EURECA - European Environmental Calculator

Greening the audiovisual (AV) industry is a complex challenge. A clever combination of policies adapted funding schemes, sustainable suppliers, education of film professionals and handson tools might be the ideal solution. One of the recurrent needs is a uniform, reliable and user friendly ‘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) project. Based on the learnings of the Green Screen (*) partnership, they will develop a new online instrument that will (1) measure the carbon footprint of AV productions (2) include resources to raise producers’ awareness of the impact of their activities on the environment and assist them with planning (3) include top-end scientific conversion factors for CO2 which will facilitate sustainable filming across Europe and (4) provide a monitoring and reporting tool which will enable the film funds to consolidate results at region level.

With Eureca, the aim is to solve some of the shortcomings of existing calculators. Eureca will:

• Not only focus only on assessing/reporting emissions, but also helping AVP companies to undertake quantified sustainability choices during their planning.
• Be uniform and consistent at EU level, using reliable science-based conversion factors.
• Facilitate consolidation of data of different productions at regional level.
• Be user friendly.
• Low cost.

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; the tool will be tested by regional stakeholders before it is made availability in 2021.

‘Eureca will be developed by the AV industry to support the AV industry in being green’.

(*) The Interreg Europe Green Screen project aims to reduce the carbon footprint of the audiovisual production (AVP) sector and to support productions in working more sustainably. Environmental sustainability is also crucial to the competitiveness of AVP industry and to maintaining investment and jobs. https://www.interregeurope.eu/greenscreen/

More info:
Luz Molina (lmolina@promalaga.es);
Eva Pospíšilová (eva.pospisilova@filmcommission.sk)
Zuzana Bieliková (zuzana.bielikova@filmcommission.sk)
Tim Wagendorp (twagendorp@vaf.be)