San Sebastian Film Festival

Film festival carbon footprint

Every year, for the last 58 years, tens of thousands of people descend on the city of San Sebastian to enjoy everything which has to do with film. Last year, the organisers of the San Sebastian Film Festival, along with the San Sebastian City Council asked Minuartia-Enea and Best Foot Forward to do a carbon footprint analysis of the entire Festival - one of the first of such an event.

Together we looked at energy consumption at offices and film projection venues; transport and accommodation of everyone at the Festival, including the general public, big film stars and accredited collaborators (i.e. press); freight transport; merchandising materials and publications; and catering.

Based on the results obtained from the analysis, an Emissions Reduction Plan for the San Sebastian Film Festival has been implemented by the organisers in combination with public sustainability bodies. The Emissions Reduction Plan will focus on limiting GHG emissions generated directly by the Film Festival and on increasing the general public's awareness about co-responsibility and behavioural changes which affect the Festival's footprint.

Some of the main actions which will be undertaken by the Festival's organisers will include Green Purchasing Initiatives for merchandising; improving building's energy efficiency; establishing environmental criteria for internal transport during the Festival; incorporating low-emission vehicles to the Festival fleet; and improving and increasing accessibility to public transport during the Festival. These actions will be widely publicised in order to increase the public's awareness about climate change.