Sustainable Screen Cultures Podcast Series

Can sustainability standards work across different countries, cultures, and production systems? What happens when environmental ambitions collide with shrinking budgets, international co-productions, and a screen industry increasingly driven by global competition?

In this episode, Heidi Ashton and Pietari Kääpä are joined by Kaisa "Kaika" Astikainen and Anne Puolanne, two of the leading figures behind sustainability initiatives in the Finnish screen sector. Together, they reflect on how attitudes towards sustainability have changed over the past decade, from a time when the industry questioned whether environmental issues were relevant at all, to the development of national training programmes, industry-wide collaboration, and new sustainability frameworks.

The discussion explores the creation of the Nordic Ecological Standard (NES), a shared sustainability framework designed and developed by Kaika and Anne in collaboration with partners across the Nordic region. They discuss the opportunities and challenges of creating a common standard that can support productions across national borders while remaining practical for the freelancers, producers, and crews who work on the ground.

From international co-productions and tax incentives to overtourism, digital workflows, AI, and the future of local storytelling, this thought-provoking conversation examines whether the drive for growth and global collaboration can be balanced with environmental responsibility, cultural sustainability, and the realities of everyday production work.

Some sections may contain minor audio irregularities resulting from the original recording.

Can an industry built around creativity, flexibility, and freelance work ever be transformed through policy? What happens when sustainability depends on both government intervention and individual action? And how do you create meaningful change in an industry where productions appear, disappear, and move across borders with remarkable speed?

In this episode, Heidi Ashton and Pietari Kääpä speak with Keir Oldfield Lewis, Head of Environmental Sustainability at the British Film Institute (BFI), about the challenges of embedding sustainability across the UK screen sector. Drawing on his experience shaping policy and working with industry partners, Keir explores the complex relationship between regulation, incentives, industry culture, and the practical realities of film and television production.

The discussion examines why sustainability remains difficult to implement despite growing awareness, how public policy can support change without stifling creativity, and why winning hearts and minds may be just as important as producing evidence. The conversation also considers the opportunities and limitations of emerging technologies such as virtual production and AI, asking whether they are helping the sector reduce its environmental impact or simply shifting the problem elsewhere.

A thought-provoking exploration of policy, power, responsibility, and what it will take to turn sustainability from a voluntary ambition into an industry norm.

Some sections may contain minor audio irregularities resulting from the original recording.