SUSTAINABLE FUTURE COMMITTEE PRO-TIPS

DIRECTOR: Pre-Production, Production, Post

Be a Leader in sustainability at every stage of the production.

The DGA Sustainable Future Committee works to empower DGA TEAMS with a climate action plan to promote clean energy and decarbonize our work and workplace as our #1 priority. We also prioritize reduction of the plastic and landfill waste we generate everywhere we go. Every production has a unique footprint and achievable goals can be collectively agreed upon. On one hand, everything we do has a carbon footprint — but that also means there's a sustainability opportunity in every department and every choice we make.

As a DIRECTOR your position of leadership empowers you to become a natural force for positive change. Given our global climate crisis, adhering to sustainability guidelines is as important as following safety and harassment guidelines.

Be ambitious but never despair at not achieving everything. Every effort shifts the meter toward a sustainable future for our industry, our families, and our world.

There’s no limit to what we can achieve together.

• Communicate interest in sustainability to studio leadership and to your creative and production executives. In addition, Studio Sustainability Executives are often not allowed to contact Directors, but they feel valued when Directors contact them. We have seen that this level of filmmaker contact and demonstrated interest carries a message of significant weight up to higher levels of our industry, even the C-suite, where we are significantly in need of sustainability support.
• Inspire all departments to find creative options offering lower environmental impacts. Can you tell your story with the elements you need and, at the same time, reduce your carbon footprint? Ask your ADs and department heads, what is the biggest challenge from a sustainability perspective? A week of night shoots? Several company moves? That giant set build? The explosions? Once you know the biggest challenges, a small rewrite or adjustment to your approach can make a huge difference to the planet.

• Ask your producers and the DGA production team to utilize available resources to create and implement a sustainability plan to include clean energy, paperless production, food donations, waste management, recycling and composting, and elimination of single-use plastics (especially water bottles). More info on each of these areas below.
• Promote the hiring of a Sustainability Supervisor and on set ECO PAs to cover the communication and management of sustainable practices. The Sustainability Supervisor begins at the start of prep to coordinate and can support best practices across all departments, manage clean energy infrastructure, and communicate the sustainability goals and progress on your production. This person can also ensure that Eco solutions are vetted and not coming forward as a form of greenwashing. This is different from an “ECO PA” which is an entry level crew hire who supports the moment-to-moment functions of the set and production office under the guidance of the Supervisor. Companies providing Sustainable Production Services include Earth Angel and Green Spark Group. These and other “for hire” services are a simple solution should your studio not offer infrastructure and resources. Discuss making this a line item in your budget with your Line Producer.

• Communicate your support for a production-wide sustainability plan. Let the crew know you value sustainable choices and support making a plan that is achievable for every department. Even a small gesture or just saying that this issue matters to you empowers the whole cast and crew to do better. And conversely, your silence can be a huge hurdle for folks trying to promote sustainability on the set. Mention it in a meeting. Write a letter. Make an announcement at the safety meeting.
• Whether directing a stand-alone episode, a feature, or a series where you are EP, a letter can be sent out to cast and crew at the beginning of your show to begin engagement.Use this as a template and make it your own: SAMPLE LETTER Tailor it to the specifics of your production and put it in your own voice.
• Address the crew on the first day of prep, first day of shoot, and first day of post-production acknowledging the global climate crisis, your commitment to sustainable production, and the importance of everyone working as sustainably as they possibly can. Invite collaboration and let them feel your passion for this work.
• Positive Outcomes: Look for wins. They're everywhere. If you find a green solution that ALSO makes the movie better, gives back to the community, saves the production money, or makes someone's job easier or more fun – then that solution is more likely to catch on and spread and make a huge difference in the long run.

• Encourage and support your directorial team and crew to find opportunities for sustainable onscreen behaviors, e.g., in background action, props and set decoration, costumes, and electric picture vehicles. Normalize characters engaging in sustainability fundamentals: “Refuse. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle, and the use of Clean Energy.” Highlight decision-making where characters make sustainable choices.
• Provide Background reusable shopping bags instead of plastic, reusable water bottles, reusable straws, and coffee containers instead of single use plastic water and disposable cups. Avoid all on-camera single use plastics.
• For on-camera picture vehicles use electric vehicles, bikes, and scooters.
• Encourage everyone to read existing Sustainability Onscreen Tip sheets. (See “Climate Storytelling Resources” in RESOURCE section.)

• Support the use of a carbon calculator to measure your film/tv show’s carbon footprint. Carbon reporting is starting to be regulated by governments, and studios are preparing for this. Green Production Guide offers simple, industry-standard Carbon Calculation tools. Production Accounting can handle this with the support of a Sustainable Supervisor or the POC. Sometimes just requesting that carbon calculation be tracked on your production is enough to make it happen. It is not complicated for the accounting dept to achieve.

