Further resources
Below you’ll find a range of resources produced by practitioners and academics interested in the environmental impact of film and television, the representation of environmental issues onscreen, and industry sustainability initiatives.
Reports, websites and handbooks that contain useful data, resources, and advice on sustainable practice.
albert, https://wearealbert.org/
A sustainability consultancy operating as part of BAFTA’s remit, albert offers net-zero certification for UK productions, and provides a wide range of resources in its toolkit for members.
albert, “Subtitles to Save the World – 2021,” BAFTA albert, 2021, https://wearealbert.org/editorial/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2021/09/albert-subtitle-report-2021.pdf.
A report on British television broadcasts that used subtitles to determine the frequency of discussions about the climate emergency and environmental sustainability. The report advocates a shift toward more solution-oriented discussions.
Ben Roberts, British Film Institute Sustainability Policy, BFI, 2020, https://www.bfi.org.uk/strategy-policy/policy-statements/sustainability.
An overview of the BFI’s sustainability policy.
British Film Institute, “Sustainability Report Proposes Step-Change for UK Film Production,” BFI, 2020, https://www.bfi.org.uk/strategy-policy/policy-statements/sustainability.
An investigation of blockbuster filmmaking and its environmental impact that covers issues such as travel, energy consumption, and set builds, and which proposes greener ways of working.
Charles J. Corbett and Richard P. Turco, Sustainability in the Motion Picture Industry, UCLA Institute of the Environment and State of California Integrated Waste Management Board, 2006, https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/mpisreport.pdf.
A historic report on the Hollywood film industry’s environmental impacts.
Green the Bid, https://www.greenthebid.earth/resources.
A member-led organisation that provides free resources to help practitioners across the media industries lower their carbon footprint.
Green Production Guide, https://www.greenproductionguide.com/.
US-focused site that provides resources from a carbon calculator and sustainable vendor list to guides on writing climate-positive scripts.
Green Screen, https://projects2014-2020.interregeurope.eu/greenscreen/good-practices/.
A series of studies conducted across Europe (Belgium, France, Romania, Spain, Sweden, UK) to better understand industry sustainability needs and highlight good practice.
Kwazulu Natal Film Commission and WrapZero, A Study On The Environmental Impact and Resource Use of the Film Industry, Kwazulu Natal Film Commission, 2020, https://kznfilm.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/A-STUDY-ON-THE-ENVIRONMENTAL-IMPACT-AND-RESOURCE-USE-OF-THE-FILM-INDUSTRY.pdf.
A sustainability study of the screen industry in South Africa.
Screen Auckland and ARUP, ARUP, Screen Auckland: New Zealand Screen Sector Emissions Study, Screen Auckland, 2021, https://www.aucklandnz.com/sites/build_auckland/files/media-library/documents/Screen-Auckland-NZ-Screen-Sector-Emissions-Study-2021.pdf.
Sinéad Kidao, The Costume Directory, Third Edition. BAFTA albert, 2022, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5d13cafa494bd600014bfc2f/t/62e790fcea71016909883bb3/1659343109093/The+Costume+Directory+-+Edition+3+-+29.07.22.pdf.
‘An open resource which connects designers and buyers with suppliers and brands who prioritize sustainability, environmental responsibility and fair trade.’
BAFTA Albert, British Film Institute, and Arup, A Screen New Deal: A Route Map to Sustainable Film Production, British Film Institute, 2020, https://wearealbert.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Screen-New-Deal-Report-1.pdf.
A report exploring carbon emissions resulting from tentpole film productions in the UK, and how to mitigate carbon-intensive activity in future.
BECTU, “Sustainable Workplaces,” BECTU, 2024, https://bectu.org.uk/get-involved-in-the-union/sustainable-workplaces/.
Green initiatives within the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Communications and Theatre Union.
Equity, “The Green Rider,” Equity, 2024, https://www.equity.org.uk/campaigns-policy/the-green-rider.
The performance and entertainment union’s campaign to support members in demanding greener practices in their workplaces.
Esther Cabello, Kyle Garg, and Jinsuh Jung-Aum et al, Virtual vs. Conventional Production for Film and Television: A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment Final Report, Sustainable Production Alliance, 2023, https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/UCLA-IoES-Practicum-SPA-Virtual-Production-Final-Report-2023.pdf.
A US report investigating likely emissions resulting from both typical and virtual production practices.
Hunter Vaughan and Pietari Kääpä, Sustainable Digitalisation: Ensuring a Sustainable Digital Future for UK Film and Television. Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, 2023, https://www.mctd.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/MCTD-SustainableDigitalisation-Report-WEB-compressed.pdf.
A report outlining how the UK screen industries should mitigate emissions resulting from digital work.
Julie’s Bicycle, “Resources,” 2024, https://juliesbicycle.com/resources/.
An ever-evolving set of online resources, including industry and adjacent reports, on environmental sustainability.
Leora Hadas, Supporting Professionalisation of the Sustainability Department in UK Screen Productions, Neptune Sustainability and Institute for Screen Industries Research (University of Nottingham), 2024,
The report, produced with consultant Neptune Sustainability, explores the work, expertise, and challenges of sustainability practitioners in the UK screen industries.
Pietari Kääpä, Hunter Vaughan, et al. Greening European Film Policy: Towards a Sustainable Film, Television, and Screen Media Industry. Global Green Media Network, 2024, https://www.globalgreenmedianetwork.org/reports.
