Bristol's Bottle Yard Studios' expanded facility wins top sustainability award

Bristol's The Bottle Yard Studios' expanded facility TBY2 is one of the first studios to be awarded the new Studio Sustainability Standard by BAFTA albert, the UK’s industry organisation for environmental sustainability in TV in film.

TBY2 is The Bottle Yard’s new £12m sustainably-designed film and TV production facility, powered by a 1MWp rooftop solar array, believed to be the largest community-owned rooftop array in the UK and the biggest rooftop PV system in the UK studios sector.

TBY2 was the second-highest scoring studio of the 12 participants in the first cohort for the new Studio Sustainability Standard. It is one of five studios that received a ‘Very Good’ rating, the highest grade achieved in the group.

Launched in 2022, the global, voluntary scheme was designed by BAFTA albert alongside global engineering and consulting firm Arup, to help studios measure and reduce the environmental impact of their facilities. All participating studios commit to making year-on-year improvements to their sustainability going forward.

Laura Aviles, senior film manager (Bristol City Council), said: “We’re extremely proud that The Bottle Yard’s TBY2 facility has received its Studio Sustainability Standard. Coming second in class is also very rewarding considering the high calibre of participants. By placing sustainability at the heart of our expansion and working with Bristol Energy Cooperative and Bristol Council’s Energy Services team, we were able to achieve our ambitious vision of a state-of-the-art, solar-powered studio.

“The exciting thing about the community ownership model is that it is entirely replicable and brings direct benefits to the local area as well as our production clients. We hope TBY2 will inspire other projects and will be happy to share knowledge with others in the UK film industry and beyond. We look forward to continuing to improve studio sustainability across our sites going forward.”

Carys Taylor, director of BAFTA albert added: “The expertise and quality of UK studios make them among the most in-demand in the world. Now, as participants in the albert Studio Sustainability Standard, they’re on a path to being the most sustainable in the world too. The release of the new Studio Sustainability Standard ratings badges will allow studios to show off the progress they’ve already made and benchmark the progress yet to come. And productions will know where to go to get support for their own sustainability missions.”

TBY2 is also nominated for a 2023 Global Production Award in the Sustainability Initiative category. Winners will be announced on 22 May at an awards ceremony taking place at Cannes Film Festival.