The Berlin International Film Festival not only promotes ecological and sustainable goals through programmes and panels but also optimizes its own carbon footprint. Festival director Dieter Kosslick on organic food, travelling by train, and increasing awareness.
What is the impact of ecological and sustainability measures on the Berlinale’s carbon footprint?
We abolished press boxes and the waste of paper associated with them several years ago. Print publications were reduced in number, size, and circulation or they were replaced with digital formats. In 2011, the energy provider ENTEGA, which generates electricity with a net-zero carbon footprint without resorting to nuclear power, became a co-partner of the Berlinale. Internally, we have introduced EMAS (Eco Management and Audit Scheme) to make our operation more sustainable.
What kind of actions have been taken at the festival?
We use sustainable merchandising articles and the buffets at our receptions are almost completely meat free. We make sure that the ingredients are fair trade, organic, and locally sourced. Our water supplier Viva Con Agua donates a minimum of 60 % of its proceeds to drinking water projects by the Welthungerhilfe. Our principal partner BMW uses fuel-efficient vehicles with hybrid technology and the limousine service drivers receive training in environmentally sound driving techniques. We also try to motivate the festival visitors from outside Berlin to act ecologically. They can calculate the carbon footprint of their voyage and offset the CO2 balance via certificates. Deutsche Bahn offers a Berlinale return ticket for 99.- Euros. Thanks to these efforts, we have already reduced our CO2 emissions.
Does the digitization of the cinemas have an ecologically positive effect?
Yes, in terms of ecology the digitization of movie theaters is an advantage. There are not only huge savings in film stock and production but also in the costs for the reproduction of traditional prints. Thanks to digitization, films can be distributed globally very fast and with significantly lower CO2 emissions. You have to take into account, however, that using large amounts of digital storage space also causes a corresponding degree of energy consumption.
The Culinary Cinema programme combines ecology and sustainability with pleasure and good food. Is the stereotype of the muesli-munching greenie a thing of the past?
Yes, it is. This questionable stereotype is indeed a thing of the past and has in turn been replaced by another stereotype: that of reducing the muesli eating greenie to a stereotype. There is a growing awareness of sustainable food throughout our society. Consumers are increasingly critical – a consequence of the numerous scandals in the food industry. We try to support the trend towards more awareness with the films in Culinary Cinema.
Do German film producers need lessons in sustainability as well?
Sustainability has been a subject at the Berlinale for quite a while. During the 2012 Co-Production Market, there was a theme talk entitled Green Productions about ecology in the film industry and in 2012 there was a Talent Campus panel on Greening the Film Industry with filmmakers discussing how they can combine the economical and the ecological sides of a film production. There is also a growing awareness in the film industry that parallels the development of awareness in society as a whole.
Should the film subsidy systems be modified towards more sustainability?
Yes, absolutely. Whoever uses public funding should also take on public responsibilities. Into the guidelines now! Hardly anything ever happens voluntarily.
“The time for half-measures and climate denial is over. Unless we move quickly away from fossil fuels, we’re going to destroy the air we breathe, the water we drink, the health of our children, grandchildren and future generations. If we’re going to avoid the worst of the impacts, then we’ve just got to act boldly. And we must act immediately."
Robert Redford
Actor, Director, Producer, Environmentalist
"The media has a powerful role to play in the fight against climate change. Through films, television, and all media outlets, we must continue to deliver the message that solutions are out there and are happening now. We have to make it attractive for people to take action. Movies like Avatar, The Day After Tomorrow, and documentaries like Years of Living Dangerously, which I was proud to be a part of, have been very popular, reaching and inspiring millions of people. And I believe films in particular can really inspire and make people want to take action. It’s great to see some of my film-industry friends working with climate related organizations to push forward those messages."
„It‘s high time to reorganize film production in Germany in a ‚greener‘ and more sustainable way. So far, I am flabbergasted by how much our industry works in environmentally harmful ways.To this very day, it starts with until today one-sided print-outs of scripts, and then it continues with plastic bottles in production offices and lots of plastic waste with every catered meal, and it doesn‘t stop with the limousines that pull up to a red carpet.
