The Environmental Impact of Filmmaking: Using Star Wars to Improve Sector Sustainability Practices
Lead Research Organisation:
The Open University
Department Name: Faculty of Arts and Social Sci (FASS)
Abstract
Responding to the urgency of activist movements and governmental talks to prevent climate change, screen sector practitioners are, at present, seeking solutions to the environmental harms caused by film production. For example, events run by the British Film Institute and Creative Scotland have discussed how the sector can become greener. However, as attested by Albert, BAFTA's industry-leading sustainability consultancy, industry initiatives to date have focused on carbon-offsetting on film shoots. While many filmmakers hope to achieve carbon neutrality, researchers and activists argue that 'net-zero' masks the effects of prolonged carbon use and fails to prevent climate change.
This project, then, will turn attention to the hidden environmental impacts of prop and costume making, and provide practitioners with tools to help them reduce carbon emissions. In doing so, the project will collaborate with Albert to provide four sustainability calculators, each of which will estimate the carbon emissions produced by an object made for the Star Wars franchise. The calculators will also enable practitioners to input data to determine the sustainability of their past or future productions. The four case studies underpinning the calculators are: 1. Analogue (1980) and digital (2005) iterations of the droid Artoo Detoo 2. Queen Amidala's 'throne room' costume in The Phantom Menace (1999) 3. Stormtrooper helmets appearing across multiple films 4. An animatronic porg from The Last Jedi (2017).
Star Wars is a useful point of departure in discussions about sustainability. For, from its inception to the present day, it has told stories about environmental change. In A New Hope (1977), a human-made weapon obliterates the planet Alderaan. The Phantom Menace addresses the effects of colonisation. And in Solo (2018), characters recognise the effects of war on different eco-systems. Emerging in the 1970s alongside the first mainstream public debates about climate change and other environmental issues, the Star Wars franchise has provided fascinating commentary on how humans change the natural world.
Of course, planetary exploitation is not limited to its onscreen narratives. It can also be evidenced in the production and commoditising of Star Wars properties, which are all made from raw materials: stormtrooper helmets rely on thermoplastics derived from oil; silicon computer chips store digital characters. Through its extractive, manufacturing, and waste processes, the franchise harms ecosystems and contributes to global climate change by emitting carbon, among other pollutants. Yet many of the franchise's innovations in prop and costume making, which have emerged from English studios, have set standards across the sector for over four decades. Visually iconic Star Wars properties appear in fashion magazines (Vogue, 1977, 2002), are referenced by other media such as television shows (Ru Paul's Drag Race UK, 2021), and are crucial to Star Wars merchandising. Thus, the franchise will offer valuable insights into the environmental impact of prop and costume making that are relevant to the film industry and other design-oriented sectors.
The project's findings and resources will be shared on a website, which will include written histories, short videos, and visual material. Furthermore, through a research network, industry focus group, and events (such as a lecture at the National Science and Media Museum's 'Widescreen Weekend' Film Festival), the project will prompt discussions about sustainability among academics, practitioners, and the public. The Environmental Impact of Filmmaking project, then, will demonstrate how props and costume making are vital to industry efforts to make filmmaking more sustainable. By equipping practitioners with tools to adopt greener processes and inspiring public conversations about industry practices, the project will have a lasting and positive impact on film production.
This project, then, will turn attention to the hidden environmental impacts of prop and costume making, and provide practitioners with tools to help them reduce carbon emissions. In doing so, the project will collaborate with Albert to provide four sustainability calculators, each of which will estimate the carbon emissions produced by an object made for the Star Wars franchise. The calculators will also enable practitioners to input data to determine the sustainability of their past or future productions. The four case studies underpinning the calculators are: 1. Analogue (1980) and digital (2005) iterations of the droid Artoo Detoo 2. Queen Amidala's 'throne room' costume in The Phantom Menace (1999) 3. Stormtrooper helmets appearing across multiple films 4. An animatronic porg from The Last Jedi (2017).
Star Wars is a useful point of departure in discussions about sustainability. For, from its inception to the present day, it has told stories about environmental change. In A New Hope (1977), a human-made weapon obliterates the planet Alderaan. The Phantom Menace addresses the effects of colonisation. And in Solo (2018), characters recognise the effects of war on different eco-systems. Emerging in the 1970s alongside the first mainstream public debates about climate change and other environmental issues, the Star Wars franchise has provided fascinating commentary on how humans change the natural world.
