40 GENIUS INTERVIEW Aaron Matthews, BAFTA
of CO2 a year’ or when I tell a production team their carbon footprint is a total of 50 tonnes, they ask me, ‘Well, what should it be?’ And they are kind of astonished when the only answer is zero! Because that’s the goal. We have to get to a zero-carbon footprint. And that’s hard for industry organisations and people to wrap their heads around. However, it’s what’s required – and also, of course, what is possible. But what I think is interesting is you’re getting organisations publishing their own carbon targets that are out of line with reality. For example, Pinewood Studios, at the end of last year, proudly released an article saying they’ve got ambitious plans to reduce their carbon footprint by 50% by 2050. And I'm thinking, ‘Hang on, what the science tells us is we have to peak our carbon footprint by 2020 and 50% less by 2030, not 2050!’ You’ve got these organisations kind of inventing their own way of how climate change works. FEED: Does Albert work internationally with other sustainability organisations? AARON MATTHEWS: We’ve been working for about eight years in the UK and we’ve amassed lots of tools and training materials over that time. So, when we get approached by international organisations who are keen to learn more, we’re happy to share.
We’ve helped projects in Canada, in Ireland, in the Netherlands, in Dubai, all get off the ground and approach sustainability in broadcasting. We work internationally as partners and can share the materials we use with similar organisations around the world. They refer to the initiative differently depending on the country. In the Netherlands, they still call it Albert and the same in Dubai. In Ireland, they call it Screen Greening. And in Canada, it’s called Reel Green. But they’re all similar organisations, using the same Albert toolset we’ve created. The name is the least important thing to us, really. If it needs to be changed to fit that local community then great. FEED: How can companies start to make sustainability an inherent part of what they do? AARON MATTHEWS: I have asked Broadcast magazine about whether they should include sustainability as one of their criteria for their Best Places to Work in TV listings. That data has never been picked up by an organisation with any kind of league table on sustainability to see who’s on track and who’s risen to the challenge – and who hasn’t. A zero-carbon footprint can mean something different for different kinds of organisations. For production, for example,
it’s going to mean different technology, certainly. It’s going to mean working with low-energy lighting, using different vehicles, switching your energy contract. About 50% of a production’s carbon footprint is just electricity. It’s really simple to just switch over to a renewable energy tariff and you’ve already cut 50% of your carbon footprint. A post-production organisation is easier. They’re entirely energy, with a little bit of travel. So, for them, it’s about switching energy providers, then offsetting their remaining impact. FEED: The media industry is relying more and more on cloud computing and server farms taking up a huge amount of energy for production and delivery. What impact does that have? AARON MATTHEWS: What’s very clear is there is an increased carbon footprint for viewing content online. The lowest carbon way to get your content to audiences is to transmit it from an antenna on top of a hill. Pushing things round the internet carries about five times the carbon impact. What you’re seeing with a lot of the big innovative brands – like Facebook and Amazon – is they’re hosting their servers in carbon-neutral environments, which mitigates that impact. They’re doing that by creating their own energy and by offsetting their remaining carbon footprints.
HERE COMES THE SUN For production, companies, just switching to renewable energy tariffs can cut their carbon footprint by up to 50%
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