Finland's audiovisual industry uses albert to boost the sustainability of productions

Sustainability is at the core of the Finnish society. Finland aims to be carbon-neutral and the first fossil-free welfare society by 2035** and currently tops the Country Sustainability Ranking among 150 countries*. There is also a strong will to establish more sustainable practices the audiovisual industry. In 2021, the key players in the industry created the national sustainability strategy initiative, which is led by Audiovisual Producers Finland (APFI), Finland's trade association for audiovisual content producers.

Albert produces the crucial data to calculate environmental effects

Albert, an internationally recognized toolkit developed in the UK, has been selected as the primary reporting tool for the Finnis audiovisual industry. Introducing albert is the first step toward collecting data on the environmental effects of film and TV productions in Finland. Notably, all the major Finnish channels and streamers are committed to albert, even though most have their own sustainability programs.  

Since early 2022, five production companies have piloted the albert toolkit to calculate the carbon footprint of selected productions. The pilot projects aim to determine the suitability of the toolkit for Finnish requirements. Albert is administered by APFI and is free to use for all Finnish productions starting from June 2022. Read more about the pilot on APFI's article

Useful lessons from the sustainability survey and pilot projects

Albert focuses on measuring the environmental effects of the productions. Measuring social, cultural and economic sustainability are equally important. Business Finland, which administers the national audiovisual incentive, is mapping out the possibilities for adding sustainability as one of the attributes in the funding process.

The first survey to explore the readiness of the industry to implement changes was conducted with the productions that applied for and received the audiovisual incentive during spring 2022. The results suggest that there is motivation to make productions more sustainable, but effective implementation is hindered by a lack of knowledge and leadership, all the way from the planning phase to the actual production. It is also still difficult to measure the effectiveness of the actions taken.

The sustainability strategy initiative is also funded by the key partners of the industry, for example, Business Finland (Film in Finland), government ministries, Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE, Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture AVEK, Finnish Film Foundation, and regional film commissions.

*Robeco.com link to research

**Ministry of Environment Climate Neutral Finland 2035