Of course, planetary exploitation is not limited to its onscreen narratives. It can also be evidenced in the production and commoditising of Star Wars properties, which are all made from raw materials: stormtrooper helmets rely on thermoplastics derived from oil; silicon computer chips store digital characters. Through its extractive, manufacturing, and waste processes, the franchise harms ecosystems and contributes to global climate change by emitting carbon, among other pollutants. Yet many of the franchise's innovations in prop and costume making, which have emerged from English studios, have set standards across the sector for over four decades. Visually iconic Star Wars properties appear in fashion magazines (Vogue, 1977, 2002), are referenced by other media such as television shows (Ru Paul's Drag Race UK, 2021), and are crucial to Star Wars merchandising. Thus, the franchise will offer valuable insights into the environmental impact of prop and costume making that are relevant to the film industry and other design-oriented sectors.
The project's findings and resources will be shared on a website, which will include written histories, short videos, and visual material. Furthermore, through a research network, industry focus group, and events (such as a lecture at the National Science and Media Museum's 'Widescreen Weekend' Film Festival), the project will prompt discussions about sustainability among academics, practitioners, and the public. The Environmental Impact of Filmmaking project, then, will demonstrate how props and costume making are vital to industry efforts to make filmmaking more sustainable. By equipping practitioners with tools to adopt greener processes and inspiring public conversations about industry practices, the project will have a lasting and positive impact on film production.
Publications
Harrison R
(2023)
Artoo Detoo: Case Study and Calculator
Harrison R
(2024)
Lightsabers: Case study and calculator
Harrison R
(2024)
Throne Room Dress: Case Study
| Title | Trespass: Wild Lives and the Right to Land |
| Description | An experimental documentary, Trespass aims to celebrate the overlooked subjectivities of wild lives and landscapes across Britain. Filmed between May and November 2024, the footage explores fourteen sites spanning England, Wales, and Scotland, including coasts and mountains, quarries and forests, conservation areas, and an oil refinery. All of the fourteen locations have been used by Star Wars productions to shoot films and television shows. The documentary footage will be soundtracked by spoken-word poetry and soundscapes that evoke the imagined thoughts and feelings of the film's subjects, 'the Wild,' who will directly address the audience and describe the impacts of human activity on them. By foregrounding animal and plant subjectivities, Trespass seeks to challenge people's sensibilities about whose lives matter in our human-centric world - and question why some lives are valued more than others. In doing so, the film invites audiences to think critically about authoritarian and colonial land enclosures that dictate how they, too, navigate the world and are harmed by ecological crises such as global heating. It also aims to bring people closer to environments that they may not have access to and show particularly younger generations-whose access to nature was curtailed by pandemic lockdowns-what, or who, they must fight to save. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Impact | The work is still in development; a short sample received positive feedback from a public audience in Southampton in February 2025. |
| Description | The project has published three case studies so far. The first makes carbon footprint comparisons between two versions of the droid Artoo Detoo from Star Wars (a recurring, robot character in the franchise). We looked at a costume of the droid made for the 1977 film 'A New Hope,' which comprised bespoke, hand-pressed aluminium parts and found leather, rubber, plastic and other objects were used in the droid's assembly. We also investigated the first major digital appearance of the droid in the 2002 film 'Attack of the Clones,' for which artists recreated Artoo using computer-generated imaging, or CGI. What we found may be surprising to people: the practical, costume version of the droid had far lower greenhouse gas emissions resulting from its materials and build than the CGI one. Indeed, the digital droid produced emissions per second of screen time (a new unit of measurement that I created for the EIF project) 59 x higher than the costume. The result is because digital work often has a huge, and largely hidden or under-discussed, environmental impact that comes from a variety of sources. These include energy consumption (running computers and screens, running and cooling servers to store data, etc.), and the use of precious metals and plastics to make the hardware needed to run CGI software. As part of the case study, we created a calculator that allows people to select a range of common materials used to build props and costumes (e.g., cotton, polyester, polyurethane foam) and input both the size of their prop/costume and how long it appears on screen in their film or TV show. The calculator then estimates whether it would be more or less environmentally friendly to make the asset practically, or digitally. So far, most results from our calculator tests suggest that practical builds tend to be greener than CGI. And, given that practical makes can be reused and recycled - a less common activity with digital data - there seems to be a strong initial case for encouraging filmmakers to consider practical builds. A hybrid way of working that blends basic practical builds with green-screen technology and CGI augmentation, might offer a good, and reasonably eco-friendly, solution to filmmakers. Our second case study was on a red dress worn by Natalie Portman in the 1999 'The Phantom Menace.' Known as the 'throne room dress,' we estimate that it resulted in emissions equivalent to 9374 kg of carbon dioxide - it would take 45 healthy, full-grown trees 10 years to fully 'offset' these emissions. Where possible buyers and makers should source locally manufactured materials and recycled fabrics. Designers and other practitioners should minimise their own travel, too, when in pre/production phases. Based on interviews, I also suggest that the contemporary trend for studios to guard intellectual property and lock away assets must change. It results not only in high buying budgets, but also in large amounts of waste. To support costume departments in making greener decisions, studios must end the need to over-consume. For the third case study, the team looked at a lightsaber prop (used by the character Obi-wan Kenobi in the 1977 'A New Hope') and a toy replica. The prop was made from mostly reused scrap materials, which is an example of good practice. However, we discovered that a single toy - dating from 2022 and retailing for around £26 - is responsible for emissions equivalent to around 2.13 kg of carbon dioxide. If we multiply this figure by 10 million, the total annual emissions for lightsaber toys would be 213 kilotons. 