Find out how PMs play a crucial role in making film and TV productions more environmentally responsible in an informative discussion about circular sets, addressing fuel and food waste, and the best way to recycle all those leftover eclipse glasses. With a focus on practical solutions and real-world experiences, Mary Anne and Anna offer valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities of creating a more sustainable production industry.
“We were shooting in Hamilton on the day of the recent eclipse, we got our crew the safety glasses. But then at the end, we had three hundred sets of safety glasses left over! Our Sustainability Advisor found a place that accepts them in South America, where the next eclipse will happen, so we gathered them up and sent them there. It’s such a specific reuse case, but these initiatives exist if you just dig for them.”
Production Manager Mary Anne Waterhouse
Is it challenging to staff sustainability-focused roles and encourage crews to buy into sustainable practices?
Production Manager Mary Anne Waterhouse: For those of us who care about this topic, it can be inspiring to take the work on. For example, the studio I’m working with right now is all over waste reduction. Fuel reduction is much more significant, but waste and plastic water bottles are so much more visible. People don’t want to take those bigger, more impactful actions if they don’t think the show cares about the other things. Why should I worry about not using a diesel generator if there are plastic water bottles around, right? So we need to do everything. You need buy-in from the Locations Department, but you also need buy-in from your Transport and Lighting Departments. I’m incredibly lucky that the personalities in those departments on this show were on board, but it starts with Locations. The team I’m working with right now has been great, but in the past, I’ve worked with departments that already have a lot on their plates and they don’t want to bring that up.
Anna Beben: Production Manager Anna Beben: When we were on Y: The Last Man, we had a two-person Sustainability Rep team because it’s hard for one person to do it, and initially, they were spending a lot of their time sorting garbage. We put up signs saying what goes where, but it was a lot of policing and talking to the crew. It does help when you can include green tips on the call sheet and if you can be part of the safety meeting in the morning.
Right now, we have our Sustainability Advisor and then a Location Support Person, but on the show before, it was two people plus a daily when they needed an extra person. When it comes to crews “buying in” to sustainability, so much of it has to come from the Locations department, and they’re already busy enough, and it’s tough. But a lot of crew will come up and say, “Hey, what you’re doing is really great. We love it.” Sometimes they don’t want to jeopardize the location by asking for something more from the venue or the site rental contract, so it’s hard, and I get it. And I do feel that the more we do this, and the more normalized it becomes, the more people want to help out.
Vehicle idling is still a really tough issue. Nobody wants the cast coming on or off set and into a cold car. We don’t want anybody to be uncomfortable. But I’m sure if we talked to many of the cast members, they’d be fine with a slightly cooler car. We also need to get more buy-ins from the places we rent our offices from and start talking to them about investing in solar panels and better-insulated offices and stages. Otherwise, you’re spending more on AC and heating. How many times do we get to an office and the temperature box is under lock and key?
Mary Anne Waterhouse: What’s lacking is the right infrastructure. That’s what I keep advocating and pushing for. I’m not even saying government money or tax breaks; I mean the actual physical infrastructure. With my last show, our stage was literally just a stage. We didn’t have sufficient power, so we just ran off generators. That should not be the case.
Anna Beben: I agree with that. Many of these places are retrofitting, but they’re doing the least work they can get away with it because they know we’re going to hire the generators and pay for the diesel.
Mary Anne Waterhouse: My opinion changes every year. But if you tell me we’re going into a studio where we’ll have to use a generator, I’m going to say, “No, we’re not using that studio.” I think that’s the only way we can make that change.
For an industry that’s so heavily dependent on travelling from location to location, how do you integrate solutions to reduce fuel consumption?
Anna Beben: With Y: The Last Man, I was working with Mari Jo Winkler who’s a leading sustainability-focused Producer in the States. She came to the show with very specific ideas on how we were going to approach things, and they were all amazing. A lot of them were new to me. Nowadays, you see that everybody wants to get hybrids, but we’re all going after the same five hybrid cars. We did try solar-powered on that show. It’s a little bit more money, but in the winter, it was tough with all the cloudy days to get enough solar energy. So you’re still plugging in to get the heating. In the summer when it’s really hot, it doesn’t provide enough energy to run the ACs. But it’s a good start.
