Statement for European Sustainability Standards

While live-action productions increasingly adopt standardized sustainability protocols, the animation industry still lacks an equivalent framework. To fill this gap, an international Green Animation Working Group has been formed by Ecoprod from France, Green Film from Italy and the CineRegio – a network of over 50 regional film funds. Its mission: to develop a set of practical, verifiable, and adaptable criteria that can serve as a common standard for the sector.

Organisations in the field of green production and animation, CineRegio, Ecoprod and Green Film have joined forces to initiate a collective effort to define shared, international sustainability standards for the animation sector, and reach a certification scheme.

These set of criteria will represent a reference framework outlining key actions to reduce the environmental impact of animation workflows. They will also support the creation of a scalable certification scheme, helping studios of all sizes track progress and gain recognition for their sustainability efforts, while fostering creativity, innovation and cross-sector cooperation.

The set of criteria will be drafted by sustainability and industry experts and will be open to public consultation and beta testing by the end of 2025. The goal is to establish a common language and a clear set of criteria that can be used for a voluntary certification, helping studios avoid greenwashing and giving funders like Creative Europe a reliable benchmark. Film funds, film commissions, professionals associations or think tanks can join. The set of criteria will be drafted by sustainability and industry experts and will be open to public consultation and beta testing by the end of 2025. This is a bottom-up initiative built by the industry, for the industry. In this newsletter and on our website, we will keep our readers informed on important updates and topics from this Working Group.

Last November, the Animation conference ANIMAR_BCN served as a platform for early discussions regarding the challenges faced by the European Animation industry, such as the use of AI and sustainability in Animation. This March, CEE Animation Conference GO! 2025 in Nova Gorica provided another platform where various industry stakeholders gathered to continue these discussions. You can read the full report here.

CEE Animation became one of the partners of the Green Animation Guide and a member of the Green Animation Working Group, anchoring the presence of under-represented territories of Central and Eastern Europe and representing the unique challenges of low-capacity production countries when discussing unified European sustainability standards for animation production in Europe.

Stakeholders across the industry are encouraged to show their support and shape the future of sustainable animation by signing the Statement for European Sustainability Standards in Animation.

You can join by signing the statement and ticking the field “Yes, my organisation would like to get involved and support this initiative further.”