'Offsetting' such emissions in a year would require 101 million healthy, full-grown trees. We suggest that the screen industry could make better decisions with regard to licensing intellectual property, and conduct sustainability audits of manufacturers that they use to make toys and other merchandise. I also propose that fans have a role to play, and could seek out homemade or recycled merchandise to prevent more items being made. This case study also includes a calculator tool, which helps users think about the environmental impacts of turning onscreen assets into toys and fancy dress costumes. The calculator will provide the carbon footprint of chosen materials, and transportation to a distribution centre in the UK, based on different manufacturing locations. A fourth case study is still underway, which explores the impacts of location shoots on communities and nature at fourteen different Star Wars production sites across Great Britain. A public survey is still open, and interviews with relevant practitioners and industry figures (land owners, ecologists, animal trainers, location managers, etc.) are taking place. I am also in the process of making a film, 'Trespass: Wild Lives and the Right to Land,' that documents my field trips and explores the impacts of film shoots and other human activities on wild life. Initial findings from the surveys, interviews and site visits indicate that government agencies and screen practitioners should take a range of actions to improve the current situation. These include: easy to comprehend (and access) guidelines for productions across each of the four nations, improved advice about impacts on wildlife (including non-protected species), central/devolved databases that make all location shoot data and documents available for public scrutiny, fallow periods for over-used sites, community liaison officers on all productions, and better advice and auditing for land owners. |
| Exploitation Route | Filmmakers and broadcasters have already expressed interest in, or used, the project's findings on props and costumes. Local and parish councils have suggested that the location shoot research could help to inform policies around land use, nature protections, and so on. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy Creative Economy Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Education Environment Government Democracy and Justice Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
| URL | http://eifproject.com |
| Description | Following the project's launch event in September 2023, the research has begun to have impact within the screen industries, and among the sustainability consultancies that serve them. The launch event itself was attended by guests from organisations including Pinewood Studios, ITV, BAFTA albert, Love Productions, and others, with 87% of respondents to the feedback survey suggesting that the event had changed how they thought about one or more aspects of industry practice or its environmental impact. ITV Anglia ran a short new item about the research in September 2023, and coverage through 2024-2025 (BBC, The Times, etc.) has reached over 3.5 million people. In October 2023, the PI was invited by the British Film Designers' Guild to discuss the research at an 'Art Dept Take Over' event in London, which put the work in front of an audience of around 100 industry professionals. The research was cited by industry speakers at an event run by Ffilm Cymru Wales, and findings and resources are shared with trainees on BAFTA albert educational courses. The project's initial findings also appear on undergraduate and postgraduate-level curricula at numerous UK universities. There is growing interest in the project among ecologists and government agencies at local and national level, with potential to inform nature and related policies via the location shoots case study. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2023 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Environment,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural Societal Policy & public services |
| Description | Changing perspectives on the carbon footprint of digital media production |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | Changing practitioner approaches to filmmaking |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or improved professional practice |
| Impact | The team behind award-winning science-fiction feature film Itu Ninu drew on EIF project research when planning their shoot. They referred to the project's findings on the potential digital footprint of animation and post-production work (as detailed in the case study on Artoo-Detoo), which helped them to make decisions that reduced their digital data creation. EIF project findings supported the team in their wider efforts (such as engaging with BAFTA albert resources) to keep the film's emissions under one tonne of CO2e. |
| URL | https://napier-repository.worktribe.com/output/3174751/itu-ninu |
| Description | Open Societal Challenges |
| Amount | £27,800 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | OSC036 |
| Organisation | Open University |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2024 |
| End | 07/2026 |
| Title | EIF project calculators |
