By returning a vast array of costumes and accessories back into the film & TV industry, the CAMA team is supporting the circular economy and helping to reduce the carbon footprint of productions.
When productions send their costumes back to the industry for reuse, not only are they cutting their C02 emissions they are also reducing their subsequent offsetting costs.
Because of the large amounts of physical assets CAMA redistributes, the team have developed excellent partnerships with costumiers. We are delighted to work with Angels, Camden Costumes and most recently Cosprop.
Essentially these costumiers are sustainable companies and leading the way with good practice – through hiring, repurposing and reuse. Therefore the costume department on a production can easily incorporate sustainable practices by using second hand and hired items.
Of course this depends if the ‘right’ stock is available for their production.
And this is where CAMA can help
Reuse in period costume
Recently CAMA’s green team spent the day giving excellent quality unwanted garments to Cosprop, one of the world’s leading costumiers.
Cosprop specialise in the hire and creation of period costume as well as an exhibition service to museums and historical houses.
As a result of CAMA’s redistribution service, the team had the privilege of briefly seeing their collection of period and iconic costumes and meeting some dressmakers.
“It was a memorable experience visiting Cosprop. A visual treat to see the dressmakers at work, the fitting rooms and the intricate costumes. All in all it was very inspiring. We delivered hundreds of period and unusual garments, in all shapes, colours, styles. So it was great to give them a hand unpacking and hanging!” – Sam Collins, Sustainability Assistant, CAMA
We dropped off 14 large boxes, totalling over 9 tonnes of period costumes and mixed accessories. By avoiding the destruction of these props and sending the materials to landfill the production reduced their footprint by approximately 3,500 kgCO2e!
Costume reuse for the next generation
Next stop up the road in North London was a trip to the London Screen Academy.
Above all it is our next generation of costume designers who will lead the way with sustainable practices. Therefore CAMA donate much needed fabric and damaged/unwanted items to the LSA for their creations and repurposing.
During the last 2 years we have built a successful partnership with the team at the LSA and have donated a variety of sets, props, and costumes for their student’s projects.
“We took the boxes directly to the design classrooms and were met with eager students who immediately started rummaging through everything. Looking forward to seeing what they create with these fabrics.” – Darren Jones, Sustainability Ops, CAMA.
In total we dropped off 3 tonnes of various fabrics, materials, and costume items and accessories to The London Screen Academy, thereby avoiding over 1,000 kgCO2e through reuse.
Tracking our emissions in one day
Above all, our aim is to avoid throwing away a scrap of material or even a button. So seeing first hand how the unwanted items are going back to good use is hugely rewarding for the CAMA team.
Conveniently both Cosprop and the LSA are based in North London. Therefore, we delivered all the physical assets in one day and one load. Importantly this reduced our fuel emissions and the production’s scope 3 emissions.
As well as capturing data of our reuse service through our asset management software, every CAMA delivery is tracked. Consequently we can provide accurate data regarding our C02 emissions for every trip we make.
Moving forward, through making our fleet more sustainable, wherever possible our redistribution can be made in our new electric van ensuring zero emissions for our trips.
