At Faction, we believe in the power of films and media to inspire our Collective to protect the outdoor spaces we love. However, we recognize that films lead to carbon emissions, which ultimately have a negative impact on the environment. That’s why we take steps to predict emissions before our productions start, allowing us to make decisions that reduce our impact as a whole. Read on to find out how we calculated and offset emissions relating to the production of our latest short film ‘Chile | Spirit of the Volcano.’
"CHILE" EMISSIONS CALCULATION
We worked with Albert, the industry leader for sustainability in film and TV, to submit all information relating to carbon emissions for “Chile” to their carbon calculator; from travel and accommodation, to food consumption and post-production. This enabled us to understand the overall carbon footprint of the film production and the key areas where we could aim to reduce emissions in the future. In areas where we had to estimate emissions, we always tried to over-estimate.
The result: our film produced an estimated 18.98 tons of CO2 emissions, the vast majority relating to travel and transport. Here is a breakdown of emissions produced by the production of ‘Chile’:
CLIMATE NEUTRAL PRODUCTION
A Climate Neutral project refers to one that has matched the quantity of CO2 produced by sequestering carbon or funding projects that will avoid using non-renewable resources such as carbon. As a result of our analysis, we are proud to state that our short film ‘Chile’ is officially credited as a climate neutral production. Click here for our official climate neutral breakdown.
Following our emission calculations with Albert, we teamed up with ClimatePartner to offset our emissions, by investing in a high-standard renewable energy project in India. Due to the uncertainties related to carbon emission calculations, ClimatePartner added a 10% safety margin to our estimates to ensure all and more of our emissions were offset. Our investment contributed to offsetting 20,878kg of CO2.
THE PROJECT: WIND ENERGY - NASHIK, INDIA
Coal-based thermal power plants are one of the main sources of energy in India and also one of the largest CO2 emitters. This carbon offset project in the Nashik region in Maharashtra, India, replaces parts of the fossil energy by feeding renewable wind energy into the regional NEWNE power grid, which supplies north, east, west and northeast India. Four wind turbines with a total capacity of six megawatts were installed for this purpose.
The wind project generates approximately 12,530 megawatt hours of electricity per year and saves approximately 11,560 tons of CO2. With this and the creation of local jobs, the project contributes to sustainable development in India.
OUR JOURNEY TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE FILMS
‘Chile’ is our second climate neutral certified production and this marks an important step towards ensuring rigorous sustainability targets throughout our films and media content. Moving forward we will use the information from our emissions calculations to guide our decisions and ensure our films adopt a climate first approach. We are committed to actively reducing our emissions wherever possible and offsetting what we cannot reduce through high-standard projects with ClimatePartner.
As a Collective, it is our goal to produce award-winning films with a sustainable mindset that showcase not only our roster of talent, but also highlight our deep respect and admiration for our mountainous playground.
