Established under the SA FILM Academy NPC (SAFA), GREENSET is dedicated to promoting environmental sustainability within the film and television industries, by providing practical, cost-effective green solutions to reduce the carbon footprint on productions and manage waste. 

Deploying trained Eco Stewards and Green PAs on set GREENSET implements waste reduction, recycling, and energy-saving practices. GREENSET also offers a bespoke carbon calculator, developed in partnership with Credible Carbon, to measure and manage emissions from the spectrum of production activities.

GREENSET has also collaborated with major productions like HBO’s Raised by Wolves and Netflix’s blockbuster One Piece series, to recycle materials such as polyurethane into building blocks, diverting waste from landfills and supporting community initiatives.

Since 2015, premier production and servicing company, Film Afrika, has actively championed sustainability in the South African film industry by implementing global best practices. Productions such as Noughts and Crosses (2018) and Raised By Wolves (2019) played pivotal roles in this significant shift, with the latter not only receiving sustainability recognition but also launching the GREENSET training program under the SA FILM Academy. By Season 2 of Raised By Wolves, graduates from GREENSET’s sustainability stream were trained and placed as Eco Stewards on set, marking a new phase in on-set environmental practice.

One of the biggest challenges GREENSET tackled was the fact that the industry had no solution to the disposal of polyurethane (PU) set material waste from large set builds, which ended up in landfills. 

PU was widely used for its cost-effectiveness, but sustainability was seriously lacking. This changed when Envirolite (now Liteconcrete) developed a prototype machine assisted by HBOmax, to recycle PU into building blocks, starting with Raised By Wolves’ iconic temple set, the first in the world to be recycled this way.

It was an arduous journey and when processing issues arose due to long, ugly nails lodged in the material, a second upgrade – funded by Netflix’s One Piece S1 – thankfully pushed the innovation forward.

With these further upgrades thanks to Netflix, over 3,500 bricks were produced and used to help build the Ulwazi Educare Centre in Delft, Cape Town. Since then, more than 10,000 PU bricks have been created from polyurethane set waste, with One Piece S2 and Film Afrika donating 5,000 bricks to build the GCU Goal50 ECD Centre in Heideveld, an Early Childhood Development Centre for 100+ children.

Beyond recycling PU, GREENSET’s Green PAs also collaborate with The Ark Haven to upcycle timber, plastics, and other set waste, reducing landfill contributions. Initiatives like the use of Blue Water Trailers eliminate single-use plastic bottles on set.

These initiatives are supported by dedicated `green warrior’ producers, HoDs and crew members like Cheryl Eatock and Marisa Sonemann-Turner – passionately committed to sustainable filmmaking – and the amazing teams that work with them in Locations, Unit and Construction departments, who genuinely believe we can make a difference and recycle our set waste, radically reducing the amount of waste to landfill.

GREENSET also invests in training the next generation of storytellers through sustainability-focused programs embarking on exciting environmental and conservation narrative journeys. Collaborations with organisations like Leadership for Conservation in Africa have led to biodiversity-themed masterclasses and outreach.

On the energy front, GREENSET has partnered with companies like Cinergy and A-Unit to trial solar battery units on set to support daily production operations, and is exploring the first Hydrogen-powered fuel cells with HYHENA to further decarbonize the industry.

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