• Energy comes at a cost to the budget and our climate crisis. We are now in a transition to clean energy moving toward electrification and removal of diesel generators from our sets. Encourage the production to make a clean power plan in pre-production. This prep may be new to many on your crew, but it is where our entire industry is heading. Challenge and inspire your departments to rethink business as usual.
• The Emissions/Cost Optimizer (tutorial here) is a user-friendly excel doc to calculate the emissions and cost analysis of Diesel Generators vs Clean Energy. How close are the budget numbers really between dirty energy and clean tech? This excel doc is a great way to challenge optics and institutional thinking. Help your teams understand what emissions you are all willing to accept — and discover serendipitous savings from clean energy alternatives. Grid-ties, battery stacks, right-sizing generators, solar power, and renewable diesel are key examples. While not the Director’s job, know these tools exist to help your team discover the best possible price with maximum climate benefit. Know that a win-win is possible.
• Collaborate with your DP, UPM, and Locations team in supporting a clean power plan based on the unique circumstances of your production. Encourage them to ”right-size” any diesel generators that can't be eliminated. Studies show that on average, 80% of diesel generators are run at less than 20% of capacity, where they burn least efficiently. Low output is where Diesel generators run the dirtiest. We are over-powering and thus overspending and creating unnecessary carbon emissions. Encourage use of smaller, electric, and appropriate size generators on set and base camp.

• Support the use of renewable diesel, battery stacks, and grid power wherever possible to minimize the amount of diesel fuel used to power the sets.
• Collaborate to support LED lighting, and the turning off of lighting setups & translights when not in use.

• Work with the Production Designer, Director of Photography, and Producing team to encourage circularity (re-use) and the re-purposing of sets.
• Support your design teams and department heads in their efforts to use sustainable materials.
• Discuss overall re-use in Production, Art Direction, Construction, Costume Design, Set Dressing and Props. Empower your art department to design and build for re-use and ultimately for donation.
• At the end of the production, request that sets, props, materials, and costumes are donated to local non-profit organizations such as schools, theater groups, and shelters.

• Encourage teams to place visual reminders around office and workspaces to remind staff and crew to reduce, recycle and re-use. Make it easy to comply in the office, on set and on location.
• Encourage the Office, Locations, Craft Service and Catering departments to create a responsible waste management plan that includes office and on set recycling — and composting. More than half of all landfill methane (an even more potent greenhouse gas than CO₂) is produced by food waste (US EPA). Find a local garbage hauler who supports your waste management plan.
• In addition to composting, recycling, and trash, encourage the set-up of department-specific bins, for example, fabric recycling and donation bins in the costume department, or battery recycling.

• One of the most impactful ways an individual can reduce their carbon footprint is by adopting a plant-based diet. People who follow a plant-based diet account for 75 percent less in greenhouse gas emissions than those who eat more than 3.5 ounces of meat a day (University of Oxford). Ask production to reduce or eliminate red meat from catering, provide plant-based options, and serve sustainably sourced fish and chicken. Check out DefaultVeg an initiative gaining traction in many industries.
• Request the use of real (washable) plates, glassware, and cutlery wherever possible. As a second choice provide only compostable dishware and cutlery.
• Talk to catering about sizing portions appropriately to avoid food waste and have a plan for local food donations for leftovers. Organizations like Every Day Action safely, swiftly and legally rescue left-over catered meals and deliver them to those in need.
• In addition, if you are purchasing a “treat truck” for your cast and crew - look into sustainable options of electric trucks serving food in compostable or reusable containers with portions to diminish food waste.

GO PAPERLESS

• Lead by example. Use paperless software for digital distribution, start paperwork and accounting documents. For script organization consider Scriptation, PDFExpert, or other available software.
• Reduce the amount of paper on your show and implement a “print on demand” policy for printing documents such as location scout schedules, art department floorplans, menus, shooting schedules, sides, etc. Encourage “recycled content” paper whenever possible.

GO PLASTIC-FREE

• Instruct your Prop and AD teams to avoid using single use plastic on-screen.
• Encourage people to bring their own water bottles and ask production to provide water bottle-filling stations in all areas on and offset. Model behavior by bringing your own re-usable bottle and coffee cup to set. Reusable, plant-based (and compostable!) water bottles are now real — check out S’wheat Bottle (wheat husk based) and Join The Pipe (sugar cane husk based) as examples.
• If single use water is unavoidable, use aluminum-canned water.

TRAILER

• Request solar powered trailers which are available now in most production cities.
• If entitled to a single trailer, request a 2-or-3 compartment trailer over a solo one — a literal example of reducing your square-footage "footprint". Shared trailers reduce generator pollution in base camp — and make company moves cleaner. (And the new eco trailers are luxurious.)
• Be aware of energy use and communicate when you will be in your trailer to the transport and/or AD dept. so that they are only running the power when the trailer is in use. The transportation dept will be concerned with your comfort. Let them know it’s okay to heat or cool close to your arrival.

