A  case study on the carbon footprint of a Vancouver-based animation studio found that remote work accounted for the majority of its annual emissions.

The study, commissioned by the B.C. branch of the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA-BC) with the support of Telefilm Canada, looked at the total annual carbon emissions of a B.C.-based animation studio to provide a snapshot of the environmental impact of animation production. It was conducted by New York City-headquartered Earth Angel Sustainable Production Services, and is meant to fill a gap in research on the emissions of animation studios.

The company, referred to as AS in the study, generated an estimated 403 tonnes of CO2 in emissions in 2022, with remote work accounting for 268 tonnes of CO2, or 65% of the total. Air travel, which has been widely cited as the leading generator of emissions in the screen sector, contributed approximately 71 tonnes of CO2, or 20% of total emissions during the year.

AS moved to a hybrid work model in 2020, and 95% still work from home, according to the report. Approximately 20 to 30 people go into the studio daily.

“I was expecting more of an impact from the data centres, but the fact that remote work totally superseded the impact was quite surprising,” AnaLaura Giacomel, who co-authored the study with Melissa Felder on behalf of Earth Angel, tells Playback Daily.

The company is headquartered in B.C., with a satellite location in Ontario. It has worked on TV, feature film and theatrical releases, ranging from two up to 16 productions a year. It employs approximately 700 people across Canada, a majority of which are B.C.-based and also collaborates with international developers, largely in Indonesia, according to the report.

The study looked at the studio’s operational and production processes, including energy use and waste production and management, and other areas of impact for 2022. The overall emissions data excluded “the lifecycle analysis of the equipment used in animation” and the “downstream impacts from distribution, merchandising, and streaming, which can be significant,” read the report.

In order to conduct the study, Earth Angel held bi-weekly meetings with the AS executive team to understand their production process, made site visits to the AS main facility, and held consultations with the AS team, in addition to supporting secondary research and analysis, which spanned spring to fall 2023.

The studio’s work model meant its footprint was estimated “to skew most heavily to remote worker’s use of fossil-fuelled resources in space conditioning, and in particular the use of natural gas for heating residential office space,” read the report, noting that the impact “would have been otherwise tempered with the emissions associated with commuting to the office.”

“I’m not sure that every studio would think about its workforce in terms of how it’s either traveling on-site or its energy use off-site,” says Felder. “But, as we saw in this study, that’s actually potentially a very significant part of a company’s impact.”

The office facility of the studio contributed an estimated 56 tonnes of CO2 in 2022, with the company’s data centre accounting for more than half of the emissions. This was likely due to the “mechanical cooling system, which comprises several large-scale cooling units that date prior to 2007 (and in some cases to 1992).”

The majority of animation work completed by AS is 3D or CGI work and as a result, the entire animation process is completed digitally, requiring minimal physical materials, noted the report.

“Even though, compared to the remote workforce, the data centre estimate doesn’t seem like that much in terms of CO2, it’s still fairly high,” says Felder. “I think overall with any studio that is still using an older configuration for the data centre, they would all be well served by moving to something that’s more purpose-built and reuses waste heat.”

The report recommended introducing initiatives to support workers in reducing their home office electric and heating consumption, including cost-sharing opportunities that could be developed with the regional municipality. To address the impact of air travel, it recommended prioritizing virtual meetings, “opt for economy flights over business and first class, and limit layovers to avoid multiple take-offs and landings to lessen overall impact from corporate travel.”

The findings are most relevant to animation studios sharing similar characteristics, such as size of workforce, operating procedures, and geographic location, read the report, which noted that AS exhibits best in-class practices in many areas.

“Having data into what animation production can actually do in terms of a carbon footprint is so vital to addressing the impact areas and developing the infrastructure [to tackle them],” says Earth Angel’s Giacomel. Earth Angel also has branches in Toronto, Vancouver, Los Angeles and Atlanta.

Image: Unsplash