France: the label of the CNC
by Elisabetta Brunella

Around 300 French exhibition businesses took part in the online survey launched by CNC - Centre National du Cinéma et de l'Image animée - on the sustainability of the cinema industry. 
The practices already taken on board or the intention to put them into practice shortly, the difficulties most feared, the role movie theatres can play in society in favour of the environmental transition: these are the areas the survey wished to shed light on.
The results show that 69% of the exhibitors interviewed have taken initiatives over the past few years to reduce the cinema's carbon footprint: waste sorting is the most widespread measure, followed by limiting printed material and by the use of biodegradable cleaning products. 46% of those who took part in the survey expressed their determination to undertake further action in favour of the environment over the next few years, whilst the obstacles were identified as deriving mostly from lack of financial resources - quoted by 77% of respondents - the time to be devoted to these activities and the management of unforeseen events (61%), as well as the scarcity of information about the impact of movie theatres' practices on the environment (50%). 
But CNC was not satisfied with merely reporting these factors: and so they commissioned a specialized organization to measure movie theatres' energy consumption and to take a snapshot of the problems linked to waste management. The objective was to define an efficient energy strategy that could be adopted by exhibition companies.

After analysing the energy balance of large buildings such as schools and universities, sports centres, residential or administrative complexes, Eneor, an environmental consultancy and engineering company, founded in France in 2011, thus examined fourteen cinemas with features representing the range of exhibition in France.
As regards the type of ownership involved, nine were independent companies and five were circuits, belonging to two associations, two public companies and ten private entrepreneurs.
As for the type of structure, three were single-screen, four multiplexes and seven multi-screen complexes situated in different areas of the country and built over a time span ranging from 1950 to 2019. 
Great disparity emerged in their energy consumption with annual costs per square metre ranging from a little over 5 euros to more than 35. What weighed most were the areas of heating/ventilation/air conditioning (68.8% of costs) and projection/server/audio. Whilst in the latter area just one action is suggested - replacing obsolete projectors with laser ones - in the former around thirty different measures are suggested, starting from the use of renewable energy sources. Concerning waste management, the solutions are decidedly less expensive and easier to put into practice, beginning with the training of cleaning staff, improved management of space and better tools for succeeding in communicating with spectators, involving them and raising their awareness.
These are measures that should nevertheless be adopted quite urgently, in view of the fact that by law all buildings in the third sector with a surface area of over 1,000 square metres (among which there are about 1,000 cinema sites) must reduce their energy consumption by 40% compared to 2010 no later than 2030, and 60% by 2050.
Time is scarce - even if we only consider how demanding the investments are for the transition to laser projection technology and the fact that in France there are over 6,000 screens - yet there is no lack of eager beavers who are already projected towards the future.
Examples come from Rumilly, in Haute Savoie, where the complex "Les lumières de la ville", inaugurated in 2017, was conceived as a zero-impact building, and the cinema Loft in Châtellerault. This cutting-edge, seven-screen complex uses exclusively energy from renewable sources (a mix of wind, sun and hydro-electric power), sourcing it from a specialised purchasing group. Every year a calculation is made of its environmental impact and this is compensated by planting new trees through the organization reforestACTION.
In Marseilles the Artplexe Canebière, designed by the archistar Jean-Michel Wilmotte, has installed laser projectors only, whilst the Ciné Manivel has embraced the "zero kilometre" philosophy for its Ciné Café, which obtains its supplies from local producers and guarantees vegetarian and vegan dishes on its menu.
 
In short, there is no lack of inspiration here for exhibitors who have expressed their determination and commitment to making a better planet ...

This article was published in issue no. 189 of Cinema & Video Int'l, the MEDIA Salles media partner.