Green Spotlight shines a light on sustainability practices in screen productions across Aotearoa. We share what teams are measuring, what they are changing, and the honest learnings that help the rest of us do it better.
When Greenstone shot the fourth season of My Life Is Murder, the team set out to build on where the last season left off. Back in 2023, the third season had trialled an early version of the Greenlit Carbon Calculator, before it officially launched. MLIM4 picked that thread up with the full tool and a clear brief: build a fuller picture of the footprint, keep cutting emissions and waste, and grow a culture of sustainable action.
What makes this report so useful is its honesty. Alongside the wins, the team are open about what was harder than expected and what did not stick, and that candour is exactly what the rest of us can learn from.
The numbers
MLIM4’s footprint came in at 244.19 tCO2e across eight episodes, roughly 30.5 tCO2e per episode, and comfortably under its pre-production estimate of 280 tCO2e even while measuring more categories than before.
The headline finding points the way forward for all of us: around 90% of the footprint came from fossil fuel use in commute, vehicles, generators and flights, with vehicles alone at 42.2%. That concentration is not a failure, it is a map. It shows how much a shift to alternative power and lower-emission travel can move a production’s total.
Going electric, and using less
The team leaned into that map. On screen, the lead character now drives a fully electric vehicle. Off screen, the lighting team right-sized to a 66kVA generator and went genless for days at a time, running smaller units off a 2kVA battery. In a very Aotearoa moment of No. 8 wire thinking, one of the Script Supervisors built a reusable power rig for Video Village from her partner’s tool batteries, rather than buying new tech. The team also built an EV fuel cost comparison spreadsheet, the first iteration of Greenlit’s mileage calculator, so productions can factor charging savings in when weighing up vehicle hire.
Culture change, told honestly
The most valuable pages are the ones about people, and they do not shy away from the messy bits. A commuting competition showed that lower-carbon commuting is possible for crew once they feel supported to try. Meat-free Wednesdays saved roughly half a tonne of CO2e but drew consistent pushback, and the team are honest about weighing a blanket policy against the goodwill it can cost. A cup-free policy dropped daily disposables from around 80 to 36, but proved hard to hold on a location-heavy shoot. The takeaway: these changes hinge on the right facilities and proper support for Unit, not just good intentions.
Waste: 76% kept out of landfill
MLIM4 diverted 76% of its waste from landfill, a big lift on MLIM3’s 55%. A four-bin system ran across office and set, glass swap-a-bottle milk saved 216 plastic bottles, and over 200kg went to specialty recyclers. Construction waste, the sector’s single largest waste stream, got particular focus: careful sorting and a trial partnership kept 65 to 70% out of landfill, and at wrap the team ran a sustainable strike, saving materials for reuse rather than the skip.
Looking ahead
Beyond the footprint sits the handprint. MLIM4’s feedback fed straight into improving Greenlit’s tools, their data adds to a growing picture of the sector’s impact here in Aotearoa, and Greenstone are donating to local regenerative projects to give something back to te Taiao. As the report puts it, collecting the data is an important step, but the next steps are on all of us: to keep changing, adapting and acting.
Ngā mihi nui to sustainability manager Juliet Williams for her mahi in compiling this report, and to Greenstone and the MLIM4 cast and crew for the work behind it and for sharing it so openly.
Read the full report: here.
About Greenlit Greenlit is Aotearoa New Zealand’s sustainability body for the screen sector, providing tools, training, carbon measurement and support to help productions reduce their environmental impact.