Building a sustainable TV and film industry

Our commitments, requirements and support across commissioning and production

Tim Davie

BBC Director General

We’re at a point where sustainability, the agenda around nature, must be there front and centre. This is a real moment for us to do that. The audience is very interested in this topic and we, as public service broadcasters, have a huge creative opportunity. It’s not just a corporate initiative, it is a priority to bring it alive even more in programming beyond the obvious strands.
— Tim Davie, BBC Director-General

Sustainability is a creative opportunity on-air and a fundamental requirement for our productions off-air. We have science-based targets to actively reduce the carbon emissions of our productions and, as part of the Climate Content Pledge, have committed to embedding more and better climate storytelling in our content. We know audiences not only care about environmental themes and issues but are also increasingly impacted by them, so it’s important we reflect these experiences in an authentic and relevant way.

To deliver on our commitments we require all the producers we work with to take the following steps:

Focus on minimising and reducing carbon emissions from energy and travel, including not using diesel/petrol in generators on UK–based shoots
Achieve albert certification by completing an albert footprint and carbon action plan to provide accurate emissions data, drive sustainability initiatives
Provide a company level sustainability policy
Have a conversation with the commissioner as to whether there are opportunities to authentically reflect sustainable themes in the programme editorial. Submit an on-screen sustainability form to track references

We've created a range of resources to help producers meet our requirements:

Watch a behind the scenes film about sustainability on and off-screen on drama The War Between the Land and the Sea