The city’s film industry is going green.
In an effort to encourage TV and film productions to be more sustainable, the mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment announced on Tuesday the voluntary initiative “NYC Film Green.”
The program includes tracking a production’s carbon footprint, practices to increase recycling on set, and implementing a plan to reduce power and electricity use in the lighting department.
The seal for meeting the core requirements will be featured during the end credits and marketing materials of a production. Under the program, a production can elect to go above the requirements for “extra credit,” and are eligible for special recognition.
“What I think is so exciting about this we are going to be the first city in the country to launch something like this,” said Julie Menin, the commissioner for the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment. “We really feel that now is the time for the TV and film industry to focus on sustainability.”
Menin said the agency spent the past six months meeting with industry stakeholders to come up with “our own model” of best practices.
“Ours is a new way of looking at this,” she said.
The pilot program will begin Nov. 1 and the mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment hopes to expand it by early summer 2017. The pilot will feature up to eight television shows and films.
But several productions have already started volunteering to implement practices aimed at reducing waste.
“Madam Secretary,” a CBS drama that films in the city, diverted 71 percent of its total waste by volunteering to implement practices, including reducing the use of disposable water bottles, according to the city agency.
