Sargent-Disc at Focus 2018

The Sargent-Disc team attended Focus-The Meeting Place for International Production in London  as an Official Partner of Bafta albert over ^4-5 December where Dr. Laurence Sargent chaired the seminar, Travelling in a Greener Direction.

Based on the Partners stand in the Green Zone alongside fellow albert Partners, Green Tomato Cars and Good Energy, it was a good opportunity to promote sustainable production tips to the industry. Sargent-Disc shared information on how the Digital Production Office®’s applications – CrewStart™, Payroll, Payslip, Payscales, Digital Purchase Order, Travel Authorisations and the Production Card – can help productions reduce carbon whilst also saving time and money.

Sargent-Disc also produced the seminar, Travelling in a Greener Direction, with Green Tomato Cars. Held at the Green Academy, it aimed to help the production industry understand its environmental impact and encourage it to reduce its carbon footprint.

Travelling in a Greener Direction

Panellists:

Dr. Laurence Sargent, Director, Sargent-Disc (Chair)

Ian Bates, Commercial Director, Green Tomato Cars.

Suzanne Dolan, Series Co-ordinator, Eastenders

Roser Canela-Mas, Industry Sustainability Manager, Bafta albert

The industry is working towards a carbon neutral future, however the transportation of people and goods remains the worst offender within the production process. Approx. 40% of the industry’s carbon footprint comes from travel whilst 75% of the travel footprint comes from moving people around (as opposed to couriers and equipment trucks).

Laurence Sargent introduced the session themes and the panel. Roser Canela-Mas set the scene – shedding light on the environmental issues facing production companies and in particular those related to travel and transportation. Ian Bates presented a case study of the work Green Tomato Cars had delivered for Discovery bringing the issues they faced to life. He discussed the challenges Discovery needed them to resolve, and how Green Tomato Cars did this.

Suzanne Dolan shared the challenges of producing Eastenders in a location (Elstree) with limited transport links. She talked about their use of hybrid cars and the purchase of hybrid vans to transport production equipment and props and what she would like the production to do going forward.

The panel agreed that eco-friendly productions are at the forefront of building best practice. Roser spoke about the challenges, strategies and actions taken by Emmerdale, The Tunnel Vengeance and Faster: Race the World to reduce travel generated carbon. Emmerdale improved their sustainable travel strategy behind and in front of the camera by leasing 7 new hybrid cars for the location and art departments, as well as using hybrid cars in the background of shots as part of their editorial strategy. Both The Tunnel Vengeance and Faster: Race the World hired local crew on location to reduce their carbon spend, with The Tunnel Vengeance‘s effective scheduling resulting in reduced travel to France when compared to previous series. All of these productions measured significant financial savings as a result of the combined interventions and by reducing the need for travel and accommodation by working with local crew. She went on to explain how the albert Carbon Calculator helped these productions plan and measure their carbon spend.

Laurence described how Sargent-Disc’s application Digital Purchase Order, which includes Travel Authorisations can also help. Typically, the process for booking travel arrangements on production involves the production company or individual manually circulating travel/hotel information before being faxed, emailed or posted to the travel office.

DPO Travel Authorisations simplify the traditional process; providing a fully integrated process which removes the need for multiple emails and manual circulation. Travel costs are viewed and approved within the DPO system, and then sent directly to the travel agent to be booked and confirmed. This enables productions to approve and document their travel expenses efficiently in one secure location. Alasdair Wilson, Product Manager at Sargent-Disc demonstrated the application’s benefits to the audience and showed how to incorporate the albert carbon calculator questions within the system to help decision making, and track production travel and transportation strategy carbon spend.

Following an interesting question and answer session with the audience, Laurence brought the seminar to a close by thanking the audience and the panel for taking part.