Green Charter 2022 Report

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT OF THE 2022 ARCS FILM FESTIVAL

Les Arcs Film Festival has signed the Green Charter for Film Festivals for the 2021 edition, which commits it to measure its consumption and publish a progress report every year. This text is the report of the 2022 edition which took place from 10 to 17 December.

Organising a film festival, especially in the mountains, is a source of pollution and we are aware of this. We accept it as a whole because we feel it is important to share, disseminate, promote and participate in the renewal of European cinema, which is a human asset. However, we commit ourselves every year to find new ideas, to develop good habits, to be more aware and sometimes to give up in order to reduce our impact.

It is interesting to note that the Green Charter for Film Festivals was born in Les Arcs and has now been signed by some forty festivals. The idea was born during a workshop in which a dozen festivals participated and became a reality thanks to the MIOB network, a group of 7 festivals of which Les Arcs Film Festival is a member. During the 2022 edition, a group of participants decided to create a collective called Collectif 5% which promotes the commitment of cinema professionals to reduce their consumption by at least 5% per year, in accordance with the Paris agreements. We are of course part of this new collective.

In 2021, we had already implemented many measures to limit avoidable consumption and waste. The objective for 2022 was to continue this reduction, which is why we recruited a trainee, under the direct responsibility of the management, to monitor our commitments, find ways to improve, promote good practices and raise awareness among our teams, partners and participants, and measure our consumption more and more accurately.

In accordance with the Green Charter, we have set up a charter for our team, one for our partners and one for our participants. We have also put in place a charter and a process to fight against sexist and sexual violence.

We want to say here that for us, maximising our impact is crucial, but we also want to use our power of influence with the public and the professionals present to promote the importance of taking into account societal issues of the 21st century, including ecology and environmental responsibility. Cinema is a powerful medium that can bring about change and we are aware of this. We also believe that the treatment of subjects such as the place of women in cinema and by extension in society, disability, the fight against sexist and sexual violence, education and culture, is part of a global movement for change in society that we wish to promote, within our means.

2022 edition in figures

Les Arcs Film Festival offers screenings for a wide audience and professional events during one week.

In 2022, we welcomed :

- 1,292 accredited people (1,282 in 2021) - this includes professionals, guests, staff, volunteers...

- 20,335 spectators (19,527 in 2021)

- 238 people in charge of the organisation (214 in 2021), including teams, volunteers and service providers.

The general growth of the festival in terms of attendance is estimated at around 6%.

Energy consumption (5% of total consumption)

Electricity

Our year-round offices are heated with electric radiators, which account for most of our electricity consumption. We have achieved a significant reduction due to the optimisation of the heating system and its limitation to a maximum of 19° and a particularly mild outside temperature in 2022. We use a guaranteed 100% renewable electricity supplier.

👍 Our offices' annual consumption are 16,905 Kwh in 2022 compared to 21,567 Kwh in 2021, i.e. a 22% reduction.

We have estimated the indirect consumption of electricity, in particular for the streaming servers that we used to watch the films and make our selection, with an estimate of 2.5 Kwh per film watched. In the future, we will try to calculate the average consumption due to server requests from a workstation (e-mails, downloads, shared documents...).

👎 3350 Kwh in 2022 against 3000 Kwh in 2021, i.e. an increase of 12%.

New measurement in 2022, we were able to obtain an estimate of the consumption of the main hotels and residences resulting from our presence during the week.

➡️ 36 210 Kwh estimated in 2022

We were unable to obtain an estimate for the projection rooms.

Food consumption (9% of total consumption)

Food consumption is a major contributor to our impact. Although it can be assumed that even if the festival had not taken place, guests and staff would have eaten their usual diet anyway, we feel that we have a responsibility for what we serve, especially to our staff. We have asked all of our restaurant partners to systematically offer vegetarian options on their menus so that festival-goers can choose freely. It is difficult to demand details of their suppliers and the quality of the food, but we have made them as aware as we can.

In terms of team catering, we made a big leap forward in 2021 by offering food served in large reusable dishes (no longer in individual trays) on a vegetarian basis. We have to admit that in 2022 we went backwards on our objectives because we had to change location and work with a new restaurateur, the result was not up to our requirements but we will learn from it for the next editions. We also want to review the composition of our cocktails in depth because, although they do not have a significant quantitative impact, they say a lot about our culture on the subject. Tray meals are often very practical for places far from the catering, but we have a lot of room for improvement.

👎 655 vegetarian team meals served in 2022 compared to 1,284 in 2021, a 49% drop

👎 739 tray meals served in 2022 compared to 421 in 2021, i.e. an increase of 75%.

👎 950 repas non végétariens servis en 2022 contre 429 en 2021, soit une hausse de 121%

Waste

We have not calculated the CO2 equivalent impact of waste (recovery, treatment...) which is complicated and not necessarily significant compared to the rest here. But limiting waste, making the right choice of materials and recycling are objectives that are important to us.

