Water Saving Week: Wolf Studios Wales reduces water consumption
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.
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.
