The Life Cycle of water consumption on a film set

Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF) has linked sustainability to its production support for film & media projects. After a basic ‘sustainable production introduction’, projects are asked to consider green alternatives on set. They are guided by VAF and report about their activities using a carbon calculator. Quantifying the environmental productional impact is not only a way to report initiatives in a formal way, but also helps understanding the positive and negative impacts of our daily filmmaking activities. Drinking Water Consumption on set is an important area look at. Catering usually accounts for 10 to 15 % of the total CO2 emissions, but specific data on different catering components is largely missing. In close collaboration with the Catholic University of Leuven – Department of Material Engineering (Belgium) a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of drinking water consumption on the ‘Binti’ filmset was conducted. The 2,102l of water consumed by the cast & crew was supplied by means of 15l mineral water dispensers (690l) & water from the tap (1412) in combination with both reusable polypropylene and single use carboard cups. Relevant data was delivered by the film producer and the equipment suppliers. The total environmental impact of the water consumption (scenario 1) was estimated at 1.2 tons of CO2-eq (or 2 % of the overall environmental impact of the entire production).