GROUND TRANSPORTATION

• When being transported by a car service, using a car rental, or having a personal driver, request a small or mid-size (not SUV) electric or hybrid vehicle.
• Idling contributes to wasted fuel and unnecessary pollution. Ask your driver to refrain from idling to minimize exhaust emissions containing numerous harmful gases. Encourage Production to offer warming and cooling stations for drivers in extreme weather.

TRAVEL & LIVING

• Refrain from flying privately. Lead by example. Private jet travel is the most-polluting single action any production can engage in. Aircraft fuel not only releases CO₂, but also nitrogen oxide contrails which contribute twice as much to global warming as fuel CO₂.
• Choose train travel (yes, train), if available and appropriate, over commercial flights.
• Reduce pre-production travel and remind everyone to utilize video conferencing to minimize travel CO₂ — both flying and driving. Consolidate meetings, scouts, casting sessions.
• Request hotel accommodations that utilize sustainable practices. Many green hotels use clean energy from renewable sources, and all are attentive to water conservation and separate waste collection.
• For long term hotel stays, ask that the rooms be serviced less frequently.
• Consider remote post-production when possible — remote editing, looping, mixing, scoring, etc.

CARBON OFFSETS

• Ask the production to purchase carbon offsets for plane tickets. Most airlines provide them. The cost of carbon offsets is typically $10-20 per ton of CO₂ equivalents. It should be noted that flying premium is more carbon polluting than economy by allotting more space to transport fewer passengers.
• There are also many organizations where you can find a carbon calculator and purchase carbon offsets. (SEE LINKS IN RESOUCES) Using these tools you can also choose to offset other activities that produce significant emissions such as driving a gasoline-powered car. A carbon offset or carbon credit is used to offer a reduction in carbon emission by investing in an increase in carbon storage, such as planting new trees, and subsidizing biogas, solar and wind power projects for vulnerable communities to OFFSET the emissions that occur elsewhere.
• Use the calculator to estimate the emissions that you cannot fully avoid and buy the appropriate quantity of offsets. Know that many of the best carbon offset services embrace strong climate justice missions in their work — reducing CO₂ and doing good in communities impacted by climate change.

• Work with locations and producers to learn about the areas where you're shooting for relevant environmental concerns.
• Support a community give-back program (e.g., tree planting, food drive, in-person/virtual volunteerism).

• "Fast Fashion" in the form of t-shirts, sweatshirts & hats come with a steep carbon price tag – and quickly ends up crowding landfills. Consider a crew gift that reflects your show’s sustainable efforts. EXAMPLE: make an environmental nature-based donation to the local community you are shooting in or consider a sustainable gift that supports local businesses such as: experiences — memberships, gift cards, massage, concert, a meal.

• Take a moment before any public presentation to address the fact that we are in a climate and ecological emergency, and that each of us can be an agent of change. Do some positive messaging and talk about the sustainable measures your production prioritized.
• Promotional Tour - discuss with your studio how many flights, hotels, and drivers will be involved in the promotional tour. Request the elimination of single use water bottles. Request EV/Hybrid vehicles for transportation and an anti-idling policy.
• Encourage the publicity/marketing team to look through a sustainability lens when thinking about materials used in the promotion e.g., posters, billboards, displays, premiere tickets.

RESOURCES

CLIMATE STORYTELLING RESOURCES

    • https://wearealbert.org/editorial/

    • https://greenproductionguide.com/climate-content-greening-your-content/

    • https://habitsofwaste.org/campaigns/lights-camera-plastic/

PRODUCTION TOOLS

    For more information on Best Practices, and Carbon Calculation, go to
    • https://greenproductionguide.com/tools/

VENDORS

    • https://greenproductionguide.com/green-vendors/

SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION SERVICES

    • https://www.earthangelsets.com/
    • https://www.greensparkgroup.com/

CLEAN ENERGY

    • The Emissions/Cost Optimizer (tutorial here)

PLANT-BASED DIET

    • https://betterfoodfoundation.org/

FOOD WASTE / REPURPOSING

    • https://www.youreverydayaction.org/
    • https://www.rockandwrapitup.org/

BIODIVERSITY

    • Albert’s Biodiversity Guide for Productions

STUDIO/STAGES/FACILITIES

    • https://wearealbert.org/2023/07/05/studio-sustainability-standard/

SET DONATIONS / DIVERSION FROM LANDFILL

    • https://www.ecoset.la/
    • https://www.nyc.gov/content/mfta/pages/

PAPERLESS WORKFLOW

    • https://scriptation.com/
    • https://pdfexpert.com/

CARBON OFFETS

    • https://sustainabletravel.org/
    • https://native.eco/
    • https://www.cooleffect.org/
    • https://terrapass.com

For people who want to help fund broader emission reduction efforts, certifications from watchdog groups like https://www.goldstandard.org/ and https://www.green-e.org/ can help identify worthwhile projects.