| Description | The project has created and published two unique calculator tools that support screen industry practitioners in making environmentally sustainable decisions in film/television production. The first tool enables users to determine whether a practically made asset (prop or costume) will generate more or fewer emissions than a digitally made equivalent. The second tool shows users how procuring assets (merchandise based on their intellectual property) from different geographical locations can affect their emissions. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Users report that the tools have helped them to rethink their practices, and/or seek further advice from sustainability consultants. |
| URL | https://eifproject.com/calculators/ |
| Title | Interviews with former Star Wars crew members and location shoot participants |
| Description | The dataset is comprised of transcripts from the PI's interviews of film industry professionals who have worked on Star Wars films (or in some cases, other major blockbuster franchises) in roles such as art department, costume manager, and creature makers. The interviews provide rare insights into the day-to-day roles of below-the-line film industry workers in general, the specific experiences of crew on the Star Wars films. They also document changes to industry-standard practices and materials over time, and offer commentary on film industry workers' perspectives on environmental sustainability. In 2024, the dataset was expanded to include a number of interviews with practitioners and experts who have provided support on Star Wars location shoots, but have not necessarily been directly employed by Star Wars productions. These interviews provide insights into the roles, regulations, and challenges of filming at sites that provide habitats for plants and animals. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The dataset is not yet public, but will become so when major outputs from the EIF project are complete. |
| Title | Surveys of communities near Star Wars location shoots |
| Description | The dataset comprises responses to two surveys (one shorter, one more in-depth) of communities living, working, or undertaking recreational activities near fourteen selected Star Wars location shoots. Responses provide insights into the impacts of location-based film production on communities, and point to steps that filmmakers can take to improve relationships with affected people. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Aggregated responses will be available on the project website when the survey closes and data has been analysed. |
| Description | Broadcast interviews and coverage |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The project's findings featured in numerous radio broadcasts, with mentions on, for example, BBC Radio 4's Rare Earth programme (December 13), and interviews with the PI appearing across BBC regional stations, as well as Greatest Hits Radio. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024,2025 |
| Description | Buckinghamshire County Council 'Going Green' event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Participants (around 10-15) from various roles in the creative and heritage sectors attended a workshop to learn about project findings and consider how to reduce their digital footprint in the workplace. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| Description | EIF project blog posts |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The EIF project published four blog posts on its website, including a guest post by independent film producer Joseph Archer. The website is well-read, with over 800 site visits in December 2024. Follow-up requests based on website visits have initiated potential impact partnerships that are in development, and generated interest in media reporting (e.g., an interview in an online magazine). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024,2025 |
| URL | https://eifproject.com/blog/ |
| Description | Interview for regional news |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The PI gave an interview to ITV's Anglia regional news. She shared initial findings from the project with a general evening news audience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Invited talk (Southampton) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | 50 people from academic and industry backgrounds (including ecologists) attended a public talk hosted by Winchester School of Art and The University of Southampton. Numerous attendees reported that the talk changed how they thought about the screen industries, and increased their awareness of potential environmental impacts. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| Description | National, regional and local news outlet coverage |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A press release and PI interviews contributed to widespread coverage about the project in regional and local newspapers (and online news sites). The project featured in The Times, Yahoo UK and Ireland, and various BBC regions' news stories, among others, with a potential reach of over 3 million people. As a result, the project increased the number of survey and interview participants taking part in the study. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024,2025 |
| URL | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqj0wqlvl57o#:~:text=A%20university%20academic%20has%20began,War... |
| Description | Open Societal Challenges blog post |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I published a blog post on the project's research findings that reached a wide audience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://societal-challenges.open.ac.uk/blog/a-force-for-good-how-film-fans-can-go-green-this-christm... |
| Description | Panel discussion at Star Wars Celebration London |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The PI participated in a roundtable discussion on politics in a Star Wars TV series at the official Star Wars fan conference. The session was attended by approx. 500 people, and as part of the discussion the PI drew attention to research being carried out by the EIF project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Public engagement blog post |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The PI write a blog post for the Open Learn website that introduced issues about screen industry sustainability to a public audience, and highlighted the research being carried out by the EIF project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www5.open.ac.uk/sustainability/news/greening-film-and-television-save-our-blue-planet?nocach... |