Audiovisual Producers Finland (APFI) which is coordinating a national sustainability strategy for the local film and TV industry, is kicking off its pilot phase this month.

Besides Fisher King, Tekele and public broadcaster Yle, Endemol Shine Finland and Warner Bros. International TV Production Finland have also committed to using the British ‘albert’ online carbon calculator and training programme took kit for some of their upcoming productions.

As a starting point, eight productions with crews ranging from nine to several hundred people, filming both in Finland and internationally, will be applying the albert eco tool kit, with APFI sustainability manager Anne Puolanne liaising with them.

The pilot scheme will serve as a learning period for the Finnish audiovisual trade association, which plans to supply ‘albert’ to the entire local industry by this summer.

“We need to outline what kind of help and support is needed for the green transition,” said Puolanne. “One important part is to try to think a couple steps ahead, so I’m also reaching out to common stakeholders, such as studios; it’s better if I tell them in advance what kind of information ‘albert’ productions need, instead of each production spending their time doing the same,” explained the sustainability expert.

As mentioned earlier on our website (CLICK HERE), Finland is taking a leadership role in the Nordics in setting up a nation-wide sustainability strategy for its audiovisual industry. The green initiative is partly funded by a consortium of Finnish partners and stakeholders including the Finnish Film Foundation, the Ministry of Education and Culture, Business Finland and AVEK among others.

Nordisk Film & TV Fond is also actively involved in coordinating sustainability efforts across the Nordics, in collaboration with the Nordic Eco Media Alliance (NEMA) and is due to announce concrete measures in the coming months. Liselott Forsman, the Fund’s CEO said: “We highly value APFI’s concrete and inspiring initiative and look forward to being updated on it in our collaboration with APFI’s Anne Puolanne, who also is the Fund’s Finnish NEMA contact. At Göteborg’s TV Drama Vision, our upcoming pan-Nordic collaboration will be presented in a dialogue with Ronny Fritsche, an active NEMA member from Sweden. It is crucial now that effective initiatives happen on national scales, and also that they spread cross borders , like well-coordinated rings on water."

The topic of sustainability was discussed at a panel co-organised last September by the Fund’s Audiovisual Collaboration 2021 initiative and the Finnish Film Affair in Helsinki. Read here for details.