Europe Rolls Out First Environmental Certification for Animation

On June 25, 2024, the European animation sector received its inaugural environmental “report card” when the ANiMPACT certification pilot was unveiled at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. The program, a joint effort by CineRegio (a network of 53 regional film funds), the French nonprofit Ecoprod, and the Green Film certification system, will run through May 2027 with a full standard expected by the summer of 2027. In its first month, the pilot attracted roughly 40 production requests and a public endorsement signed by more than 90 studios, producers and related organisations.

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Live-action productions have long accessed tools such as Green Film, the U.K.’s Albert scheme and Ecoprod’s Carbon Clap calculator, but animation has lacked comparable mechanisms despite its sizable share of the film-and-TV market. The sector’s environmental footprint is distinct: electricity for rendering workstations and servers accounts for about half of a typical animation’s impact, with the remainder tied to equipment lifespan, data storage and inter-studio travel. Moreover, animation projects are often fragmented across multiple studios, countries and vendors, and can span several years, complicating emissions accounting.

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ANiMPACT evaluates both individual projects and whole companies across seven categories—governance, office energy use, digital workflow and data storage, travel, catering, merchandise and sustainability communication. Standards are weighted by actual environmental impact, with core requirements mandatory and extra-credit items optional. A third-party auditor verifies compliance, a step increasingly required by regional, national and European film funds that now tie financial incentives to certified sustainability.

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Program co-ordinator Luca Ferrario explained that the initiative aims to provide a unified European standard, avoiding the “mess” of disparate national schemes that have plagued live-action certification. He emphasized that measurable data is the first step toward reduction and that the pilot’s real-world audits give producers a credible way to access public funding. The partnership with Ecoprod and Eurimages also includes a free “Green Animation” online course to help industry professionals apply the new criteria.

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• “Animation was kind of left behind from every talk, every discussion, every tool,” — Luca Ferrario, Trentino Film Commission

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• “With live action, we started in this way, and France started in that way, and then Germany did their thing, so now it’s a mess,” — Luca Ferrario

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• “What is complicated about animation is that it is often fragmented across different players, different companies, different countries,” — Luca Ferrario

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• “The first thing to say is that we can measure the impact, and then we can reduce it, because just measuring doesn’t mean you’re reducing anything,” — Luca Ferrario

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• “Even though it is a pilot test, it’s a real certification with a real verification, auditing and everything,” — Luca Ferrario

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