“Greenlighting” Green Sustainable Film Production

The 22nd of April is Earth Day, the annual worldwide observation which dedicates itself towards the healing improvement of our planet. In commemoration of this yearly momentous event, Adirondack Film supports entertainment-based groups that promote more environmentally-safe film productions. We stand strong with such organizations as Earth Angel, the Sustainable Production Alliance (SPA), and Producers Guild of America (PGA) in their unique efforts to encourage the film industry to utilize effective green methods in on-location shoots without negatively affecting the environment around them.

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The Green Production Guide

These three organizations use a special reference tool known as the Green Production Guide (GPG). The GPG is the premier industry online toolkit designed to reduce the film, television, and streaming industry’s carbon footprint and environmental impact. Established in 2010, the GPA was a joint venture between the Producer Guild of America Foundation’s GPA Green Committee and a major studios partner group, now called the Sustainable Production Alliance.

The GPA’s site, greenproductionguide.com, features a global vendor database built to provide sustainable goods and services for film, TV, and streaming productions. In addition, the GPG itself offers tools and resources which will aid in implementing sustainable plans for all production types and sizes, big or small. These tools include the Production Environmental Accounting Report (PEAR), which calculates carbon footprints for productions, and the Production Environmental Actions Checklist (PEACH), a best practices detailer for each of a production’s departments and other valuable sustainability measures.

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The GPG Toolkit

The GPA also provides a comprehensive guide in helping film industry officials to make their productions more green and environmentally-sustainable. The Green Production Guide Toolkit provides basic “greening” principles, including conserving fuel and energy, avoiding toxins and pollution, saving water, reducing plastics, and preventing land waste. The toolkit heavily emphasizes that implementing these principles while onset can be challenging due to the production’s expenses and rapid-paced schedules. Therefore, it is crucial for filmmakers who wish to adhere to the toolkit to identify all priorities and risks before the beginning of production. In order to properly begin sustainable film production, the GPA toolkit recommends film crews to create an awareness for their onset green sustainability. A valuable first step in this awareness is to initiate a special position in the crew, known as the Sustainable Production Representative (SPR), who can track and oversee all sustainable production efforts. The SPR would be responsible for tasks such as: locating vendors and products made with sustainable materials, circulating educational materials, monitoring waste diversion strategies, performing regular departmental walk-throughs, monitoring the PEAR and PEACH tools, and overseeing other essential activities.

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Adirondack Film enthusiastically advocates the Green Production Guide and its many resources. As an organization who represents the Adirondacks regions with strong pride and conviction, we embrace the GPA in its potential to keep the physical environments of our area, and all film shoots worldwide, sustainably immaculate.

For more details about the GPA, the SPA, and the GPA, please visit https://greenproductionguide.com/. Film production crews interested in a copy of the GPA Toolkit must click https://greenproductionguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/GPG_Note-to-Filmmakers_v4_Toolkit-1.pdf.

To learn more about Earth Angel, please click https://www.earthangelsets.com/, 

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