EURECA

  What is Eureca?

‘Eco-calculator’ for assessing the environmental impact of an AV production

3 partners of the Green Screen Interreg project - Promálaga, the Slovak Audiovisual Fund, and the Flanders Audiovisual Fund - team up within the European Environmental Calculator (Eureca).

Based on the learnings of the Green Screen partnership, they will develop a new online instrument that will measure the carbon footprint of AV productions including resources to raise producers’ awareness of the impact of their activities on the environment and assist them with planning including top-end scientific conversion factors for CO2 which will facilitate sustainable filming across Europe and provide a monitoring and reporting tool which will enable the film funds to consolidate results at a regional level.

The purpose is to develop a European standard instrument, for all kinds of AV productions, that not only supports productions but also allows regional and national audiovisual funds to implement green strategies. The development of this tool is based on the learnings from the Green Screen partnership. Scientists of the Catholic University of Leuven will aid with the calculation protocols and environmental parameters.

Eureca (European Environmental Calculator) is an instrument that helps the audiovisual industry to better understand and evaluate the environmental impact of their filming as well as to make their production processes more sustainable. Eureca is a pilot project emerging from the European project Green Screen, financed by the European Regional Development Fund.

Eureca is focused not only on measuring but also on raising awareness and learning from experience. The purpose of Eureca is to develop a uniform European instrument so that it can be used by any type of audiovisual production in any country in Europe. It has been created in close partnership with producers, scientists, and sustainability experts. The audiovisual industry has been involved in its creation, improvement, and implementation.

For that reason, Eureca is a tailor-made tool for all types of audiovisual productions. It is the instrument of preference for producers, line producers, eco-managers, and heads of departments. In addition to being useful for the production companies, the funding institutions at the European, national and regional levels can use Eureca as a valuable tool for certification and reporting as well as a basis for implementing and fostering sustainability promotion strategies. 

Eureca will

Help companies - It not only focuses on evaluating/reporting on emissions but also on helping audiovisual companies to make the decisions during their planning to make their filming more sustainable.
Convert factors - It is uniform and consistent at the European level, using reliable conversion factors based on a database developed by sustainability experts. Where needed, regional impacts will be taken into account.
Consolidate data - Facilitates the consolidation of data from different productions at regional, national, and European levels.
Be friendly - It is intuitive and easy to use. It has an affordable cost of use.

Why people should choose Eureca

The aim of Eureca is to have a rough reference assessment of your film, based on the financial budget, to detect the different important fields of impact. By reporting your actual impact, Eureca will generate an overview of the environmental savings. Eureca will also allow the consolidation of broad results of different films at the regional level and will be linked to the Green Film certification scheme.

Eureca is based on scientific information on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and helps all kinds of audiovisual productions, covering pre-production, production, and post-production to predict the important fields of impact during the planning phase, but also allows to report once the production is up and running.

Eureca is not a magical solution: you will still need to make the decisions based on your own experience, depending on the availability of sustainable goods and services on your local market, building on the craftsmanship and creativity of your team and within your budget limitations. But it will at least offer you a better and reliable environmental assessment.