For M&E, Saving Money While Saving the Environment Is Not the Other/Or
It’s easy to get the impression that the film and television industry has largely chosen the low-hanging fruit of sustainability. LED lighting is an environmental and financial benefit: the reduction of trucks, workers, generators and fuel costs has never been a hard sell to manufacturers. Going beyond that, however, requires a new perspective—especially given the current economic climate.
People at every level of productivity have their part to play, but those who live by the tail lights often know that the ability to have good things comes from the top.
Matt Rivet, a partner at Altman Solon, specializes in media and technology, working with companies—from studios to studios and networks to services. streaming—and all the technology that supports them. He also supports investors in media companies and evaluates the commercial benefits of said investments.
“Overall, I think there’s a shift toward stability, broadly,” says Rivet. “The obvious area that everyone is going to is energy use. Other things are waste, water, how you buy, where you buy.”
Taking popular new ideas and making them part of the solution can help drive change, Rivet adds. “One of the things we highlight in our report is travel. A real offer can be one of the things that helps reduce the number of trips that need to be made.”
It’s obvious
Sony Pictures, Rivet says, has run the numbers on at least one production model. He says: “This is not a test we did – it’s Sony Pictures’ Greener World project. “They compare the two products with images shot on location and at the VP studio.
“The comparison in terms of overall emissions was very clear. I don’t know the exact numbers, but it was something like 15-25% lower emissions. The carbon dioxide emissions of the higher quality emissions are high, of course, is far from zero, but it can be reduced by many products.
The many different tasks required for film and television production have always made coordination difficult.
“Media and entertainment are inherently different,” says Rivet. “People go to different places and do different things, and it’s hard to integrate. We’d love to, but it doesn’t work … in our data.” , there is a lack of awareness of the benefits of the process. Sixty-eight percent said that was why they did not prioritize sustainability. Fifty-six percent have said that there is not enough incentive, or high initial costs.”
“Media and entertainment don’t have to be the first adopters,” says Rivet. “Other industries will go there. The future here may be moderate change over time. “
However, that time may not be now or next week.
“I would be remiss if I didn’t remind you that M&E companies are under a lot of financial pressure,” Rivet says. their costs. if you do it for example, there is a long-term benefit for the operation because it will create some savings and the draw is that they may be interested in doing those things, but they have to balance that against and the fact of working their business. ”
The Buy-In
Ben Stapleton, executive director of the US Green Building Council in California, has seen firsthand how important boardroom-level support can be. Despite that support, Stapleton advises that getting the most out of any performance project often means more than just exchanging tools.
“It’s about working these ideas into production from scratch, not as an afterthought,” he says. Generators are an example … people use generators and run cables, they are expensive and dangerous and create a carbon footprint. You can provide power with small batteries around the output, save money on cables and have a safe set. ”
Expanding the scope of over-the-top efforts doesn’t mean they need to cost more, Stapleton continues. Another idea involves the direct use of materials such as wood used to make temporary units.
“Obviously, waste is an important area,” Stapleton says. “How do you approach recycling, reuse of materials? It’s not just creating new materials and new environments. There’s a lot of waste that comes out of the process.” that – how is that waste managed? Yes, it’s a sustainable principle to find out how we can recycle, but it will also be cheaper to recycle.”
However, the need to do so requires support throughout the organization. “Part of the challenge is – let’s say – you’re the person managing the design and the resources,” Stapleton adds. If you can’t get buy-in from someone who deals with the financial and operational side, they will come to you and say: ‘What do you want here? That’s not how we handle things.’ If people have been there [trained] and understand why these decisions need to be made, It does not add cost and delay. ”
Moving to the Grid
Mark Thornton, a lighting specialist in London, has enough experience at the end of film production to put him in a good position to explore new ideas. The knowledge that power lines run under many of the city’s streets – often two meters away, but out of reach – led Thornton to become involved in the project to provide access to that power in the areas important.
Thornton recalls: “I got in touch with Film London who were talking about putting this original poster in Victoria Park. “They had already done most of the work on it, so I joined the interview team and The location is great, but here are some suggestions for the box itself. .”
Power taken from the grid will often be cleaner – and certainly quieter – than power produced on site.
Thornton adds: “That was the point of being in Victoria Park. “They had a lot of entertainment and live events, concerts. They were trying to make sure that people could use the post office—it’s basically a big box—instead of bringing in generators. The issue is not only sustainability and environmental impact, but also noise. Even if we go the route of having battery generators, we have to charge them somewhere. The idea is that a proposal can go to Film London and say, ‘We have a 25kW battery that we would like to charge regularly’ and it will be up to them to cover the costs.
Rules on the Road
That kind of idea requires no new technology and relatively little investment; as often, the obstacles are systemic. Here, Thornton talks about one idea that seems to combine high utility with low disruption, but has found itself tied up in red tape.
“One of the ideas is that we get EV charging stations. There’s a company that makes portable batteries … they use Tesla power packs and brains so they can go to a supercharger. of Tesla – but when you do that in central London, it doesn’t [license plate]so it doesn’t have an account.
M&E companies are under a lot of financial pressure. They look for opportunities to improve operations and save money on their costs. ”
— Matt Rivet, Altman Solon
“It’s the rules that seem like they’re getting in the way,” Thornton thought. “Infrastructure is possible but there’s someone with a pen somewhere who says you can’t do that. As an industry, we’re doing very well, moving towards LED light sources. Physics is it’s changing, but if you look across the country, there’s renewables, wind power, wave power, once they start phasing out all the natural gas… There’s a great website called Gridwatch that. I used a number of times A few to highlight there [U.K.’s] energy is out, and the closer natural gas gets to zero, the better off the country will be.”
Even if those big-picture issues are addressed at the community level, Thornton points out, there are still very accessible ways to explore. In particular, he proposes one general principle that will be painfully familiar to people with single-camera drama—and the talismanic drive for total stability.
He concludes by saying: “There are a few people who do not know what they want. “It’s about planning—across the board, from personnel management to ordering equipment to logistics. If we could plan, if someone in the food chain could make a decision in advance, we could plan better. The problem we have as an industry is that everyone leaves it to the last minute.
#Saving #Money #Saving #Environment #OtherOr