Mary Anne Waterhouse: If you can solar up enough, you can at least avoid using an overnight generator. You just mentioned heat and AC—in this climate, there are very few months when we’re not dealing with one or the other.
I’ve actually had really good success with electrical vehicles because of the new business that Mark Angel opened this year. He left Starline and opened Krypton Rental Group brokering eco vehicles. As of right now, we were able to flip over to using EVs. We’re shooting in Hamilton right now, and we’re using EVs for all of our cast pickups.
Anna Beben: That’s a great idea. We’ll look into that for our show, especially if we’re travelling.
Mary Anne Waterhouse: It is. They’re a bit more expensive, but considering the amount we’re driving and the rising fuel costs, it works out mathematically. The vehicles are only about $100 more per week, easily offset by fuel savings.
In my current production, our locations tended to be fairly close together in Hamilton so we found one basecamp that was fairly centrally located to all of our main locations, and we put our unit there for the entire show. It was not cheap, but we invested in the tie-ins to an industrial building that was adjacent and we’re paying the hydro to the owner of that building. We ended up not needing to use a generator for the base camp for the entire 37 days of production, but it wasn’t easy. We’re not paying for a generator, and we’re paying hydro which is less per day than the diesel would be. So ultimately, it saves money and the environment. On set it’s harder to do, but base camps pull more power than set usually. I think that’s a real biggie that we can work on.
Anna Beben: Have you had any experience using the volt stacks, the urban power sources?
Mary Anne Waterhouse: I’ve actually found they give too little power currently, but there are bigger ones coming. It works great for specific uses, but there’s nowhere near enough power to be the main power source to rely on.
Anna Beben: We’re still trying to figure out how to use them properly. I know the equipment houses will offer courses or will come and show you if we want to send our crew there. You’re right that the technology’s not quite there yet, but it’s trying to catch up.
Mary Anne Waterhouse: You can even use a combination of technologies. It takes careful planning. I’m not a power expert, but I know that, if we were running our generators more efficiently, we would be saving emissions. Things like charging your battery stacks off your generator when you can, because we rarely use all the power in those generators. So when your generator is only running at 40%, you can also be charging up diverting that extra power into a Voltstack or a battery.
Anna Beben: I keep using the term “buy-in.” But it’s about getting the Transport Department to commit to it, ensuring they plan their days thoughtfully and proactively.
Mary Anne Waterhouse: Absolutely. They have to plan accordingly. Initially, we had two extra fully charged EVs parked at base camp as backups. We treated them like spare batteries, just to give them assurance. They hardly ever used them, but it gave them some comfort to know that there was a car we could swap into.
Anna Beben: Smart idea, especially as we adapt to new methods. Everything’s changing slowly. The first time you do it, it is like, “Oh, what a pain in the butt.” And I get for some people, it’s not going to work, but overall it’s making a difference.
Mary Anne Waterhouse: Exactly. One of the things I always come back to is the crucial importance of understanding the reasons behind resistance to change. What is causing people to have the concern, and how do we fix that? Sometimes, it’s distrust in technology or fear of workflow disruption.
Anna Beben: We’re all busy people, these are long hours and long days. And we don’t want to add to anybody’s plate, but sometimes, that’s the price of innovation.
Mary Anne Waterhouse: Think about the change from film to digital and what we all went through with that. It did change workflows and displace certain people. But now, many people have no idea how to work with film.
Anna Beben: I remember those days!
“We’re all busy people, these are long hours and long days. And we don’t want to add to anybody’s plate, but sometimes, that’s the price of innovation.”
Production Manager Anna Beben
What are some ways that productions can responsibly and sustainably dispose of leftover materials?
Anna Beben: On this show, we have been accruing inventory from other shows that are wrapping like wood, wardrobe racks, and office supplies. I know that on my last few shows when we have things left over, it’s not even about getting paid or expecting someone to pay for them. We’re donating them.
