Like any other industry, the film and television business in Canada is an ecosystem. As an ecologist would tell you, an ecosystem’s resilience is its ability to bounce back from shocks that disturb the balance. At the moment, the industry is facing multiple disruptions that are demanding a change of course.

The first shock is a short-term one stemming from our close integration with the U.S. film industry. With the WGA and SAG-AFTRA now on strike, a great deal of production here has ground to a halt. Canadian charity the AFC said it has provided more than $1.2 million in strike-related assistance to local industry members since May. Financial concerns are on everybody’s mind.

The second shock is climate change, and by no means is film the only industry affected. We will all have to adapt our ways of doing business. But since making movies and TV is such a complicated and time-sensitive process, any disruptions ripple out to affect the entire production.

Wildfires, flooding, and other climate impacts are real threats. Last year, filming for TNT’s Snowpiercer had to shut down early in B.C. after 14 crew and actors were hospitalized with heat exhaustion. Delays and their attendant workarounds often cost tens of thousands of dollars per day. Climate change compounds the risk.

The industry landscape is already changing with the new Online Streaming Act (Bill C-11) and the corresponding uncertainty around its long-term impacts. What’s clearer is that modernizing Canada’s Broadcasting Act allows for a look at sustainability in the audiovisual industry and the resiliency of the industry long-term.

Just as the pandemic was a shock that prompted reflection and life changes for many people, so too are these shocks a chance for the film industry to create new patterns and do things differently. Action is sorely needed, because the way we work is not sustainable for the planet and our people. Disruption creates a temporary vacuum, and we must fill it with better practices.

Consider that the average tentpole film emits more than 3,300 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, according to figures from the Sustainable Production Alliance. To sequester that much carbon would require over 55,000 tree seedlings to be planted and then growing for ten years.

Like other sectors, we are over-drawing from our natural accounts, and every year we see that the interest on our natural debt grows larger. But we can use this pause to commit, at least in Canada, to a much more sustainable track that will position our industry as more competitive and more resilient.

Replacing polluting, noisy diesel generators with battery units from Canadian companies (or at least renewable fuel) is one solution, as is right-sizing them to reduce needless fuel burn. Others include switching to electric vehicles wherever possible, paying attention to vehicle sizes, and plugging productions into the grid. There are many other ways to reduce our footprint, and while they often involve up-front investment, we see cost savings operationally. In the long term they are essential to a competitive industry, safe and fair work, and a livable planet.

Any improvements we collectively make will have a big impact: the Motion Picture Association of Canada reported that in 2022, the industry added $13.7 billion to Canada’s GDP and sustained just under a quarter-million jobs. This is just the economic contribution — the film and TV business is a primary outlet for Canadian stories and culture, too.

Any industry so important to our economy and culture needs to be resilient, if only because the climate shocks are not going to slow down. Governments worldwide will have to respond with appropriately higher prices on pollution, and industries that have already made sustainable moves will be greatly advantaged.

The challenges and the opportunities are here in front of us now. But box-checking and superficial action is not going to get us through the hard parts or deliver lasting dividends. Do we want to be a business that can tell heroic stories about imaginary characters but can’t step up when it’s our turn to act?

Creativity is our lifeblood, our bottom-line, and our passion. Let’s do what we do best with the film business itself — think creatively about better ways forward, then implement them. Many practices are already out there to be taken up, if we’re willing to learn, collaborate, and hold ourselves accountable.

This summer’s extreme weather leaves no room for excuses: sustainability is a business and moral imperative. If climate change were a movie, this is our third act. Will Canada’s film industry be the hero or the villain?

Zena Harris is the founder and president of Green Spark Group and the Sustainable Production Forum. The forum is running two events this fall, one in Toronto on Sept. 25 and another in Vancouver on Oct. 18.