Green Dream for Behind the Screen
Ontario spearheads initiative to help productions hit sustainability goals
Toronto-based Cream Prods. (“The Haunted Museum,” “Eli Roth Presents: My Possessed Pet”) formed an in-house sustainability team in 2021 and set out to green its production pipeline from top to bottom. It started by signing up for the Albert Calculator, an online toolkit that determines a production’s carbon footprint, then formulates a reduction plan.
“We input all of our different activities, like how long we’re on the generators for, how many meals we’re serving every day,” says Angelica Siegel, Cream’s sustainability manager, “We were calculating all the travel for cast and crew and all of our trucks and equipment vehicles, hotels — everything.”
Cream discovered the Albert Calculator through Ontario Green Screen, an initiative launched in 2020 to promote sustainable practices in the province’s film and TV industry.
The two productions in OGS’ initial pilot program saved 9.8 metric tons of materials worth $33,000, saving the production on disposal fees. In July 2023, OGS released a new four-year plan outlining updated best practices and ways to promote the program through industry forums and educational outreach.
Ontario film commissioner Justin Cutler, who co-chairs OGS with Filmontario managing director and counsel Cynthia Lynch, points to the 10-episode series “Y: The Last Man” (Fx/hulu) as a “shining example of how sustainability can work.”
The production hired sustainability consultant Zena Harris of Green Sparks Group, who worked alongside series executive producer Mari Jo Winkler-ioffreda to develop a cohesive sustainability plan.
“The most effective way to be successful with sustainability measures is to communicate early and often,” says Winkler-ioffreda, who is currently a co-chair of both the PGA Sustainability Task Force and the Directors Guild of America Sustainable Future Committee. “You start the minute there is a green light and a production office is about to open.”
The biggest challenge on “Y: The Last Man” was finding a greener way to provide electricity to the production, which shot in a facility with limited grid power and spent half of its shoot days on location. It was able to reduce its reliance on diesel-powered generators by employing trailers outfitted with solar panels and using batteries to power its video village, craft truck and portions of the basecamp.
The production’s waste vendor provided separate bins for compost, recycling, landfill and personal protective equipment used for COVID compliance, and helped it source compostable foodware, enabling the crew to dispose almost the entirety of their meal package into the compost bin.
“Y: The Last Man” also worked with leading Canadian food rescue organization Second Harvest, which redirected more than 6,000 uneaten meals to other charities. The costume department also did its part, sourcing clothes from secondhand retailers whenever possible, then donating them after production wrapped.
Siegel cautions that it’s unrealistic to expect productions to completely overhaul their practices overnight — a fact that was driven home for her when Cream had craft services try out a carbon-friendly “meatless Monday” on one of its productions.
“We noticed that on that day the garbage can was full of takeout bags because people would just leave and go eat Mcdonald’s, so it was having the opposite effect,” Siegel says.