Environmental Policy
Flock is a photographic agency supporting photographers and directors. We believe that as part of the creative industry, we have a responsibility to be environmentally aware and environmentally responsible.
We strive to minimise the environmental impact of our production processes. We are committed to being carbon neutral and we pledge our support to becoming a zero carbon industry.
Our ambition is for our industry to share and promote positive sustainable messages through its campaigns to consumers both in the UK and globally. We are keen that our learnings and expertise are shared not secret. We encourage and help our customers, crews and suppliers to do the same.
Our pledge is to
• Be a carbon neutral production company
• To use our environmental policy to help drive business decisions
• To reduce waste (Reduce/ Repair/ Recycle)
• Educate, encourage and inspire our crew, clients and suppliers to be more
environmentally responsible
• To support local (Economies/ Businesses/Trades)
Flock takes its impact on the environment seriously. We utilise tools available through industry resources, such as Albert and Adgreen to help us play our part within the Creative Industry.
Flock is responsible for ensuring that this environmental policy is implemented. This includes keeping track of our carbon usage across the general running of the business and all productions, offsetting any carbon that cannot be reduced by a change of policy or behaviour, and allocating responsibilities to our employees to ensure that the aims and objectives of this policy are met.
How Flock implements and encourages positive change
We have digitised our workflow so we can work effectively and efficiently wherever we are. This removes the need for physical premises and means we travel less and have more time for the things that matter, resulting in a stronger life-balance and increased mental wellness.
Our Energy Providers
We promote the use of Green Energy both at home and within the workplace and encourage all studios, locations, clients and suppliers to both use Green Energy within their respective businesses. Supporting Green Energy providers has been highlighted as one of the easiest ways to make a big difference.
Casting
Whilst responding to the challenges of COVID 19, we saw an effective and efficient opportunity to cast our projects virtually using online technology. This not only dramatically reduces the physical movement of people, but also lessens the environmental impact of these journeys.
Casting virtually is a very good example of how a process can be reimagined, the result of which offers a positive impact on reducing our carbon footprint, whilst offering our clients a more time efficient service and financial savings.
Styling
When we consulted with our styling teams about what we needed to provide them, to enable them to work greener, the answer was time. More time to be organised. With this in mind, we bring our styling teams into the process earlier to ensure all conversations regarding styling and props is managed and signed off ahead of the shoot itself, allowing only minor creative alterations to be decided on set. This reduces wastage, not only of time, but of materials, and reduces the number of deliveries to set, thus lessening the environmental impact of the shoot.
We use moodboarding as an effective way for our stylists to communicate how they will fulfil a brief.
Flock has introduced ‘live’ WIP (Work In Progress) documents which can be updated and read in real-time making this a very time efficient process.
Fitting
Before a shoot commences, we invite talent for a fitting, helping to reduce the amount of time our styling teams are buying/ returning props and wardrobe. Our stylists can also host virtual pre-fittings with all shortlisted talent. This not only means less waste, reduced wardrobe costs and a smaller carbon footprint, it also allows more time on set to deliver the creative brief.
Where possible stylists are encouraged to reuse old wardrobe before buying or returning new items.
Catering
Flock offer a healthy and balanced diet on all shoots. All food is either vegan or vegetarian. This means only one meal is prepared rather than multiple to suit different dietary preference choices. (Protein options are available on request)
We source our catering local to the shoot location and we request that the food onset is both seasonal and locally sourced. Suppliers are requested to serve their food in returnable, vegware or compostable packaging. In addition we ask that all crews, clients and agencies bring their own cups, flasks and cutlery to reduce waste on set.
Travel, Transport and Accomodation
As the majority of our work takes place on location, the biggest contributors to our carbon footprint are travel, transport and accommodation. We are continually looking at ways to improve how we deliver our projects, including:
• We use and promote the use of green suppliers, such as Zhero Couriers to support our shoots in the city.
• We encourage our staff to use more sustainable modes of transport.
• We promote the use of video and phone conferencing for all meetings.
• We advise clients to use ‘shoot and stay’ locations where possible, helping to lessen
the cost and environmental impact of shoots and their coordination.
• We support smaller, independent and more environmentally-friendly hotels, and source
them for our crews as well as recommend them to our clients.
When On Set
Where possible we look to reduce the size of the crew needed on set, and in doing so work with our clients to reduce costs and lessen the shoot’s environmental impact.
We offer ‘Live Streaming’ tech to relay the shoot globally. Streaming the shoots means that only those who have an active role in the shoot, need to attend in person. Streaming therefore gives us the ability to reduce personnel on set, resulting in lower associated travel, accommodation and subsistence costs.
By offering our clients the ability to contribute remotely via live streaming, feedback suggests an increasing preference for contributing via live streaming as enables more time for those dialing in to multitask resulting in higher productivity.
We ensure that our ‘On Set’ infrastructure operates in keeping with our environmental pledges. Therefore we work with crews, clients and agencies to help them do their bit to help support change:
• We choose the right setup and suppliers to suit each project.
• We source local solutions for our crews and suppliers.
• We responsibly manage our waste - Reduce, Recycle and Reuse.
• We encourage crews and clients to bring their own cups, flasks and cutlery to set.
• We want to reduce the paper trail - We ask that all crews, clients and agencies, file shoot
documents and information digitally on their computers, phones or tablets. Crews are advised NOT to print documents.
Monitoring and Improvement
• Using organisations such as Albert and Adgreen, we closely monitor the carbon footprint of our productions.
• We continually monitor and improve our environmental performance, and in doing so seek to lessen our environmental impact. We incorporate environmental factors into business decisions and we increase employee awareness through training.
We continually review this policy and any related business issues at our monthly management meetings.
Louise Turner
Director
1.2.24
Registered Address: 64 Southwark Bridge Road, London, SE1 0AS
Company. Number: 7313848