Building sustainable productions requires financial incentives say experts

At a panel on developing sustainable studios at this year's KitPlus show, Lesley Marr (of NXTGENbps) cited the need for financial incentives above all else to encourage productions to undertake sustainable practices. 

In agreement, Mark Lewis (BBC Studioworks) added: "I think it's really important that you can offer tangible results to productions that use your facilities." He gave the example of a lower electricity bill after switching from tungsten to LED bulbs as a way to show productions the cost saving impacts of sustainability.

The film and TV production industry isn't as regulated as other industries, but Florence Mansfield, from the sustainability consultancy group Arup, suggested looking to those other industries for insight.

"There are lessons that can be taken from other industries that are further ahead in the [sustainability] agenda," Mansfield said. "The construction industry operates in the same way [as the production industry], they just have a much longer timeline.

"We look at the way that stakeholders engage with each other," she said. Particularly, the way construction factors in the end of the life of a building can be incorporated into how production plans the building of sets.

Marr also cited a need for cultural shifts through education. "There is a sort of education place that needs to happen," she said. "We need to understand the benefits of using different technologies or different power systems."