Lights, camera, sustainability: Ontario's film, TV sets aim to go greener

A push is underway to make film and television production sets in Ontario more environmentally sustainable, with industry leaders saying more needs to be done to reduce the sector's carbon footprint by minimizing things like food waste and energy consumption.

"We need to make a change now and that change needs to be made urgently," said Ontario Film Commissioner Justin Cutler. 

"We want to inform and educate the industry, work on best practice implementation and then measure our impact as we go forward."

The sector has made strides on sustainability in the past two years, said Cutler, for example by reusing props, costumes, designs and construction materials from production sets. But he and other industry leaders are setting their sights on higher targets for reducing energy use and waste, and a new report could be a roadmap to reaching that goal. 

On Thursday, the Ontario Green Screen (OGS) released a four-year plan aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on film and television productions across the province and transition to a "circular economy" — where resources are never thrown out but are reused, recycled and re-introduced as new products.

OGS, which consists of 30 government, industry, unions, guilds and trade association partners, launched in 2020 in an effort to promote a more sustainable production industry in the province. 

Reducing food waste, reusing set materials

The organization piloted two programs in the last two years to increase circularity within the industry and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As part of that effort, OGS worked with a Toronto-based initiative to rescue unused set materials or materials that can be reused by local agencies in need.

Through that program, 9.8 metric tonnes of material were given a new life — that's approximately $33,000 worth of materials, said Cutler.

"That [also] helped production because they didn't have to pay the disposal fees for those goods and services, they were able to give those to others in need and keep those materials in use," Cutler said.

Production sets also worked with Second Harvest, a national service that rescues food that might otherwise end up in landfills and redistributes it to those in need, to reduce food waste among film crews. 

Since 2019, Second Harvest has provided 39,000 meals from sets to local agencies valued at more than $140,000, Cutler said.

OGS industry co-chair Cynthia Lynch says by continuing to strengthen partnerships with community agencies, the sector will be able to maximize its sustainability efforts as part of the four-year plan. 

"The thing about planting a tree is that the best time to do it was yesterday, but a good time to do it is today. I think the same holds true for the film and TV industry," said Lynch, who is also managing directer and counsel at FilmOntario.

"Perhaps there are things that could have been done earlier, but it's never too late to start."

Power drop hubs to reduce diesel use

The City of Toronto's film office, which is also an OGS member, said some studios also work with food banks and other organizations to minimize food waste on production sets.

In 2022, the city installed power drop hubs at heavily used filming locations in a pilot project to help reduce reliance on heavy-duty diesel electric generators. The hubs give large production crews access to grid power at those locations to reduce noise pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

"Just two power drop [stations] will reduce the industry's carbon footprint by 400 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year, which contributes to the City's TransformTO Net Zero climate strategy goals," the office said in a statement Wednesday. 

For productions across the province,  Cutler said OGS created a grid tie-in map for location filming to help crews determine which locations have available electrical tie-ins to avoid using diesel generators.

As well, the organization is offering two courses on climate and sustainable production as well as carbon calculation for film workers. Cutler said more than 630 film workers have taken at least one of those courses as the organization continues to push it out to more workers. There are roughly 48,000 workers in the sector, according to Ontario Creates, an agency of the provincial government.

"The film industry works in every landscape and environment imaginable and we value community stewardship to be able to continue our operations," Cutler told CBC Toronto.

"Through that, we're thinking very carefully about how we as an industry can be more sustainable to ensure longevity for the environment."