Mary Anne Waterhouse: We’re always trying to wrap so fast, and that’s our problem, right? Sometimes we just don’t have the time to take something away, and I can’t extend the wrap, so unfortunately, it’s going to go to some kind of landfill.
Anna Beben: I was on a show a few years ago, where we paid for a couple extra days to take the riser down properly and remove all the nails from the wood. Then, we used that same wood for the next show. It was a huge cost saver.
Mary Anne Waterhouse: That’s the other thing, creating “circular sets” and trying to think about building things in such a way that they can be reused. So much of what we build is temporary and we don’t think about what we’re doing with it afterwards. But we need to plan how we’ll dispose of that piece right from the start. There are so many options, even outside of our industry, for reuse, but it takes time to research. If you get a great Sustainability Advisor, they’ll put time into digging into that research. One example is, because we were shooting in Hamilton on the day of the recent eclipse, we got our crew the safety glasses. But then at the end, we had three hundred sets of safety glasses left over! Our Sustainability Advisor found a place that accepts them in South America, where the next eclipse will happen, so we gathered them up and sent them there. It’s such a specific reuse case, but these initiatives exist if you just dig for them.
Anna Beben: That’s fantastic. I heard from some of your crew on your show. They were very appreciative that you supplied them with glasses.
Mary Anne Waterhouse: It was nice to have that shared experience, and I was so happy that then there was a sustainable way to recycle the glasses in the end.
Anna Beben: The Coordinator I work with is very interested in sustainability, and she is conducting research. We all recently attended DGC National’s Waste Not: The Art of Circular Design virtual panel on Earth Day.
What are some solutions to reducing the amount of craft services and food waste?
Anna Beben: We used compostable packaging, which helped. But that was at a cost to production. So again, shows need to be able to pay an extra fee per person, per day. I think the more of us do it, the cheaper it becomes, but it’s not always accessible to every show.
Mary Anne Waterhouse: I totally agree. The other thing is using plates, right? Plates exist. It’s like, “I just wish there was some kind of reusable thing that we could use to eat off of!” [laughs]
Anna Beben: We do that too, but we have to get the caterers to buy in and put the plates up top. People need to ask for them. It’s always annoying when somebody sits down at a table in the lunchroom with a takeaway container.
Mary Anne Waterhouse: Absolutely, yeah. When we have people eating off of plates, it’s just nicer, right? We keep talking about buying in and it’s the caterers that you need to buy in for this particular kind of waste
Anna Beben: Trying to do more vegetarian meals is great as well, but there’s always some resistance to Meatless Mondays. Maybe a solution is to put the vegetables up front and the meat at the very end. But the caterer’s concern is always that, even though they’re implementing production’s wishes, it’s going to represent badly on them if the crew doesn’t like the food. But I have found in the last 30 years that everybody is a lot more health conscious, people want more vegetables and proteins. Maybe if there are different vegetable or tofu protein options or more beans, people will accept that.
Mary Anne Waterhouse: We have a meatless option every day, as opposed to having one day that is meatless. There’s less meat on the table, but there’s always some for those who insist, and that’s actually worked well for us.
Anna Beben: We have also donated food if there’s any left over at the end of the day. Are you doing that on your show?
Mary Anne Waterhouse: Yes, absolutely. The organization Second Harvest does food rescue. I also work with them outside of the industry for a food bank I help operate. They’re an incredible organization, and they work with all different types of food rescue. Organic waste is a double whammy because we’re not just wasting food, it also releases its own CO2 into the environment. It’s important to properly dispose of plastics and cardboard, but organics are actually even more impactful, and so many hungry people can actually use that food. That’s why Second Harvest is so great, they address both sustainability and food insecurity.
Anna Beben: Absolutely. We may be a first-world country, but many people still don’t know where their next meal is coming from.
Mary Anne Waterhouse: I co-founded the food bank during the pandemic, and it’s still running now three and a half years later. With rising food costs and inflation, there’s been more demand every week, not less. I’ve had the odd time where you’re on set, and you decide that actually you’re not going to do a meal break right now, you’re going to finish the day so you don’t miss daylight or something. So no one goes to lunch, and you end up with these massive quantities of food. It’s so inappropriate for that stuff to go into the landfill!
