London studio highlights sustainability of virtual production
June 3, 2026
For World Environment Day (5 June), film and TV studio Garden Studios is highlighting the sustainability of virtual production (VP) and how it can help the screen industry reduce carbon emissions.
BAFTA Albert’s 2025 report, Accelerate, cited that 65 per cent of film production emissions are generated by travel, with 30 per cent caused by flights alone. To address these emissions, Albert recommends moving more film production to VP stages.
Various studies show that VP, a filmmaking technology that blends the digital and physical worlds in real time, generates between 20 per cent to 76 per cent lower emissions than traditional film production. However, the environmental benefits of VP go far beyond reducing travel.
The six key sustainability benefits of virtual production outlined by Garden Studios are:
- Reduced travel, transport, and accommodation emissions
- Fewer shooting days
- Availability of renewable power
- Fewer post-production days
- Reduced set material and prop waste
- Less wear on fragile ecosystems and heritage sites
Hard-to-control elements on location shoots, such as weather and lighting conditions, can be easily managed on a VP stage. Night scenes can be filmed in the daytime, and day scenes during hours of darkness. Furthermore, scenes can be changed quickly, saving time.
Julie Hoegh, Head of Sustainability at Garden Studios, said: “We welcome the growing interest in virtual production and the potential for environmental benefits this production method offers. More investigation is needed, but the studies are clear: the benefits are there and go beyond the carbon savings alone.”
Although VP has been proven to represent material carbon savings opportunities, it’s important to know that not all aspects of the process are fully understood. In particular, the manufacturing of VP equipment remains unquantified. The energy consumption associated with data storage, rendering and cloud computing, which is often involved in the process, is also unknown.
Based in Central London, Garden Studios opened one of the UK’s first permanent VP LED volume stages in 2021, and in March this year, launched its most advanced virtual production stage yet.
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