The Vancouver film industry, a key production hub for Hollywood film and TV production, is being urged to wean itself off using loud, diesel fume-spewing generators on local film sets, including to run film and food trucks.
Instead, mobile power alternatives — like drawing energy directly from the local electrical grid — are being encouraged to power up film and TV sets in the Canadian province for the production of mostly originals for major studios and streamers.
Andrew Robinson, a principal in sustainability strategy and engagement at the Green Spark Group in Vancouver, tells The Hollywood Reporter that local film sets are the biggest emitters of diesel generator exhaust and contaminants when compared to rival production hubs in Toronto, Atlanta, Los Angeles and New York.
“We saw in the Regional Carbon Emissions report from SPA that Vancouver had high emissions as compared to other regions. This also came through in the research done for the regional government of Metro Vancouver,” Robinson said ahead of the Sustainable Production Forum in Vancouver on Wednesday.
That’s a reference to the 2022 Regional Analysis of Film and TV Carbon Emissions Report from the Sustainable Production Alliance, which includes Hollywood studios and streamers, and a May 2023 Report on Clean Power Alternatives for the Film Industry for Metro Vancouver, which Robinson co-wrote.
Despite around 87 percent of electricity in the westernmost province of British Columbia being produced from cleaner hydroelectric sources like reservoir dams and running rivers, Robinson argued “fuel use in the region is proportionally higher than other North American filming jurisdictions due to the large size and number of generators used both on location and, in most cases, at soundstages as well.”
The July 2022 SPA report surveyed 75 film and 242 TV productions in the U.S. market, and 22 films and 39 TV productions in Canada.
Using carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions as a measure of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions, the SPA report said the six biggest movies shot in Vancouver emitted on average 1,473 metric tons of CO2 gases. In comparison, 20 medium-sized films shot in Atlanta each poured out on average 973 metric tons of CO2 gases.
Atlanta has higher overall emissions than Vancouver because more of Georgia’s energy generation comes from other sources like natural gas and coal. That positions Vancouver well to reduce overall carbon emissions as local film and TV sets could more easily tap into cleaner energy sources like electricity grids, zero-emission battery power sources and power kiosks increasingly being rolled out for the local film industry.
The urgency in the latest call for a more sustainable B.C. film industry comes as diesel generators are not only loud and stink due to exhaust fumes, their greenhouse gas emissions, like other polluted air, represent a threat to human health as they contain air contaminants like diesel particulate matter and nitrous oxides.
The B.C. film industry is also being encouraged to accelerate moves towards a reduced carbon footprint as the major Hollywood studios and streamers are pushing for cleaner energy sources and uses to create a more sustainable entertainment industry.
In Ontario, a similar industry-wide call for sustainable film production as a default on soundstages and locations was urged to keep Hollywood coming north after the dual Hollywood strikes are settled and after major studios and streamers have already worked to reduce their carbon footprint.