At the core of Into Film's Environmental Sustainability Plan is our commitment to the principles of equality, justice, and continual improvement. We plan our work and act on these principles to help create a better world for ourselves and future generations.
Specifically, Into Film harnesses the power of film and our relationship with schools and educators across the United Kingdom to influence children and young people, helping them use moving picture storytelling to explore the wonders of the natural world, the climate emergency, climate justice, sustainability, and other important environmental issues such as pollution and endangered species.
Content
Storytelling at Into Film starts with our film catalogue, and our curators will continue to focus on environmental themes as will our screenings and events teams. Our climate change theme page provides efficient access to and organisation of our environmentally-themed films, resources and blog posts. We will also further our engagement with our partners' climate and environmental sustainability resources, films, and initiatives, such as the recent addition of Doc Academy's climate change resources to our website.
Building on the success of our Nature in Your Neighbourhood competition during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, we plan to continue inspiring and engaging young filmmakers and their peers, provoking ‘green' insights and encouraging care for the planet. New campaigns for filmmaking, new events for engaging with films, and new resources to support educators will provide the focus for these green stories in 2021.
Additionally, we are fundraising for a new Guardians of the Future initiative, which will fund and support groups of young people to create short films focused on highlighting and exploring themes within the United Nations Sustainability Goals.
Operations
With the launch of Into Film+, 2021 marked the first time that films on our catalogue were made accessible online. This led to our DVD service being retired, which in turn removed the carbon footprint associated with warehouse storage and the sending and receiving of DVDs.
The ongoing pandemic, while difficult for us all, has continued to accelerate our progression in successfully implementing changes which support our environmental sustainability initiatives. We have moved much of our programme delivery online, resulting in minimal travel (even outside of lockdown periods) and reduced consumerism across the organisation. When we return to our offices, a substantial amount of these changes will be continued where possible.
Our Green Team, with staff representation from across the four nations of the UK, meets fortnightly to share best practices for reducing environmental impact, review existing practices, and identify and action steps for improvement across the organisation.
Throughout 2021 we plan to continually improve our environmental sustainability commitments in the following ways:
- Sustainable marketing drives now take place online and printing of promotional material has dropped to virtually nil
- Printing requirements and equipment are being reduced or replaced by eco-friendly options in all offices
- Green inductions for new staff now take place online and highlight the organisation's focus and prioritisation of environmental concerns
- We aim to achieve a Creative Green Certification through Julie's Bicycle, which we plan to complete in 2021-22
- Tracking mechanisms for monitoring environmental impacts will be introduced
- Extensive recycling takes place in all offices, with teams monitoring local requirements to ensure adherence to all regulations
- Reduction of our energy consumption, with a target reduction of 10% in 2021.
- A review of remote working policies (following easing of Covid-19 restrictions)
- Finding and switching to 100% sustainable energy suppliers for our regional offices (our HQ in London switched in 2020)
- Transition to green ISO 50001 certification, including at our data centre and with our service providers
- Reduction of single-use plastic and consumption of goods across the organisation
- The development of new staff policies to reinforce and support greener options for travel.
As we plan to continue our commitments and improve our approach, we also intend to share what we have learned about the best sustainability and green practices with our network of children and young people, including Into Film Club members, our Youth Advisory Council, Young Reporters, and event, festival and online course attendees. We will do the same with our network of educators, ambassadors, suppliers, partners, trustees, and other colleagues in the film and education sectors.
Through film, filmmaking, and resources, and by leading through example and ‘walking the talk', we aim to help make a better world for current and future generations.
