Steve Smith, Directors UK board member and Chair of the Entertainment/Multicamera Committee, has long been a supporter of the Albert Consortium and their aim to promote sustainability within film and television production. To that end, Albert have recently launched a new survey, asking how they can best support you when it comes to providing the tools, guidance and direction you need to help reduce the environmental impact of your productions. Please read Steve's introduction below and take a few minutes to fill out the survey:
"As a director, taking a creative lead in a production, I feel it is important for me to embrace sustainability and ensure it is central to everything we do"
2015 is going to be a pivotal year for making decisions on how to deal with global climate change, culminating in the crucial UN climate change conference in Paris in December. We’ve recently had the Pope’s intervention on the environment and many people will have also seen President Obama’s interview with David Attenborough in which they both talked about their concerns for the threat facing our planet.
Television has now been warned it must urgently address its environmental impact after new data revealed that the carbon footprint of an hour’s programming is equivalent to eight flights to New York. It is estimated that the global information and communications technology (ICT) industry, of which TV is a part, accounts for 2% of global carbon emissions, the same as the aviation industry.
I have long been aware of the need to be more sustainable in everything we do. As a director, I’ve recently been working as an Albert Ambassador helping play my part in making the broadcast industry greener and to ensure we minimise the impact our programme making activities have on the environment. Albert is an industry-wide carbon calculator specifically designed for TV production run by the BAFTA Albert Consortium. For the past three months I’ve been supporting The Graham Norton Show through the Albert+ environmental management system that everyone working in television is being encouraged to adopt. As a result of our work we’ve been awarded an Albert+ kite mark for sustainable production - which you will see at the end of the credits.
Some people in the industry believe sustainability is the responsibility of producers and production managers - but I believe it's the responsibility of us all. As a director, taking a creative lead in a production, I feel it is important for me to embrace sustainability and ensure it is central to everything we do. I would urge all directors to start doing the same. It’s vital that we all play our part in helping to green our industry.
Global emissions must begin to decline by 2020. This is a challenging, essential and fixed deadline. We must meet it to ensure food security, prevent extreme weather and preserve our communities.
The TV industry has a large impact, both environmentally but also regarding its potential to create positive social movements. This is about taking large scale action to reduce our operational footprint whilst engaging audiences with the value of the world we live in.
Please have your say. Your involvement will help the BAFTA Albert Consortium tackle the problem head-on by learning how we can support you in the in the most useful and impactful way. All answers will be kept confidential. We won’t pass on your details. Your support is hugely appreciated.
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