NBC Universal Best Practices

PRE PRODUCTION
Recognizing the goals of a sustainable production at the outset will help organize your work plan, as well as clearly communicate your goals to all crew members.
• Engage department heads and crew early during the production discussions about sustainability goals.
• Schedule a meeting with NBC Universal’s Manager of Sustainable Production.
• Ensure the department heads and core crew understand that your goal is to keep the production’s carbon emissions low and environmental footprint light.

 Set expectations for environmental sustainability with a few basic principles:
• Rent instead of buy • Reuse instead of wreck • Recycle instead of dump • Turn it off instead of leaving it on
• Inform your crew of the most important areas: • Travel/Transportation
• Set Design/Construction • Energy/Electric • Kitchen/Water • Waste/Recycling
• While green best practices are often implemented in a comprehensive fashion across many production functions, those new to the process may also choose to focus on one area where the impact will be greatest (e.g. if your target is waste, measure how much garbage is recycled instead of ending up as landfill).

HIRING YOUR DEPARTMENT HEADS AND COORDINATORS
• The greening of a production is more easily facilitated when the producers support it. Make it clear to your team that sustainability is important to you and the studio, as well as the industry.
• Discuss whether prospective crew members are willing to integrate sustainable production practices into their workflow and encourage innovation in this area.
• Identify and distribute a set of standards to produce by. Start with this guide. Other green practices available to the industry are:
• Motion Picture Association of America • Producers Guild of America

BUILDING SUPPORT FROM YOUR CORE CREW
• Promote participation from all crew members. • Rely on your crew’s expertise. They are the best in their field and can often
offer innovative solutions to sustainability challenges on set.
• Pull your crew together to discuss potential sustainability goals and how to achieve them.
• Type up and digitally distribute the agreed sustainability goals.
• Designate a crew member who will be primarily responsible for assisting with the implementation of green best practices and monitor the production’s environmental “footprint”. This will provide department heads with valuable assistance and help production crew members reach their goals.
The assigned crew member’s sustainability role should include:
• Researching sustainable resources for services and materials.
• Analyzing the relative costs of sustainable resources and potential environmental benefits.
• Liaising with NBC Universal’s Manager of Sustainable Production to implement and track green practices on set.

 This article contains only a portion of the full 39 page document issued by NBC Universal - to download the full document, CLICK HERE