REPORTING. Eco-managers help the small and big screens pollute less

To benefit from CNC aid, from January 1, producers of series, films and audiovisual programs will have to provide a carbon footprint of their works. Very polluting, this sector is making efforts to become greener and can now rely on eco-managers.

At 1^er January 2024, the National Center for Cinema and Animated Images (CNC) will condition the allocation of its aid to a carbon footprint that producers of films, series or audiovisual programs must provide. This takes into account the energy used for filming and post-production, the food for the teams, the ecological footprint of the sets, and all the travel during filming and up to promotion. It will even be a double assessment since they will have to make, upstream, an estimate in carbon equivalent, and at the end, they will have to record their actual carbon footprint.

This initiative should make it possible to improve the environmental impact of the cinema and audiovisual industries, and to know where efforts should be made, on what positions and on what practices. The production of one hour of television broadcast corresponds to ten tonnes of carbon equivalent, or ten Paris-New York round trips, according to Ecoprod, a collective whose mission is to raise awareness of these industries about their impact on the planet. For a feature film, it takes on average 750 tonnes of carbon equivalent.

Despite everything, some professionals did not wait for this “eco-conditionality” from the CNC to start acting and making efforts to pollute less. Moreover, to help them, there are now what we call eco-managers. Étienne Labroue, who has a career as an author and director, has been an eco-manager for two years. He notably worked with the company Endemol on programs such as Celebrity Hunted or with Quad on a series of fictions.

Trays without plastic water bottles

For him, the earlier we call on an eco-manager in the project, “the more likely we are to be able to implement truly effective actions”. And what he recommends to improve your carbon footprint is really very broad. For example, throughout the production of the film, the aim was to reduce waste by replacing plastic water bottles with water bottles. When making up, remove make-up remover wipes. To light, use LEDs.

One of the items that increases the carbon footprint is the decorations. Étienne Labroue therefore recommends using second hand. Sites like the Ressourcerie du cinéma in Montreuil or the Réserve des arts in Pantin offer salvaged sets. “We can also do retro-design for the most ecologically ambitious productions, specifies the eco-manager. That is to say, trying to build sets, not based on drawings, from scratch, but based on decorative elements that we are sure we can recover.”.

The carbon impact of an audiovisual work also affects the team’s plates, hence the recommendations to source locally and to limit, or even eliminate, the consumption of meat, particularly red meat. “A meal with red meat has 14 times more impact than a vegetarian meal. Multiplied by the number of meals served on set, it’s a real impact”, estimates Étienne Labroue. This idea was also applied by Barbara Letellier, producer at Haut et Court, who worked on five films with an eco-manager: “At the very beginning of preparing a film, we do a survey so that the team chooses a canteen with a vegetarian menu, one, two or three times a week or every day. Food is not easy to change on set. When we talk about vegetarian menus to actors, technicians, etc. Sometimes, it can still be complicated but fortunately, less and less”.

Another measure recommended by eco-managers that Barbara Letellier follows: favor the least polluting transport. This means choosing the train rather than the plane to go to a filming location or during the promotion of a film. Also think about carpooling, “even if it is not spontaneous for some, more used to being alone in a car”, recognizes the eco-manager. This transport problem is also linked to the choice of filming location, since it goes without saying that a team will not be able to travel in the same way for filming in Normandy and the Philippines. For the producer at Haut et Court, we also have to ask ourselves, “without constraining artistic freedom”on the usefulness of having two, three or four sites – what she calls sets – for one and the same film. “In The Night of the 12th by Dominik Moll, almost all of the filming took place in a single location, in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne”she says.

“Dominik Moll was also keen that the secondary filming sites be within a restricted area to avoid travel”

Barbara Letellier, producer at Haut et Court

at franceinfo

Despite everything, for Étienne Labroue, even if the chosen filming location is not “virtuous”, “the eco-manager does not have the means to say ‘we are going to change decor, site'”. “And I don’t know if that’s desirable, he continues. I think that eco-production cannot impact the artistic. But this should not prevent us from thinking about these issues.”.

“It’s above all a question of conviction”

The eco-manager specifies that beyond the carbon footprint, being more respectful of the environment also involves the messages conveyed on the screen: “for example, in the image, in a kitchen, we will integrate sorting bins or bulk jars into the decor. And it is all the more effective since we do it in programs which, a priori , are not at all devoted to ecology, as on Such a big sun with whom I collaborated”.

Implementing these measures requires organization and regarding the budget, it is between 0.1 and 1% more depending on the eco-manager. Overall, while taking the train can be more expensive than taking the plane, this can be offset with the savings made with second-hand decor. “It’s above all a question of conviction”underlines Barbara Letellier.

For the moment, the result of the carbon footprint will not be taken into account for the allocation of CNC aid. On the other hand, it is not impossible to imagine that a bonus would be put in place, on the same principle as the bonus awarded by the CNC, since 2019, to films and series which include as many women as men in the management positions of their film crew. Furthermore, the provision of a carbon footprint will also be imposed as a condition for the allocation of CNC aid to “animated, immersive works and video games”. They “will be affected later”indicates the institution.