For many years, people have sneered at me when I brought my own cup or I declined to eat cheap meat served on paper or plastic plates with plastic knives and forks. It would be great if the Green Shooting Card could change all that.“
Director (Ben X, Time of My Life)
„It’s absolutely great that filmmakers all over the world are trying to clean up their act, and are trying to film as sustainable as we possibly can. Still, I think we shouldn’t underestimate the incredible power of the moving image to also change the hearts and minds of people.
So, apart from trying to be more environmentally aware in our business, I think the big gain lies in how we might make everyone more environmentally aware. Yes, cinema can change the world.
I think filmmakers should start using the powerful weapon in our hands that is the camera.
Let’s not only try to do ‘less bad’. Let’s try to do right, and help drive the change that we all know needs to arrive.“
“We are living in a time in which we can’t afford to behave irresponsibly towards nature. The more important is it that film productions try to work as environmentally friendly as possible. A film team produces every day tons of garbage. I try to avoid using plastic cups on set, I bring my own cup, use ecofriendly cosmetics and avoid needless single rides.”
Photo ® Maddalena Arosio
Darren Aronofsky, Director, Noah / Jury President, 65th Berlin International Film Festival
“When we did Noah we knew we were making a film about the first steward of the earth, so we wanted to be good stewards ourselves. There’s so much waste on film sets. Because of groups like Earth Angel, we were able to change that a little bit.”
"As a TV and film producer I try to incorporate environmental storylines into my projects as much as possible. But it’s just as important, if not more, to ‚go green‘ behind the scenes! Therefore, I help run the Producers Guild of America’s Green Initiative.
We provide resources such as a Best Practices and a Carbon Calculator to help producers green their productions. We also partnered with all the major studios to create www.greenproductionguide.com which is a free green vendor database with over 2,000 vendors offering sustainable production solutions worldwide!"
‚Green screens excepted, we will do everything in our power to be as innovative as we can in order to make our production as green as possible.‘
Photo: (c) herbXfilm Dieter Mayr
Lars Jessen
Director (Fraktus, Dorfpunks, Am Tag als Bobby Ewing starb)
‘It is somewhat embarrassing that green filming is only now becoming an issue in our industry because there have long since been many possibilities to shoot more efficiently.
Technical innovations such as energy efficient lighting are as much a part of this as the awareness of every crew member.’
I do work with a company in the States called Sungevity that leases solar panels to homes. They figured out how to move forward environmentally and how to make it economically successful.
So that’s my small but steadfast global contribution. I think everybody doing a little bit is all that’s made any difference, ever.‘
Producer, Director and Visual Effects Supervisor (2001: A Space Odysee, Blade Runner)
"Trumbull Studios in Massachusetts is dedicated to being green as much as possible, including the use of LED lighting, solar power, and solar laptops. This is not just because our location has limited amperage and no three-phase, we believe we have a responsibility to our community and our planet to be a clean industry.
We are planning for digital photography in 3D 4K at 120 frames per second from remote and inaccessible locations that will not have available power. Solar is the way to go."
Dieter Kosslick, Director Berlin International Film Festival
„The Berlinale is already actively addressing the sustainability subject since years. We appreciate it very much that a growing number of filmmakers, among them this year‘s jury presiden Darren Aranofsky, is following green guidelines on set.“
Benoit Delhomme
Director of Photography (A Most Wanted Man)
‘I never have been told precisely what the rules are for shooting a green movie, but we are trying to do it. This is something new for me. Sometimes people overlight scenes at night. I don’t. If I can see with my own eyes, then it is enough for the film. In that sense I am a green DoP.’
Academy Award winner Jeremy Irons who stars in the Berlinale Competition entry The Night Train To Lisbon is a fan of source segregated recycling. „Especially in Germany you have done a lot for that. You are examplary in the matter of waste separation.“
The Hollywood actor travelled around the world to promote the environmntal documentary feature film Trashed by Candida Brady which deals with the global garbage problem: „We buy it, we bury it, we burn it and then we ignore it“, says Brady. „With Jeremy Irons as our guide, we discover what happens to the billion or so tons of waste that goes unaccounted for each year.“
Since the world premiere at the International Cannes Film Festival in 2012 Trashed picked up various nominations and awards at international festivals.