Sustainability accreditation program Rolling Green has launched a new best practice guide aimed specifically at documentary filmmakers and productions shooting in nature.

The Rolling Green program was launched in April 2021 by the Quebec Film and Television Council (QFTC), Quebecor and the Conseil québécois des événements écoresponsables. Since then, the three-tiered program has awarded approximately 150 green accreditations to film and television productions in Quebec, Valérie Daigneault (pictured left), the QFTC’s director of the secretariat of the audiovisual cluster, tells Playback Daily.

This latest guide and modified Rolling Green accreditation, which officially launched on Jan. 7 with the support of Telefilm Canada, follows the original live-action production guide and one for VFX and animation launched in March 2024. The accreditation, which can be given to productions at the commitment, performance and excellence levels, has been modified for documentary productions in the same way it was for VFX and animation earlier.

A Telefilm Canada study published in 2024 estimated that Canadian films generate 7,126 tonnes of CO2 equivalent annually, while Canadian TV series generate 260,843 equivalent tonnes per year.

The study identified travel, transport and materials as the biggest sources of emissions. Travel and transport accounted for 58% of total emissions, and materials represented 23%.

Transport is one of the main issues for documentaries, says Daigneault. That’s why the guide recommends renting electric or hybrid vehicles where possible, organizing carpooling and promoting concrete incentives for soft mobility such as providing bicycles or offering refunds on public transit.

The biggest difference for this new best practice guide is the focus on risks faced by wildlife and ecosystems, which was not covered in the previous live-action guide. For example, one recommendation is to favour natural light wherever possible, as excessive artificial light is damaging to flora and fauna.

“[Documentary productions] were saying to us, ‘we are shooting with smaller budgets, smaller team, smaller resources. It’s impossible to do green production,'” says Daigneault.

More generally, the guide recommends establishing an “eco-responsibility strategy and green plan” in pre-production and designating someone in charge, or otherwise hiring a green coordinator.

Other recommendations include avoiding waste, single-use plastics, thrifting when possible and donating props, clothing and equipment afterward.

The guide also suggests cutting meals with meat when possible. It states a vegetarian meal has 510 grams of equivalent carbon on average while a meal containing meat can be as high as 7.26 kilograms. In fact, it recommends one day a week with 100% vegetarian meals. These suggestions are also noted as being ideal to maximize sustainability for small filmmaking teams.

For shoots in nature, recommendations include using electric generators, which are quieter than diesel; minimizing time on site; using image bank services to reduce site visits; and, when possible, directing lighting downward to keep the illuminated area as small as possible. The guide also recommends contacting the First Nations council or community in advance to learn further best practices for the area.

“It can be easy to implement, and at the end this kind of action can have great impact to reduce the ecological footprint for your film or your documentary,” says Rolling Green project manager Marine Kockmann (pictured right).

The program initially started with a pilot of 25 productions. Now, Rolling Green is also a part of the cinema studies program at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Students in the final year of their studies have to have their production be accredited by Rolling Green.

Rolling Green is in the early stages of a study to examine the impacts of sustainability on production budgets, running the gamut from reusing clothes to the cost of renewable energy. Daigneault says once that is complete the program will start to look at financial aid for productions aiming to be green, listing the government and equipment providers as potential sources.

The financial aid would likely take the form of green production incentives akin to those in many European countries, such as France and Germany. As well, the organization is planning to open conversations with the City of Montreal to make it easier for productions to access its renewable electricity as opposed to using diesel generators.

The organization is also working on the second edition of Rolling Green Rendez-vous, a day of workshops and panels scheduled for the end of March in Montreal. Some of those workshops will feature discussions on how Rolling Green’s guides can be implemented in real-world scenarios.

Images courtesy of the Quebec Film and Television Council