This report proposes three main areas for screen-industry policymakers to improve in order to mitigate environmental harm.
Screen Carbon Test, https://www.screencarbontest.gla.ac.uk/about.
Produced by David Griffith, and academics and students at the University of Glasgow, the Screen Carbon Test enables users to rate films and TV shows according to how well they acknowledge and represent climate change.
Wim Vanderbauwhede, “Frugal Computing,” Musings of an Accidental Computing Scientist, June 29, 2021, https://limited.systems/articles/frugal-computing/.
A blog post outlining the need to minimise digital/ICT activity.
The following organisations and companies may provide useful resources on their websites, including carbon calculators, green riders and other toolkits. Some also offer consultancy, design or archiving services related to sustainable practice. The EIF project cannot provide endorsement and offers the links for reference only.
albert (UK)
Earth Angel (USA)
Eco Eco Film (Portugal)
Ecoprod (France)
CAMA (UK) offers storage and sustainable archiving of assets
Green Consultants Film (Germany)
Greening Advertising Media and Entertainment (GAME) (India)
Green Proyections (Colombia/Latin America)
Green Screen (UK – London-focused)
Green Set (South Africa)
Neptune Environmental Services (UK)
Sustainable Film (UK)
Sustainable Screens Australia (Australia, launching 2023)
Vectar Sets (UK) sets for film and television made from recyclable materials
The EIF research network is made up of academics and practitioners based in the UK and US. The following members are available for press and other media queries:
Rebecca Harrison, EIF project lead, The Open University
Topics include: Media technologies, environmental impacts of film and television, identity on screen, Star Wars and franchise filmmaking, British & Hollywood cinemas.
Paolo Saporito, University College Cork
Art cinema, environmental ethics/aesthetics, environmental impact of film production
Inge Sørensen, University of Glasgow
Green’ production cultures, practices and policy; sustainability, screen agencies and funding; climate messaging in film and TV
Hunter Vaughan, Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, University of Cambridge
Media technologies and infrastructures, materiality of image culture, Internet infrastructures
The following publications by EIF network members address topics and themes that may be of interest.
Cook, Malcolm. ‘Magic Highways and Autopias: Disney and automobile advertising.’ In Malcolm Cook and Kirsten Moana Thompson (eds) Animation and Advertising. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.
Harrison, Rebecca. BFI Film Classics: The Empire Strikes Back. London: Bloomsbury, 2020.
Kääpä, Pietari and Hunter Vaughan (eds.) Film and Television Production in the Age of the Climate Crisis: Towards a Greener Screen. Chem: Springer/Palgrave, 2022.
Kääpä, Pietari. Environmental Management of the Media: Policy, Industry, Practice, London: Routledge, 2018.
Kempshall, Chris. The History and Politics of Star Wars: Death Stars and Democracy. Oxford: Routledge, 2022.
Sørensen, Inge and Caitriona Noonan. Production, Policy and Power: The Screen Industry’s Response to the Environmental Crisis. Media Culture and Society 44, no. 1 (2022): 172-184.
Vaughan, Hunter. Hollywood’s Dirtiest Secret: The Hidden Environmental Costs of the Movies. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2018.
Malcom Cook, ‘Full Circle: Useful Animation and the Geography of Petroleum Extraction,’ Media+Environment 6, no.1 (2024):
Journal of Cinema and Media Studies 9, no. 1 (2024). Teaching dossier on the topic of ‘Environmental Documentary Theory and Practice,’
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jcms/tm-pastissues/.
The dossier features an article by EIF network member James Staunton-Price, ‘Teaching the (Anti-)Extractivist Gaze.’
Scholarly books and articles that people interested in screen media and the environment may find useful.
Bozak, Nadia. The Cinematic Footprint: Lights, Camera, Natural Resources. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2012.
Bruno, Giuliana. Atlas of Emotion: Journeys Through Art, Architecture and Film. London: Verso, 2002.
Cubitt, Sean, Salma Monani and Stephen Rust (eds). Ecocinema Theory and Practice. New York: Routledge, 2012. de Luca, Tiago. Planetary Cinema. Film, Media and the Earth. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2022.
Sean Cubitt, Finite Media: Environmental Implications of Digital Technologies (Durham: Duke University Press, 2017).
Fay, Jennifer. Inhospitable World: Cinema in the Time of the Anthropocene. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2018.
Gleich, Josh and Lawrence Webb. Hollywood on Location: An Industry History, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2019.
Jaikumar, Priya. Where Histories Reside: India as Filmed Space. Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan, 2020.
Jue, Melody. Wild Blue Media: Thinking Through Seawater. Duke University Press, 2020.
Nielson, Toby. “Different Death Stars and Devastated Earths: Contemporary SF Cinema’s Imagination of Disaster in the Anthropocene.” Science Fiction Film and Television 12, no.2, (2019): 241-258.
Simons, Kali. “Reorientations; or, An Indigenous Feminist Reflection on the Anthropocene.” JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies 58, no.2 (2019): 174-179.
Sontag, Susan. “The Imagination of Disaster.” Commentary 40, (1965): 42–48.
The journal Media+Environment provides openly accessible scholarship on a range
of relevant topics. See https://mediaenviron.org/.