How do you incorporate sustainable transportation practices like carpooling or reducing travel?
Anna Beben: That’s a tough one. We do use shuttles sometimes, but this is a challenge in our industry, because of the hours and the multiple locations, it’s really hard to rely on public transportation. It’s another buy-in, this time from the municipality, and we’re already as a city trying to improve our public transportation but look at how long that takes. We’re decades away from that.
Mary Anne Waterhouse: It is tough. Some departments can naturally carpool, but it’s difficult to make it a requirement.
Anna Beben: It happens symbiotically. Just by the luck of the draw, maybe two Production Accountants live near each other and can carpool because they usually start and end at the same time. But it’s a lot harder with set people, especially if you’re in different departments and have different pre-calls. People are tired! Sometimes, people are like, “I don’t want to go in half an hour earlier. I’d rather sleep and drive myself.”
If we were all working at a studio show, and the call time was eight to six every day, and we were someplace central in the city, it could work. But right now it’s really only possible for the office staff.
Are there any other sustainability initiatives in the film industry you’re a fan of, including recycling, composting, and education?
Mary Anne Waterhouse: Producing for the Planet is a group of Canadian producers and production companies I’m involved with who have been working together to create a sustainability guidebook. I just looked at a section of it in the last couple of days, and they’re getting close to having something ready. It’s an entire toolkit of hands-on examples and testimonials. I’m just one person on this massive committee of people working on it, but it’s a wonderful initiative. I also really support what Grant Heggie is doing at ReadySetRecycle. Grant is on a one-man mission to save things from going to landfill.
Anna Beben: There are a lot of initiatives out there from Ontario Green Screen, as well as DGC Ontario itself. I teach the APM course, and we have a sustainability module at the end. Most courses now have a sustainability module. The Sustainability Committee, with Co-Chairs Astra Burka and Andrew Gainor, is doing great things, like introducing the Sustainable Futures Material Reuse Project to divert materials left over from productions to film students instead of landfills. Astra even got back $3,200 on her tax return because she properly recycled her electronics through an initiative that was hosted at the DGC Ontario offices last December, and we should be doing more things like that. There are all these seminars that keep popping up, and I think they’re fantastic. I always learn a little bit more every time.
How do you encourage everyone on set to cooperate and make these sustainable practices a reality?
Mary Anne Waterhouse: We were talking earlier about encouraging crews to actually participate. One thing that you mentioned, and we also do, is including green tips on the call sheet. I also do a weekly sustainability newsletter with updates about what we’ve achieved, or calling out someone specifically to congratulate something green they did. People look forward to it, actually, and sometimes we give out little prizes.
Anna Beben: We do a similar monthly challenge where crew members can nominate somebody for a green initiative, and they can win a $50 gift card to Indigo or something. We had a big bulletin board that would show people being green with photos, and it did build morale and make people want to participate. And it’s nice to see crew members calling out other crew members for doing something positive.
Mary Anne Waterhouse: I think that’s what we need. Obviously, we are responsible for the infrastructure and figuring out what’s available, but we can also inspire them and reduce their fears about the difficulties of sustainability by providing little tools.
Anna Beben: Sometimes, if it’s just one person doing one thing, it can multiply and grow. I sometimes hear from the teenagers in my life that it doesn’t really matter. “Why would I do it if nobody else is?” It does matter. Having a coffee cup that you bring to a coffee shop does make a difference. If you do that every day, it affects the collective community.
Mary Anne Waterhouse: I’m not gonna take credit for this because I saw it in a meme. But there’s this idea that when we talk about time travel in stories or movies, there’s this very common concern that if you go back in time, any tiny little thing could dramatically alter the present. But we never talk about how if we do some tiny little thing in the present, we might dramatically alter the future. I think that’s a really neat idea because it’s exactly what you just said. It’s the importance of little things, and your little action could inspire somebody else to do it too.
Anna Beben: And it’s not about being perfect. None of us are. But every day we can make a little conscious choice to do something different.