Paper

For participants, we continue to print our information and promotional material. Paper is still an ideal and practical medium for some people and in some situations, and not so polluting if it remains reasonable. For a few years now, we have stopped systematically giving out brochures and catalogues for those who are used to digital, which has had the effect of reducing our printing by almost half. Our printer is based in Bourg Saint Maurice to avoid transport and is labelled (production, inks, paper...).

👍 467 kg of paper consumed in 2022 compared to 482 kg in 2021, i.e. a 3% reduction

➡️ 51 Kg of paper used in the office (reams) - new measure in 2022

👍 60% recycled paper in 2022 compared to 40% in 2021 (the rest labelled paper)

Marketing elements

For several years, we have been creating undated communication elements with neutral graphics so that they can be reused year after year, until they deteriorate (banners, kakemonos, signage, etc.). Most of the consumption is the renewal of degraded objects.

👍 6 kg of marketing items produced in 2022 compared to 10 kg in 2021, i.e. a 40% reduction

Carpet

Every year we use an "exhibition" carpet supplied by the Bourg Saint Maurice town hall, it is reused for other events during the year until it is degraded, but we are looking together for a more permanent solution.

➡️ 500 kg of carpet estimated in 2021 and 2022

Plastic bottles

We still use plastic bottles for practical and sanitary reasons, especially for people in transit to Les Arcs (cars or buses). Our mineral water supplier comes from a spring located in the commune of Bourg Saint Maurice, which greatly limits transport deliveries, and delivers water in 10-litre bottles or glass bottles to restaurants and cafeterias. Tap water is also widely available as an alternative and self-service option.

We made the mistake this year of offering self-service mineral water in places that were not intended for it, which explains the increase this year. Similarly, we have banned all disposable tableware for several years but made some mistakes this year with some service providers who used disposable cups. We will work on better control in the future.

👎 466 50cl bottles in 2022 compared to 300 in 2021

Recyclable waste

We have for the first time weighed recyclable waste from the festival venues.

➡️ 281 kg in 2022

Consumption due to transport (84% of total consumption)

Transport is by far the largest consumption and impact item. We have little control over this, as we are dependent on polluting technologies and we have no control over our participants' choices. What we can do is optimise the use of buses, fill up vehicles as much as possible and promote less polluting means of transport (train rather than plane). Depending on the featured regions and the editorial content of the festival, air travel can vary greatly from year to year. For the last two years, we have focused on the Alpine regions, which are geographically close to the festival.

Train (less than 1% of total impact)

👍 203,975 km travelled by train in 2022 by the team and participants compared to 187,568 km in 2021, an increase of 8.75%.

Plane (60% of total impact)

As far as the team is concerned, we take the train as often as possible, even for long journeys, but sometimes the plane is necessary to travel to the festivals. This year, although we have reduced our travel as much as possible, we observe an increase, due to more distant trips (Vilnius, Belgrade).

👎 17 562 km in 2022 against 15 794 km in 2021, an increase of 11%.

Concerning participants, air travel is decreasing. We do not have enough elements to explain it, either professionals are flying less or it is a coincidence, we need to follow the evolution on a longer term.

👍 338,664 km in 2022 compared to 407,722 km in 2021, i.e. a 17% decrease

Cars and buses (24% of total impact)

Our official transport has decreased significantly for two reasons. The first is the optimisation of transport, we have proposed buses on the main arrival and departure times to avoid many cars, optimising the filling of vehicles. The other reason is that we opted for a fleet of hybrid vehicles.

👍 7,255 litres of petrol consumed in 2022 compared to 8,762 litres in 2021, a 17% reduction

Our participants coming by private car have increased a lot, without us having an explanation for this, maybe it is due to more declarations. However, this means of transport remains very marginal.

👎 3,524 km travelled in 2022 compared to 509 in 2021, i.e. an increase of 592%.

Conclusions

In a context of growth, we are pleased to see a decrease in our consumption of 8%, with an estimated total of 72 tonnes of Co2 (comparable to 2021, total with new measures 75 tonnes in 2022), compared to 78.5 tonnes in 2021. We are in line with our new commitment as members of the 5% Collective. However, we know that this is still too high, that we need to do better and that many of the figures are cyclical. These conclusions should be viewed with some modesty and caution.

However, we are pleased to have encouraging results that show that together we can do better. We thank the teams, participants and partners for their efforts and commitments.

The carbon equivalent calculations were made using data from the econologie.com website, the Enercoop website and impactco2.com from ADEME. The calculations are not always precise (sometimes we don't have precise enough data, for example the difference between diesel and petrol) and this calculation is not intended to express a true carbon balance, but it allows us to situate ourselves and understand our impact.