Cardiff, 12 May 2025: Water Saving Week 2025 is from May 12th to 16th. It’s an annual event organised by Waterwise to encourage water conservation and raise awareness about the importance of water. This year’s theme is “Become a Water Saving Hero,” emphasising everyday actions that can make a difference.
Wolf Studios Wales, a 255,000 sq.ft. high end TV drama studio in the heart of Cardiff, has made 2025 a year of focus on the studios’ sustainability initiatives on the journey to becoming net zero by 2030. This has included gaining the first ISO 14001 Environmental Management certification for a UK studio; gaining an Excellent rating in the April 2025 albert Studio Standard process and engaging with Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water via a Greening the Screen (Media Cymru and Ffilm Cymru Wales) Development funded project to significantly reduce water consumption on site.
Since the reduction project began in October 2024, the implementation of simple changes has so far resulted in a reduction of 23% in consumption (the equivalent of 1.1 million litres of water) in the year to March 31, 2025 compared to the same period in 2023-2024. This amount is the equivalent of almost half an olympic swimming pool.
Working closely with Welsh Water, who have been following the progress on site, offering expertise, implementing changes to data tracking systems and water-saving innovations, the Studio has been able to make changes without impacting productions and with fantastic results.
These changes have included the installation of a new data logger; sub meters across the site; staff education and training (via Screen Alliance Wales’s new Waste Management in the TV Industry online course which has trained 250 people so far); urinal timers, push taps and changes in crew behaviour via the on-site productions’ sustainability teams.
“Wolf Studios became aware that we were consuming around 4.8 million litres of water a year, and the decision was taken to make changes to reduce this,” said Lee Jackson, Studio Manager.
“We are eager to reduce our reliance on natural resources, the impact we have on the national water infrastructure and help those who work at the Studio understand how they can make small changes at work and at home to reduce their consumption. Gathering and understanding data relating to our water use has been vital, and this has been made possible with the support of Welsh Water and the expertise of Aquasafe. We’re also hugely grateful to Media Cymru and Ffilm Cymru Wales for the financial support to be able to iterate and innovate in this space.”
The water reduction project at Wolf Studios Wales will continue until October 2025, with further implementations planned for the summer.
Charlotte Harris, Water Efficiency Project Manager at Dŵr Cymru/Welsh Water said “It’s great to collaborate with organisations like Wolf Studios Wales, who are keen to explore innovative ways to reduce their reliance on our natural resources and help to create a sustainable water supply for the future. Through a collaborative partnership between us, the work has helped to save a considerable amount of water and we are excited to learn more about their future plans.”
The project has also engaged with and collected information from staff and crew using Wolf Studios Wales to find out how they use water and their ideas for reduction.
Prof Justin Lewis, Media Cymru said: “We’re pleased to see innovative, creative solutions to the industry’s ongoing efforts to ‘green the screen’ and make faster progress towards Net Zero. Wolf Studios Wales’ project to reduce water waste on site is a significant step forwards in making studio production more sustainable, combining excellence in media production with clean, green technologies.”
Louise Dixey, the Sustainability Manager of Ffilm Cymru Wales, said, “Given the climate and nature emergencies, it is paramount to protect our water environment, as prolonged drought is becoming more common. This puts significant pressure on our ecosystems, habitats, water supplies and farming. Therefore we are excited to partner with Wolf Studios Wales to support their innovative R&D water conservation initiative that will bring positive reduction measures at scale.”
To find out more about how you can reduce water at your business site or at home Screen Alliance Wales’ free Waste Management Training for the TV Industry is available on their website.
Notes to editors
Waterwise, a UK-based organization focusing on water efficiency and conservation. Its focus is on encouraging individuals, communities, and businesses to take small, everyday actions to save water with the goal to raise awareness about the importance of water conservation and empower people to make a difference in their daily water consumption.
Informed by the BFI-funded BAFTA albert’s Screen New Deal Transformation Plan for Wales, the Greening The Screen Development Fund was designed and delivered by Ffilm Cymru Wales and Media Cymru to develop innovative ways to make the Welsh TV and film sector more environmentally sustainable. The open call for applications was launched in May, and submissions were judged by an independent panel of sustainability experts, as well as representatives from Ffilm Cymru Wales and Media Cymru.
Ffilm Cymru Wales is the development agency for Welsh film. We are dedicated to advancing and sustaining a strong film industry for Wales; one that we can all be proud to call our own. We do this by providing funding and training to emerging and established Welsh filmmakers, offering exciting cinematic experiences to audiences across Wales, and developing new skills and career paths for people through a range of training programmes.
Recent credits include Mr Burton, Chuck Chuck Baby, Kensuke’s Kingdom and Timestalker. Forthcoming productions include Brides, Madfabulous, Mission, Learning to Breathe Under Water, Still Pushing Pineapples and The Man In My Basement.
Greening The Screen is designed and delivered by Ffilm Cymru Wales and Media Cymru to develop innovative products, services and processes improving the environmental sustainability of the screen industry in the Cardiff Capital Region (CCR). www.ffilmcymruwales.com
Media Cymru is a collaboration aimed to turn Cardiff and the surrounding capital region’s media sector into a global hub for media innovation with a focus on green and fair economic growth.
Led by Cardiff University, this strategic investment programme brings together 22 media production, broadcast, technology, university and local leadership partners for the first time to supercharge media innovation.
Consortium partners:
- Development Agencies: Ffilm Cymru Wales
- Media and technology companies: Boom Cymru, Wales Interactive, Rondo Media, Unquiet Media, Nimble Productions, Rescape Innovation, Gorilla TV, fivefold studios, Dragon Post (Wales), Alacrity Foundation, Object Matrix, TownSq
- Local leadership: Welsh Government, Cardiff Council, Cardiff Capital Region
- Broadcasters: BBC Cymru Wales, Channel 4, S4C
Media Cymru is funded through £22m from UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) flagship Strength in Places Fund, £3m from Cardiff Capital Region, £1m from Welsh Government, through Creative Wales, and £23m match funding from industry and university partners.
