Rauora

He rau ringa e oti ai.

Together we can restore the land, the water and the people.

Sustainability Department

While the responsibility for environmental sustainability lies collectively with everyone on a production, the Sustainability Department is there to support and coordinate the efforts.

In many ways this is similar to the role of the Health and Safety team – who are there to support other teams in implementing safe practice, but there isn’t the expectation on them to manage all elements of safety themselves (an impossible task).

The Department

Sustainability Officer

The sustainability officer is the person on your production who is responsible for guiding the implementation of your sustainability action plan, in line with your environmental policy.

Depending on the scale of your production, your officer might be at the experience level of a sustainability manager, sustainability coordinator, or a responsible crew representative.

Department Scalability

The sustainability department is scalable to match your shoot. The below is intended to be a guide only, please use your best judgement and seek advise from an experienced sustainability officer in determining your requirements.

Suggested Minimum Team Size

With any new department it can be initially difficult to understand what you need to do both do the job well, and avoid team burnout. Here is a simple formula to help plan ahead. This should be considered a minimum team size and is variable on a case-by-case basis:

1 x Sustainability Manager, plus 1 x team member per 50 crew.
If the sustainability team is expected to handle waste (this would normally fall to locations / unit), then you will also need: 1 x Waste Systems Coordinator, plus 1 x Bin Wrangler per 10 waste collection points (a single waste collection point may have a number of bins, where each bin is a different waste stream).

Scaling Table

Scale	Sustainability Action Plan	Pre-Production	Principal Photography	Wrap	Reporting
< 20 crew	Created by producer under guidance or advice from a sustainability officer.	Production oversees sustainability.	One person from the crew assumes the role of sustainability representative.	Production oversees sustainability.	Prepared by the Producer.
< 40 crew	Created by a sustainability officer. Approved by the Producer.	Part time sustainability officer.	Part time sustainability officer and a full-time sustainability representative.	Part time sustainability officer.	Done by the sustainability officer in collaboration with the Producer.
< 80 crew		Full-time sustainability manager, with an assistant.
< 160 crew		Full-time sustainability manager, a sustainability coordinator.	Full-time sustainability manager, a sustainability coordinator, and assistants as required.
+ 160 crew		Full-time sustainability manager, a waste systems coordinator, a sustainability coordinator and assistants as required.

Team Structure

Sustainability-Manager

Role

The Sustainability Manager works collaboratively with the crew of a production to develop, coordinate, and promote effective environmental sustainability initiatives to reduce the production’s impact on the environment.

Responsibilities include educating the crew and cast about sustainability and the collective responsibility of protecting our environment; coordinating activities related to sustainability; troubleshooting problems around reduction of waste and carbon footprint; and overseeing the reporting of carbon emissions and waste produced.

Within the Production

The Sustainability Manager reports directly to the production Line Producer and sits alongside other heads of department on a production. Their role within the team is to support the other heads of department – empowering them to implement environmental sustainability practices within their teams and providing coordination and assistance where required.

Sustainability Department/Team

Within the sustainability department, the following roles can exist in support of the Sustainability Manager.

Emission Reduction Officer
Waste Systems Coordinator
Sustainability Coordinator
Bin Wranglers
Sustainability Assistant

Profile

Required

As the role of Sustainability Manager is a new role within the industry, requirements on experience can be flexible. The following, however, are prerequisites for anyone within this role:

Cultural competency and an understanding of Tikanga Māori.
A good understanding of how the screen industry works, including how crews operate, the challenges they face and the processes they go through. This should be learned through professional experience within the industry over a number of years.
Critical thinking skills.
Good understanding of global environmental issues and solutions.
Good understanding of how to facilitate culture shifts toward sustainable practices.

Preferred Experience

The ideal candidate would have experience from a variety of the following sources:

A relationship with tangata whenua.
A qualification in a discipline related to environmental or sustainability studies.
Prior experience as an HOD in the screen industry.
Experience leading a sustainability department on a production, or as a sustainability coordinator on a production of significant scale.
Experience in environmental sustainability from a transferable role in another industry or large organisation.

Skills and Qualities

The ideal candidate for the role of Sustainability Manager would have a combination of the following skills and qualities:

Effective verbal and written communication skills.
A strong, consistent and agreeable presence.
Initiative and ability to work independently.
Practical and collaborative problem solving skills.
Critical thinking skills.
Patience and listening skills.
Research skills and desire to maintain knowledge base from international screen sector learnings and best practice.
Attention to detail and in reporting / accounting systems for carbon and waste monitoring.

Other Roles in the Department

Sustainability Coordinator

The sustainability coordinator role can be generalist on small productions, or take on a diverse range of different specialisations within larger teams. Think of this role as the production coordinator role of the sustainability department.

The role supports the Sustainability Manager in their duties and specific departments in coordinating their sustainability efforts. Specialisations can include: departmental allocation; strategy and procurement; cyclic systems management; researching; and more.