Vancouver Film Studios pushes forward with sustainability

The first carbon neutral film studio in Canada has a new announcement about how they’re furthering sustainability at their studio lot.

As of June 15th, Vancouver Film Studios installed eight ChargePoint electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and four Tesla stations with the intention to reduce their studio’s carbon footprint. This charging station infrastructure will enable crew, staff, and productions to drive electric vehicles.

EV infrastructure installation incentives made available through programs like Plug-In BC and Tesla’s workplace initiative mitigates the barriers for organizations to install charging stations. These incentives lower the cost of equipment making installation a viable option for organizations. Vancouver Film Studios hopes that providing EV charging stations in the workplace will help an individual’s decision to buy an EV as range anxiety is one of the biggest barriers. This also helps prepare Vancouver Film Studios for a future in BC without internal combustion engine vehicles that may come sooner than we think; “We are on the steep slope of an exponential curve: all-electric vehicle sales were up 92% in Canada year over from 2016 to 2017. Internal combustion engines cars are becoming an endangered species.”  says Pete Mitchell, President, and COO of Vancouver Film Studios.

When Reel Green inquired why does Vancouver Film Studios feel passionate about sustainability both on their lot and within the motion picture industry here is what they had to say:

“Vancouver Film Studios believes that sustainability is important in all walks of life and that we as a corporation can help contribute in the area of film and television production. The studio lot is like a small community, and because it is small and manageable we have the opportunity to make it better in many ways – sustainability being one. In addition, when we survey our employees about their satisfaction at work, two of the top three factors are our work in the areas of environmental stewardship and social responsibility.”

Overall, Vancouver Film Studios is excited about the EV charging stations and their future prospects for use. They believe that having the infrastructure in place and ready will be an important step as the transition from internal combustion engine vehicles to EVs becomes the norm.

Learn more about how Vancouver Film Studios became the first carbon-neutral film studio in Canada.