Responsible cinema: best practices spread
Filming with less environmental impact and respect for social issues is all well and good, but how do we actually go about it? Fortunately, to answer this question, a reference framework of best practices exists, aimed at professionals in the film, audiovisual and advertising industries: AFNOR Spec 2308. Supported by the French Ministry of Culture and the Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC), it is the fruit of a collective effort involving 130 professionals, including film, audiovisual and advertising production organizations representing employers and employees, and two historical experts on these issues, Ecoprod and Flying Secoya.
AFNOR Spec cinéma responsable: 7 chapters, 3 levels, 28 indicators
The AFNOR Spec standard offers production companies concrete actions for deploying a film, audiovisual or advertising project that takes into account the three major aspects of CSR: environmental (carbon, pollution, energy, waste, biodiversity…), social (inclusion, parity, training…) and economic (responsible purchasing, circular economy, reuse…) issues. All this, from the filming preparation phase through to post-production. The document is divided into seven chapters: governance, energy and mobility, responsible purchasing, food and waste management, digital sobriety, biodiversity and animal welfare, inclusion, parity and quality of life at work, training and awareness-raising. A shoot featuring animals, for example, will be particularly interested in chapter 6; another for a gastronomic program will be interested in chapter 4. The guidelines propose three progressive levels of commitment:
- Level 1: Production commits to a responsible approach to its project;
- Level 2: Reinforces responsibility for the project;
- Level 3: the production company implements a responsible approach to all its projects.
The reference system comprises 28 criteria, corresponding to an action or list of actions to be implemented in the context of the project in question. This will enable professionals to focus their efforts on actions identified as having an impact and adapted to the specific features of their project: establishing a mobility plan, raising awareness of inclusive recruitment, carrying out the project’s carbon footprint, etc. This last point is important in view of the obligation, in force since January1, 2024, for films and series applying for public funding, to carry out two carbon footprints: a preliminary one, upstream, and a final one, downstream. This concerns around 300 works financed by the CNC each year, or 4,600 hours of programming. The use of AFNOR Spec is notably in line with the transformation of practices promoted by the CNC’s Plan Action!, a framework program for ecological and energy transition in the cinema, audiovisual and moving image sectors. Published in May 2024, this first national standardization document is available to production professionals, who can take it up voluntarily. ” It ‘ s not out of the question that this document could eventually become an international standard, like the one on responsible events (ISO 20121), used as part of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games and more widely by the entire event industry ,” comments Grégory Berthou, supervisor of this work at AFNOR. The new version of the ISO 20121 standard will be published in mid-2024.
