The Climate Content Pledge – One Year On

Green UKTV

UKTV is aligned with the BBC and BBC Studios on committing to reach the BBC Group Net Zero strategy based on science. In November 2021, as part of COP26, UKTV along with 11 other broadcasters and streamers signed up to the Climate Content Pledge.

Sustainability is one of the core pillars of UKTV's business and we are consistently working on our sustainability strategy which is split into three areas; Our Viewers, Our Partners and Ourselves. Since COP26 we have continued to make positive progress in all three areas:

Our Viewers

The transition to Net Zero requires seismic societal change and as a leading UK Broadcaster, our greatest strength in the fight against climate change is our ability to communicate with millions of people about the climate crisis and motivate them to make that change happen.

  • We can communicate with our audience directly through content focussing on sustainability and indirectly through Planet Placement. Planet Placement is about embedding the climate crisis and sustainable lifestyles within the content of our programmes. Planet Placement considerations are embedded in our Commissioning process from initial development through to commission and onwards into production and delivery. We are the first broadcaster to request Planet Placement clips are logged in the Silvermouse post-production paperwork portal. Planet Placement is also championed from a senior level within Commissioning and we are recognised as an industry leader in this area.
  • In the first ten months of 2022 we have increased the number of hours of commissioned content that included at least one example of Planet Placement by 39% compared to the entirety of 2021, and are continuing to work on increasing this even further in 2023.
  • View our reel here which provides a taster of how we have been able to weave sustainability themes into our commissions across different genres.
  • To be credible communicators of these messages we need to take sustainability seriously ourselves. Since April 2020 it has been mandatory for all UKTV Commissions to be certified as sustainable via the Albert toolkit, and our productions have been carbon neutral since that date as well. All members of the Commissioning team at UKTV have completed Albert Sustainability training.

Our Partners

At UKTV we work closely with many partners and our supply chain makes up nearly 99% of our carbon footprint. We have started conversations with many of our partners on how we can reduce our footprint, and in the coming months we will be aligning with the BBC group to better understand the indirect emissions produced by our supply chain. We will then continue to work with our partners on plans to reduce these emissions to hit our 2030 targets. In the past year we have:

  • Signed up to the Carbon Disclosure Project CDP to allow us to measure and reduce our footprint across our supply chain.
  • Worked with Amazon Web Services to create a serverless and sustainable system for ingesting, processing, and managing our media assets. As part of this project we moved to event driven architecture. This means that we are only using computing power when it is needed and not producing any unnecessary carbon.

Ourselves

UKTV aims to create a workplace and culture that inspires action and embeds sustainability into everyday activities to help colleagues make greener choices and lower the carbon footprint of the company as well as their own carbon footprint. Every member of staff is part of the Green Team, and a steering group meets regularly to ensure sustainability actions keep progressing across UKTV culture, workplace and communications. In the past year we have:

  • Ensured all energy used at our office is 100% renewable and comes from solar, wind, hydro and geothermal sources.
  • Selected suppliers and contractors for our recent office refurbishment for their ISO14001 Environmental Management certification and reused and upcycled existing furniture.
  • Halved the amount of waste sent to landfill since reopening the office in late 2021 and upgraded the office waste recycling system with clear signage and more bins.