CREWSDAY TUESDAY: GETTING TO KNOW A SUSTAINBILITY COORDINATOR

Crewsday Tuesday returns with a look at Ash Booth, the sustainability co-ordinator for SISTER’s critically acclaimed BBC drama ‘Waiting for the Out’, filmed across the Liverpool City Region and starring scouse lead Josh Finan.  

 A relatively new role in the world of production, Ash says that “a sustainability coordinator is the crew on the ground who facilitates all of the responsible sustainability decisions that a production could take and manages those against what’s possible in the budget and what fits the show”. Ash works closely with production to help them choose the most sustainable suppliers, but also with the suppliers themselves to make them more sustainable, as she says, “not purely for the sake of the production, but the sake of the future”.  

The industry is famously a very throwaway one, with tight turn arounds meaning often crew don’t have the time and resources to get rid of waste thoughtfully and sustainably even though, as she says, “the vast majority of them want to”. Ash works with individual departments to help tackle their specifc sustainability issues and turn crew’s wishes around greener waste practices into a reality, relieving the pressure of each crew member’s specific roles and stepping in to assist in recycling, donation, prop sales and all-round sustainable practice. 

For Ash, her recent work on Waiting for The Out alongside Picture Zero was her proudest achievement in the role, “It felt like a real success, I’m really, really proud of that project. We reduced our carbon emissions by 61% compared to the typical hour of drama. It’s a huge win but also having the opportunity to work with local suppliers and seeing the shift in behaviour because these things are being brought to the forefront…helping people move in the right direction is really, really gratifying”.   

Her favourite part of the job however is the sustainability work that involves giving back to the community, “being able to give things to local charities, local causes, it really reminds you that sustainability starts at home”, and with Waiting For The Out Ash was able to do that. During production “a local charity called Food Not Bombs put a call out saying that they needed food containers. I went to the prop store and asked if we had any, and we managed to fill my car to the roof with food containers. It’s when you’re able to give back in that sort of way, when you see the people who are volunteering at these charities. And you’re like, ‘here you go’, and you actually see the difference it makes it.” 

With multiple years in the industry in different roles, as well as time spent as a Film and TV Production lecturer, Ash finally found her calling after working in a Prop House. Here she “started becoming interested in the circularity aspect of things. Because seeing just a big building where departments can come and borrow props rather than buying everything new makes a huge difference”. Sustainability co-ordinator training soon came across her radar, “and when I saw that, I was like, oh my God, this is it. This is the thing I’m supposed to be doing”. From then on Ash has firmly established herself in the sustainability side of the industry, quickly progressing to sustainability manager, overseeing sustainability across multiple upcoming projects at once.  

📷 by Kira Sandland