ROHTAU Sponsors the Green Arrow Award, Championing Sustainable Craft

ROHTAU's Josh King (left) and Jordi Bares (right).

The creative VFX studio, ROHTAU, has partnered with the British Arrows in the new Green Arrow category to help celebrate and champion the highest level of craft with an environmentally friendly outlook. The partnership arose organically with Jordi Bares, the founder, VFX supervisor, and creative director, and Josh King, the head of production and sustainability consultant, speaking with the British Arrows’ Lisa Lavender, managing director, and Sophie Cantopher, head of partnerships, about getting more involved as the awards “resonate so well with us and the respect we have for the craft.”

With numerous Arrows to both Jordi and Josh’s names, they felt it was the right move to support the next generation of creatives by sponsoring the Young Arrows. While that’s still the plan for later in the year, a different - and equally fitting - opportunity was presented: the newly created Green Arrow category. A great partnership for the sustainably-minded ROHTAU. 

“We immediately saw how well this category aligns with both our core values, marrying craft and our conscious impact on the environment, and we embraced this wholly with true excitement. We will be sponsoring the Young Arrows later this year as we are also driven by the imperative to create and support opportunities for young people from different demographics in our industry,” they say. 

The Green Arrows aims to recognise work that “promotes perceptual and behavioural shifts towards sustainability.” For Jordi and Josh it’s also about work “that has been created with the smallest footprint possible, aims to drive positive change, and has a whole life cycle approach.” They’re both looking for authentic sustainability and are mindfully against greenwashing. “We must give this green content space on our roster and offset some of the usual fossil clients or clients that drive high emissions such as airlines or beef products,” Jordi says. 

“We would like to see a variety of films that directly tackle the climate emergency and educate us about what we can do best to avert the current trend and consciously balance our rosters. Greenwashing needs to be managed and any claims need scientific facts behind them which the ASA are demonstrating well,” adds Josh. 

The Gold was won by ‘Oblivia Coalmine’ for Make My Money Matter, directed by Raine Allen-Miller, and starring Olivia Coalman in the role of a sinister and power-hungry oil executive. The spot is as satiric as it is bone-chilling. ROHTAU says that the spot’s award is “thoroughly deserved.” They add: “This film encapsulates the necessary action every one of us should take to change how we behave and this starts with our money, encouraging the audiences to feel like they can do something about it. Our leaders have failed us so we welcome a perspective that empowers audiences to act and move the needle. It is one of the most significant things we can do as individuals.”

Jordi presented the award to the Gold winners and the atmosphere in the room on the night was “a hubbub of positive energy - it was great to see everyone enjoying the environment.  It’s a highlight of the events calendar of the year for us, and Lisa and the team delivered yet another outstanding night!,” Jordi reports. 

Jordi presenting the Green Arrow award at the ceremony.

What else can the industry do - besides awards like this - to promote and encourage more ‘green’ work? Josh strongly believes that “we have to be conscious of our emissions and the impact we have. Along with my VFX producer legacy, I am a sustainability consultant and it starts with measuring impacts to create a base level, once we know this we can put goals and steps in place to reduce.  Reduce, reduce, reduce as much as we can and then mindfully and consciously offset in meaningful ways.” Making a material difference is key for Josh who leans on data and measurable impact over ‘green’ rhetoric when discussing the issue. “We have to go beyond using electric vehicles, reusable bottles on set, flying less people and flying economy, and moving our money to banks not funding fossil fuels. These are all super important but we also need to change our behaviour and diet and most importantly consider the full life cycle of our products, the impact doesn't end at the shoot.”

“This is the responsibility of all creators, whether that’s at the beginning of the process with our machines/internet/behaviour/emissions, our ‘brain print’, but also the energy we all use through the process, and specifically the huge consumption from post houses at the end, ‘our true holistic footprint’,” both add. 

At ROHTAU, Jordi and Josh very much practice what they preach. “We’re conscious that computers consume huge amounts of energy and we need to measure and reduce this. ROHTAU's operations in 2023 emitted under seven metric tonnes of CO2e, and we break this down and report all our emissions by project. We’re continuing to educate ourselves and our clients, thinking circularly, reducing our overall footprint and creating positive change with the special platform we have.”

ROHTAU is planning to continue the sponsorship in the future, saying that they are “committed to the years ahead and are excited for the future and the 50th celebration in a couple or years” in particular. The creation of this category is really significant for the industry, ROHTAU thinks. “We hope that the Green Arrow grows in prominence as this Arrow will enable the biggest social impact and enshrine our responsibility in avoiding further global warming and climate change, moving towards a sustainable, thriving future.”

Looking to the future, ROHTAU hopes that the industry “can become a beacon of light, and continue to create amazing content but with the smallest emissions AND with the greatest behaviour change impacts.”

“We want to lead by example and, in the future, publish our findings so everyone can copy how we are reinventing VFX. In the end, we are doing this to have a meaningful impact, not as a PR stunt so it is only fair we share everything with everyone.”