Reshaping sustainability in digital film and TV productions

Digital production methods and their environmental touch points  

Digital production methods are tools and processes in all stages of film & TV production, including digital animation, visual effects (VFX), virtual production techniques such as LED wall stages, and extended reality (XR) applications. Their environmental challenges primarily revolve around energy consumption. They rely on high-performance computers, servers and digital infrastructure requiring energy, as outlined in the previous article on digital sustainability (1). Dr. Kreische points out: “Starting to monitor is the only way to learn about the real impact, and make the energy use as transparent as possible”.

Even though it is difficult to obtain exact data on the toll digital production takes on the electricity grid both locally and globally, tracking energy use and evaluating processes can reveal what choices have the greatest impact. These measurable environmental touch points can for example be hardware manufacturing (physical workstations, computers, screens), computing power required for rendering, and number of revisions.

For physical hardware, this means environmental impacts from raw material extraction, rare metals, device obsolescence, and electronic waste (2). There is a tipping point between replacing old devices with newer, more efficient ones, and adding the impact of their manufacturing, rather than extending the life of something already in use. Anssi Komulainen, Programme Director at Sitra, stresses that the most sustainable option is often to use existing tools for as long as possible, as well as rely on the minimum digital services needed to get the job done.

Rendering is one of the most energy-intensive stages of digital production. Offline rendering means computing each frame in detail, which allows for higher visual fidelity but requires long processing times and computational power. Real-time rendering, already used in virtual production and XR, generates images instantly, enabling faster iteration and more efficient workflows, though sometimes at the cost of maximum visual detail, and requiring upgraded hardware. A study by the German Animationsinstitut found offline rendering significantly more energy-intensive, making real-time rendering a promising alternative for more sustainable image generation also in animation, VFX and film production in general (3).

Optimized data management is an important step across all sections of production, lowering the carbon footprint of sending, storing and using files. These virtual assets can for example have reduced polygon counts and texture resolutions, Dr. Kreische points out. As generative AI enables the generation of endless new images and videos, minimizing data use becomes essential, Komulainen highlights.

Helping to guide sustainable choices in animation and digital film and TV production, there are resources such as the Green Animation Guide 2025. The international guidebook is developed by the French Ecoprod, together with European stakeholders (4).

Sustainability opportunities

Virtual production combines physical filming with digital environments, often using LED walls, to reduce the need for travel and set builds, and to stage scenes in entirely new settings. Virtual stages usually rely on real-time rendering. In another study by the German Animationsinstitut, a virtual production short film required required 1/3 of the energy consumption compared to an “offline” short. (5). A report by Studio Ulster at Ulster University provides similar numbers, showing that virtual production can cut the carbon footprint of large-scale productions by 20–50% (6).

Another sustainability aspect of virtual production, highlighted by Professor Declan Keeney of Ulster University, is that it shifts much of the focus from shooting to pre-production, making it easier to integrate sustainability measures from the beginning. This is backed up by R&D Lead at Helsinki XR Center Santeri Saarinen, adding that the virtual environments created can be reused long after filming. The same assets can serve multiple purposes, extending into video games or other creative projects, making content reuse an interesting sustainability advantage. Prof. Keeney mentions “Virtual production can help lower the emissions and the carbon footprint of the whole film & tv industry”, and highlights how for example scanning and recreating fragile heritage sites digitally will keep them alive for both audiences or film tourism, enabling both environmental and economical sustainability.

Sustainability measures also often go hand in hand with productivity and efficiency, which is concretely highlighted by Dupe VFX. The British VFX studio claims measuring inefficiencies gave better insights into decisions and investments, like improving rendering processes or switching to more efficient data centers. Creating show-specific sustainability reports enabled better transparency for clients (7).