Unseen Sustainability: Meeting Sustainability, Energy Efficiency and Emissions Reduction Objectives in Film Production

Abstract

Visual content, ranging from minute-long videos to feature length movies, are part of all contemporary culture and sustainability is increasingly recognized throughout the global film industry as being good for the environment, good for business and good for people. Multi-year research projects to study energy efficiency, sustainability initiatives and material recycling have been conducted in cooperation with some leading film production companies and institutions in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Using a systems engineering approach, various aspects of location and studio-based film production activities have been investigated. Results of these studies have included quantitative measurement of baseline energy consumption in various stages of film production and have provided background for informed decisions on best practices to improve sustainability throughout the life cycle of films. This paper summarizes some of the outcomes of this on-going research and highlights successful examples of best practices in energy and material consumption and progress towards sustainability improvements in the Canadian and global film industry.

Presenters

Patricia Keen
Student, PhD/Associate Professor, New York Institute of Technology - Vancouver Campus, British Columbia, Canada

Details

Presentation Type

Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Theme

Economic, Social, and Cultural Context

KEYWORDS

Film production; Energy; Materials; Sustainability; Systems engineering; Quantitative measures