but this industry is uniquely positioned in that it has a big cultural impact.”
— Sam Reed, Executive Director, Sustainable Entertainment Alliance
Spotlight
Dear Reader,
For me, loving a good (or decent, or even just plain crappy) TV show is one thing. Last summer, we covered the rise in climate change references and storylines in mainstream movies and shows, something I was beginning to witness as a general audience.
But lately I’ve also been thinking about the fact that the shows I devour come with their own carbon footprint, just like any other product we consume: Producing a media work requires energy, transportation, filming and audio equipment, food, costumes, props, and many other resources.
Just as filmmakers and studios are increasingly considering how to incorporate climate issues into their projects, the film industry is also grappling with the challenge of decarbonizing behind the scenes.
“The largest source of emissions for our industry, at least on the production side, is fuel,” says Sam Reid, executive director of the Sustainable Entertainment Alliance. This includes vehicles that transport equipment, catering, and people to set, but also a source of emissions that you might not immediately think of: diesel generators. Television and film productions often shoot in remote locations and rely on trailer sets. Diesel generators have long been the industry standard for powering these sets. And diesel is a particularly polluting fuel, producing air pollution with a variety of health impacts.
The Sustainable Entertainment Alliance (formerly the Sustainable Production Alliance), a coalition of major studios and streamers working towards industry sustainability, offers tools like a carbon calculator for production and checklists for implementing sustainable practices like donating leftover craft service food, building sets with responsibly sourced plywood and buying second-hand items for set decor.
One major initiative is replacing old diesel generators with cleaner alternative energy sources such as hydrogen and solar power, which have recently begun to be used at some production sites.
In many cases, the switch to greener methods isn’t just about helping the climate; these modern technologies are healthier and more efficient, too. “Alternatives to diesel generators have a lot of advantages, not to mention the emissions — they’re also quieter and less polluting,” Reid says. That means these generators can be placed closer to the “video village” (where directors sit on a film set and watch the action from various monitors), alleviating some of the need for long cables.
The alliance, which already counts big names like Disney, Amazon Studios, Netflix, and Paramount Pictures among its members, is working to expand its membership. Reid sees growing interest in decarbonizing the entertainment industry, thanks in part to advocacy from unions like the Producers Guild of America, which helped create the Sustainable Production Checklist. (For more stories on how studios are incorporating climate goals into production, see The Hollywood Reporter’s 2022 Sustainability Report.)
The coalition and others have advocated for more climate change coverage on television, but in other parts of the industry, the distinction between what happens behind the scenes and in front of the camera is a little blurred, creating a unique opportunity to show audiences models of decarbonization and sustainability: reality TV, which to me is both my truest and most guilty pleasure.
“It’s a great year for sustainability in TV,” said Cyre Zezo, executive producer and founder of Reality of Change, an initiative that highlights sustainability and climate storytelling opportunities in unscripted entertainment, including documentaries, reality shows, and game and competition shows.
On average, unscripted shows tend to have a smaller environmental footprint than scripted shows, Zezo says. Their producers might be grappling with similar issues, like the need for clean energy to run equipment on remote locations. But generally, the clean production methods of reality TV and documentaries simply reflect how real people live their lives.
For example, when I interviewed him last year, Zezo drew attention to a compost bin on the set of a cooking show. A recipe for disasterand how the crew intentionally featured electric cars during filming. And last year, Netflix announced a partnership with General Motors to use more electric vehicles in shows like The Hunger Games. Love is blind and Queer Eye.
“I’m going to make a prediction, and I hope it’s correct, that over the next few years we’re going to continue to see more and more rhetoric around climate and sustainability in the region,” Zezo said.
I asked Zezo, Reed, and others to share some recent shows and movies that incorporate sustainability in new or interesting ways. While these series and movies might not all seem climate-related, they could all help decarbonize your summer viewing list.
Clean power on set
BridgertonThat’s right, readers. This inspiring romance series set in Regency London has adopted a more modern approach to sustainability in the production of its third season. On a set tour, two of the show’s actors explain how the cast’s trailers and work trucks are all powered by hydrogen-powered units supplied by British company GeoPura. The production has also eliminated beef from its craft services because it would have too large a carbon footprint.
The DecameronThe upcoming drama (premiering July 25th) is loosely inspired by the short story collection of the same name and tells the story of a wealthy aristocrat and his servants who live a dissolute retreat in the Italian countryside to avoid the spread of the bubonic plague. The show is also committed to clean energy in its production, with Netflix saying the show’s base camp runs on batteries charged by solar panels.
Bosch: LegacyThe third show to replace diesel generators on set, this is the next chapter in the seven-season police procedural drama that follows the career of Detective Harry Bosch. The show was one of the first to use mobile battery units designed by a company called Moxion.
Grab a cake and sit at the barThe film, due for release in 2023, stars Yara Shahidi, Odessa Ajion and Bette Midler and explores themes of friendship, life in your twenties and, as the title suggests, cake. Moxion’s mobile clean technology batteries were also used on set.
The Gilded AgeFor the period drama’s second season, producers took a more holistic approach to moving the show away from diesel power. “They actually installed electric lines; they installed utility poles and power systems in the backlot area where we were filming,” Heidi Kindberg, vice president of sustainability at Warner Bros. Discovery, told The Hollywood Reporter. That allowed them to avoid using generators while shooting the second season in New York.
True Detective: Night CountryThe critically acclaimed crime drama’s fourth season is set in the Arctic and was filmed in Iceland, a country that has access to a nearly 100% renewable energy grid. In remote locations where power was needed, the show trialed an electric battery generator called the Benerator. According to a report by the Producers Guild of America, the show’s creators reduced waste by installing recycling and compost bins and water stations around the set. This season also features climate-related storylines.
A subtle solution on the screen
homemadeNow in its fourth season, the series follows Atlanta-based farmer and food activist Jamila Norman as she helps people transform their backyards into urban farms while discussing the many benefits farms and gardens bring to communities. Zezo loves the show because it invites viewers in and shows that anyone can do what they see on screen.
Architecture without boundariesThe quirky architecture show follows father-daughter duo Jared (“Cappy”) and Alex Capp as they tackle custom design and construction projects, primarily in their communities in South Dakota. Zezo noted that the sustainability theme is subtle, showcasing the use of non-traditional or upcycled materials like power tools and shipping containers.
OMG FashunCo-hosted by Julia Fox and Lo Roche, the competition show is about upcycling fashion and is a cross between Project Runway and Chopped. Zezo said the show is very on-message about sustainability and reuse without being stuffy or preachy. “It’s very sharp and creative and just really, really fun.”
Family SwitchWell, it’s a holiday movie, so you might want to hold off on watching it for a few months (or for those nights when you need something cozy). Freaky FridayNetflix says the Star Wars-inspired family romp starring Jennifer Garner and Ed Helms was powered by electric vehicles. Four electric passenger vehicles transported crew members, one carried catering and production items, and an electric pickup truck pulled the director’s trailer. EVs also made appearances on screen, with the family’s Polestar 2 appearing in at least one brief scene.
— Claire Elise Thompson
Parting words
In March, an advocacy group called the Gas Leak Project launched an awareness campaign about the health hazards of gas stoves in the form of a trailer for a fictional reality TV show. Hot and Toxicparodies a style of show in which a house full of hot, melodramatic young bachelors is the home of an unsuspecting new homeowner, and the bachelors are personified forms of the carcinogenic chemicals that spew from her stove.
