ROHTAU Believes “True Sustainability Requires Transparency”

Above: still from Bombay Sapphire's 'World Gallery'.

The 22nd of April marks Earth Day, the annual global event that aims to demonstrate support for environmental protection. As companies race to promote their green credentials, a more nuanced conversation is simmering away in the background: specifically, one concerning the resources we use to create ads, and where they come from. At ROHTAU, a boutique VFX company, those conversations are being held loudly and clearly, spearheaded by Josh King, the head of production and sustainability consultant. Together with Jordi Bares, founder and VFX supervisor/creative director, ROHTAU is on a mission to deliver best-in-class visuals and to do so with minimal environmental impact. 

The main issue with tackling sustainability in VFX, highlighted by Josh, is that most companies don’t consider the full life cycle of the products they create which should include the supply chain too. To do so would mean implementing a robust measurement and reporting framework that doesn't shy away from showing successes as well as failures. “If we can measure it, we can reduce it, and what is left we offset in a meaningful way,” Josh offers. ROHTAU’s own reporting, which the company started doing in 2023, is something they share with all clients and, to date, they’re proving the hypothesis that outstanding VFX can be made with minimal emissions. The company’s total emissions for last year stand at 6.7MT CO2e. “We have calculated that a large posthouse will generate around 18,000MT CO2e, and a ‘conscious’ medium sized one between 45 - 100 MTCO2e,” says Josh. 

Today we spoke to Josh about the work that needs to be done by the industry to create meaningful and impactful change, the green benefits of working with AWS, and why ROHTAU is so passionate about leading the sustainable conversation while delivering outstanding VFX work. 

LBB> What’s your opinion on where the advertising industry, but particularly VFX, is in relation to sustainability?

Josh> The UK advertising and VFX industries are renowned creative powerhouses, delivering world-class visuals that significantly influence consumer behaviour. This was highlighted in last year's study by the Purpose Disruptors that have shown advertised emissions are successful and proportional. However, this influence comes with a responsibility to address sustainability issues, which have been a pressing concern since the 1970s. 

These ‘hockey stick’ trends show the drastic environmental impact of human behaviour in just the last century across CO2 emissions, biosphere degradation, and more. It is clear that the success of our amazing visuals and marketing, that we as a UK advertising industry abundantly deliver, successfully and directly influence real impacts and behaviour. It is this expertise that we need to harness in order to communicate and reverse these patterns.

LBB> What are the main issues around sustainability and VFX that people need to be aware of? 

Josh> When we look at sustainability in VFX we cast our lens onto the whole life cycle of the products we create, whether this is an OOO, 15-second teaser, 3.5-minute commercial or a 90-minute feature film. We can measure our impact each step of the way and, if we can measure it, we can reduce it, and what is left we offset in a meaningful way—this is our goal.

The VFX industry's success in creating visually stunning content has directly influenced consumer behaviour, often promoting unsustainable practices. It's time to acknowledge this impact and pivot towards becoming a driver of sustainable solutions. At ROHTAU, we believe the industry's creative power can be harnessed to inspire positive change.

To address sustainability in VFX, we must consider the entire lifecycle of our projects, from pre-production to final delivery. This includes:

• Minimising and measuring internet usage during pre-production: the ‘brainprint’
• Reducing travel and promoting plant-based catering on shoots
• Optimising software, pipelines, and render management for energy efficiency
• Embracing cloud computing as an alternative to on-prem consumption and embracing computing as another utility, especially when using renewable energy sources

The impacts don’t stop at looking at our initial internet consumption for the ‘brainprint’ or taking only the necessary people on shoots and flying economy if we have to fly, or eating vegan meals on set. It carries all the way through to the vast amounts of energy VFX companies consume. 

If VFX companies consciously look at consumption, hard choices present themselves about software choices, pipeline, workflow and managing intensive renders, protocols are put in place and efficiencies are encouraged. This is a long journey and, four years in at ROHTAU, we believe we have made huge strides. The work is never done and being agile and flexible keeps us lean and making clear, environmentally conscious decisions about growth keeps us alert and ever questioning.

Overall, this has a knock-on effect on us, we holistically change our behaviours from convenience to considered actions, enjoying the journey - literally taking a train instead of a plane - embracing change and the way we do things, and as we do this, it resonates in our work, in our message and who we do this for. 

LBB> Which issues do you think amount to greenwashing? 

Josh> It’s actually very challenging to avoid greenwashing, but as with everything, honesty is the best policy. 

Transparency and honesty are crucial to avoid greenwashing. As companies make environmental claims, many are just unsubstantiated eco-friendly marketing. Some common greenwashing tactics include:

• Fuzzy claims like ‘eco-friendly’ without proof

• Highlighting one small eco-practice amid other wasteful behaviours

• Fabricated data or certifications

True sustainability requires transparency into full supply chains and life-cycle impacts. If sourcing details are unknown, it's better to state that upfront rather than greenwashing.

