Bristol's Bottle Yard film and television studios’ new £13.5m facility has become one of the first in the industry to attain a top environmental accreditation.
The studios’ TBY2, which houses three sound stages and officially opened last November, has been awarded the new Studio Sustainability Standard by BAFTA Albert, the UK’s industry organisation for greener operations in TV and film.
The facility is powered by an array of giant solar panels on its rooftop, which the studio says is the largest community-owned rooftop array in the country and the biggest rooftop solar energy system in the UK studios sector.
Read more: Bristol animation and TV production companies win big at regional RTS awards
TBY2 was the second-highest scoring studio of the 12 participants in the first cohort for the new Studio Sustainability Standard. It is one of five studios that received a ‘Very Good’ rating, the highest grade achieved in the group.
Laura Aviles, senior film manager at Bristol City Council, which owns and runs the studio, said:“We’re extremely proud that The Bottle Yard’s TBY2 facility has received its Studio Sustainability Standard rating. Coming second in class is also very rewarding considering the high calibre of participants. By placing sustainability at the heart of our expansion and working with Bristol Energy Cooperative and Bristol Council’s Energy Services team, we were able to achieve our ambitious vision of a state-of-the-art, solar-powered studio.
“The exciting thing about the community ownership model is that it is entirely replicable and brings direct benefits to the local area as well as our production clients. We hope TBY2 will inspire other projects and will be happy to share knowledge with others in the UK film industry and beyond. We look forward to continuing to improve studio sustainability across our sites going forward.”
Launched in 2022, the voluntary Studio Sustainability Standard scheme was designed by BAFTA Albert alongside global engineering and consulting firm Arup, to help studios measure and reduce the environmental impact of their facilities. All participating studios commit to making year-on-year improvements to their sustainability.
BAFTA Albert director Carys Taylor added: “The expertise and quality of UK studios make them among the most in-demand in the world. Now, as participants in the albert Studio Sustainability Standard, they're on a path to being the most sustainable in the world too.
“The release of the new Studio Sustainability Standard ratings badges will allow studios to show off the progress they've already made and benchmark the progress yet to come. And productions will know where to go to get support for their own sustainability missions."
Consisting of more than 2,300 panels, TBY2’s solar array was part-funded by community-owned enterprise Bristol Energy Cooperative (BEC) and is capable of generating enough energy to power more than 250 average households per year.
Among the shows currently in production at TBY2 is Disney+ series Rivals. Based on the bestselling novel by Jilly Cooper and produced by Happy Prince, part of ITV Studios, the programme stars David Tennant, Alex Hassall, Aidan Turner and Danny Dyer.
Read next:
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- Bristol TV production studio acquired by French media giant
- Cornwall's TV and film industry a 'cluster of national significance’, report concludes
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