Creatives. Producers. Production Managers. Heads of Post.

It’s time to change the conversation.

I recently did the BAFTA albert Sustainability Champion Programme where I was shocked to find out that 1 day of screen production equates to over a full year’s carbon emissions for an average UK citizen.

I think of how many hours of production I have led or been a part of over the last 20 years, honestly it must be 100,000 hours, over every continent.

This hit home when my 6-year-old son, proudly wearing his Eco Monitor badge, asked me what I was doing at work to help the environment. He said, “You have a big team all across the world, what are you doing about that?” His question stopped me in my tracks.

To be honest I didn’t have a good enough response. The large technology company I was working for at the time had a great ESG policy but on a team level, it wasn’t something we had built into our workflows and processes.

Reducing Carbon Footprints in Production

From that moment, I knew I had to make a shift and inspire the in-house global creative and production team I was leading at the time to do the same.

So, what changes were made? Learning that the highest emissions in production were travel and energy, we took a step back and dialed in on those elements.

1. Encouraged the team to manage productions remotely and book local crews, this meant they got super refined on creative direction and pre-production and honed their communication skills to ninja level – communicating virtually can be challenging (especially if there is a language barrier), but I promise you if you prepare your local crew, provide clear pre-production and creative guidance and most importantly, trust them – you will achieve your desired results.
2. Started running productions through carbon calculators, not as an afterthought, but up front, during the quoting process, to see where projects were coming up heavy on emissions and where we could look to save by tweaking elements of production.
3. Started talking about it with our clients and marketing stakeholders. A lot of them hadn’t considered the emissions their marketing visions would have, but as soon as they were aware, they wanted to hear more and became true collaborators and partners in the mission.
4. Bringing suppliers along on the journey, working with crew houses and local studios to make energy-efficient choices. From using eco-tariffs from energy suppliers to choosing LED battery lights where possible.
5. Deep dived on catering, banning single-use plastic bottles and coffee cups, and looking at the menu options, limiting beef options.

Out of all of these steps, the most important one was education and changing the conversation. Empowering individuals to make decisions based on the environmental impact and to challenge our partners, our suppliers and each other on our sustainable creative and production.

But where are we as we look forward to everything 2025 has to offer? Sustainability has now made it onto the mainstream agenda, with interesting and informative conversations at Creative Operations, Campaign Live, the ANA Masters of Marketing & Bristol Creative Industries. Continued change is still needed and conversations during briefing, through creative ideation, production, and post-production should continue to drive the conversation.

The Sustainability Mission: Creating with Purpose

The UK film industry has pledged to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 . For this to become a reality, carbon output needs to be reduced by 90-95%…this needs to be addressed today. As an industry we need to reconsider our mindset, our current practices, the way we ideate creative, and deliver on it. 

Now is the time to let creativity lead, to inspire new and innovative solutions that transform the way we create content. Advertising and branded content have a history of setting the tone, making cultural stands, and changing the conversation – it is all our responsibility to make sustainability a central part of the brief, the creative, the pre-production, production, and post-production. There are no more excuses.

For your next project, I challenge you to build sustainability into the original marketing brief, into the creative ideation, and all the way through the production ecosystem. 

Looking to begin meaningful discussions with your team about sustainability? Download our free guide as a starting point . It offers ideas and insights on how to incorporate sustainable practices into the content creation process, helping you reimagine workflows with the environment in mind. Or drop me a note ! Together, we can lead the change toward a more sustainable future.

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