TheStoryofGreenProducersClub

The Green Producers Club was founded in Norway in 2018, by the Oslo-based film production company Babusjka.

Our goal was to change the way we produce film to become more sustainable.

The Club rapidly grew and soon counted 50 members across the Nordic countries (as of May 2023, this has grown to more than 100). As the pandemic hit us, and productions came to a halt, we were approached by players across the cultural sector asking whether the Club was open for members outside the TV and film industry.

In these conversations, it became clear to us that the sector really wanted to contribute and to change, but that the tools to do so did not exist.

Most importantly, we understood that whether we produce films, theatre, festivals or events, we affect the same emission categories. We need transport, equipment, food, and drinks. And we generate waste. What if we made a tool that measured emissions in the whole sector, based on the same stem, but also adaptable to the unique aspect of each industry?

We reached out to CICERO - Center for International Climate Research to pick their brains. Was it a feasible plan, and would they team up? The short answer was yes. The project got funding from the Norwegian Research Council and was named The Green Producers Tool.

In 2021, Green Producers Tool joined forces with the Norwegian Opera House, Øyafestivalen, the production company Strix, Virke - the Enterprise Federation of Norway, and web developers at Innocode. Since then, they have mapped and calculated emissions from all aspects of their theatre, film and festival productions.

In 2020, the Green Producers Club was nominated to the Oslo Climate Prize.

The project recently got EU funding to adapt the tool to the Nordic countries. Within 2023, tool will be available in local languages and be based on the local energy mix in Denmark and Sweden. The EU partners are Nordisk Film Production in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and Down the Drain Group; the organiser of NorthSide and Tinderbox, two of Denmarks largest festivals.