Sustainable Production Award Winners

2018 was the first Sustainable Production Excellence Awards as part of the Sustainable Production Forum. Read on to see who this year’s winners were.

Top photo from left to right: Lisa Day, Mark Rabin, Grace Gilroy, Zena Harris, Clara George, Kelsey Evans

Reel Green is proud to share that Reel Green Ambassador, Clara George, won one of the first Sustainable Excellence Awards in the category of Sustainable Production Champion for her work on The Magicians.

Clara has spearheaded initiatives to encourage acquisition of hybrid fleets from rental companies and reducing the amount of plastic, fuel, paper, and red meat on her productions. Last month, Reel Green wrote a piece detailing Clara’s achievements on just one production.

Clara accepted her award at the Sustainable Production Forum on October 5th mentioning that there are 60,000 [industry members] in Vancouver and that if we all do this together there’s nothing stopping us.

Nominations for the Sustainable Production Champion award came from around the world and the jury decided on four recipients.

Winner:  Kelsey Evans, Owner/Operator of Keep it Green Recycling

• Kelsey has been changing the recycling scene in the Metro Vancouver motion picture industry. She started collecting recyclables while working in the production office and then has successfully grown a business that diverts tons of waste from the landfill each year.  She has gone above and beyond to do all she can to help her “film family” keep it green. She is a collaborator at the Sustainable Lockup organizing set material reuse and food donations. She is truly a sustainable production champion

Winner: Ronny Fritsche, Producer, Film I Väst (the biggest film fund in Scandinavia), Zentropa,  Sweden

• Ronny started integrating sustainability in his work in 2015 when he worked as a production manager on a Swedish TV series. He started with small steps like sorting waste on all departments and having at least one day every week with plant-based catering. Today his productions can be 100% vegan, with no flights, transport using electric cars, a sustainability plan for his series and other things like waste sorting, no water bottles, no disposables and much more!  Ronny is described as an inspiration and he has made the industry aware in Sweden, to talk about something they didn’t talk about just a couple of years ago.

Winner: Mark Rabin, Founder, and CEO of Portable Electric.  

• Mark has worked tirelessly to come up with a cleaner option for portable power in the film and entertainment industry. Mark challenges the way people think about power needs and uses his enthusiasm and vision to come up with innovative ways to inspire the film industry to think about energy in a more sustainable light by providing creative and tangible solutions. 

Another winner of the night included The X-FILES season 11 with Lisa Day of 20th Century Fox and Grace Gilroy, producer, accepting the award for Sustainable Production Impact. Key areas to be celebrated included crew engagement, carbon emission reduction through the use of LED technology and other energy efficient technologies, responsible material sourcing and waste management, recycling and compost, and donating food. Read our write up from earlier in the year on how The X-FILES diverted 68% of its waste during production.

A big congratulations to all the winners and nominees!

Header Photo Credit: Flora Adil