cientists have been shocked – once again – by how quickly human- produced climate change is accelerating. In January of this year, global warming had exceeded 1.5°C over pre-industrial temperatures for a full year for the first time. The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement was a declaration by the world’s governments that they would pursue efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C and keep the temperature ‘well below.’ Those temperature goals are meant to reflect long-term averages – a single year of 1.5°C doesn’t mean that next year won’t be cooler – but temperature rises are happening faster than most climate models predicted. And fossil fuel use – the principle contributor to planetary warming – is increasing year-on-year, when it needs to drop precipitously over the next decade. Sustainability is a wide net that encompasses the entire range of practices aiming to future-proof global civilisation against shocks, envisaging new and better ways of working and living that produce the maximum possible benefit to global society. While the term is vague enough to, at times, almost lose meaning, sustainability is being taken seriously by any business looking to thrive in the years ahead. Rapidly incorporating drastic sustainability practices – leading with full decarbonisation – is essential for reducing shocks on the way, and it’s a sane business pathway. REASSESSING PRIORITIES The media industry’s interest in sustainability practices has been, in fits and starts, growing over the past few years, with various organisations
taking the lead in certain specific areas. Bafta Albert’s focus has been primarily on production, particularly with UK broadcasters; Greening of Streaming works on sustainability in video delivery; and Music Declares Emergency has been bringing the music industry together, including artists, labels and the concert sector. “It seems like everyone has this as a topic of discussion, whether its internal, with their customer base or with industry experts,” says Derek Powell, former director at global telecommunications, media and tech consulting firm Altman Solon. “That’s a good sign. It’s very much what we have seen in the past with things like content security or privacy issues. I think once the industry gets its arms around this, then it will be able to work together and come up with some really good solutions.” In its own research, Altman Solon spotted the sustainability trend as a result of a regular annual assessment it had been doing of the media industry’s priorities. The firm surveyed the media-technology sector to see what topics and industry challenges it should be focusing on most. In the second year of the survey, it included questions on diversity and inclusion to see what processes media companies were developing, if any. Were they creating steering committees? Were there new DEI-specific roles? How did diversity and inclusion affect retention and recruitment? Most of the questions in the first and second years were focused on technology – virtual production and AI being two of the main topics. But in its conversations, it asked high-level
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