Making unsubstantiated claims or remaining silent (green-hushing) will raise red flags for increasingly conscious and astute consumers.

LBB> Which companies, besides ROHTAU, do you think are succeeding in this area?

Josh> As a sustainability consultant who has been producing content in the VFX space for over 20 years, this question is intriguing and I am here to help the industry pivot, particularly SMEs.

From what I have seen thus far, there are only a couple of B-Corp VFX companies in the UK, and although B Corp is a great framework process to go through and helps ask revealing questions, I feel our understanding can’t stop here. We have also seen a fragmentation of the VFX industry in the last year, and it should be seemingly easy for these SMEs to adopt new workflows and a new way of thinking, but we haven’t seen this being embraced as much as it should. There are a couple of studios that have opted for hybrid cloud render farms and machines but each still operates by deciding to have their own on-prem server rooms, running ageing aircon units on single machines with a short lifespan.  

At ROHTAU we have wholly embraced the AWS cloud, these are purpose-built sites with thousands of machines that we share in an extremely efficient way, often using only part of a machine, all running in air-cooled environments on 100% renewable energy; machines which are constantly being updated and repaired with eco-friendly parts. We have to think about the sharing economy and the long game.

LBB> What role should data play in measuring green efforts?

Josh> As I have already mentioned, data is everything. Once you have some analytics you can identify patterns and this can be very powerful and inform change. We are keen to measure as much as we can and openly report these. Hopefully this transparency encourages other clients, agencies, production, editorial, audio and post houses to ask more questions and thus promote real holistic behavioural change in our industry.

Above: 'Make It Real'

LBB> Why are sustainability and creativity so closely linked for ROHTAU?

Josh> Throughout our career both myself and Jordi have been at the forefront of award-winning creativity in the biggest post houses in London, making game changing technical solutions. I guess you could say it’s in our bones to ensure we continue to do this, it is what excites us. We love the ‘what if’ and we recognise what we achieved for BMW’s ‘Make It Real’ film in face replacement is akin to what Playstation’s ‘Mountain’ achieved for crowd simulation, with Jordi at the helm of this too. 

And we don’t want to compromise this so it is important we show the world that we are walking the walk, demonstrating our ability to achieve impressive creative outcomes with a tiny carbon footprint.

LBB> Can you tell us about a piece of work or two where the creative outcome was as impressive as the green credentials?

Josh> We have only been reporting since 2023, but we are staggered by how small our total footprint was last year, 6.7MT CO2e for the level of work we achieved. The average household consumes 8MT CO2e per year. Take ‘Make it Real’ - this created a tiny 3.18MT CO2e total emissions, where only a staggeringly small 900kg was down to the AWS computational consumption. At the same time we were working on delivering seven commercials for LEGO and, again, the total emissions were 2.092MT CO2e where 240kg was down to the AWS computational consumption. And over both these projects we saved 1.5MT CO2e by using the AWS cloud.

LBB> If someone wants to make one sustainable change, what advice would you give them? And what about a more long-term strategy?

Josh> This is a challenging question and one I often ask myself. I guess it is a behavioural change. It begins with small steps, such as:

• Move to a Green renewable Energy Supplier

• Change lights to LED and basin taps to reduced flow aerators

• Purchase local produce

• Eat less meat, particularly beef

• Use active travel as much as you can

• Use public transport before you drive

• If you can, swap to an EV

• Ultimately, buy less, fix stuff, reuse more, recycle what you can’t refuse

• When you do buy, try and look for a sustainable choice

• A little more involved is divesting from fossil fuel investments and supporting sustainable brands

LBB> What’s next for ROHTAU on the journey of sustainability?

Josh> ROHTAU's sustainability journey continues with enhanced emissions reporting, support for industry initiatives like the Green Arrow and Young Arrows awards, and a commitment to carbon neutrality through conscious growth and offsetting. We aim to become champions of sustainability, sharing knowledge and assisting local communities.

The VFX industry has the power to inspire positive change through its creative influence. By embracing sustainable practices, measuring our impact, and promoting transparency, we can become drivers of a more sustainable future.

Firstly we have revamped the way we report and we are working towards being able to have a live feed of our emissions for each project on our website.

Above: excerpt from ROHTAU's emissions reporting.

Secondly, it is about supporting industry accolades such as the Green Arrow (which we feel is a bit of a tipping point for the industry and we really hope this kind of award changes the desire of which award people strive to win) and, as sustainability isn’t just about the planet, it’s about people too, supporting those new to the industry as well as local communities is important. The sharing economy is also about sharing knowledge and demystifying and we will also be supporting the Young Arrows this year and are looking for others.