TORONTO — Following the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 held in Glasgow earlier this month, CBC announced today it is introducing a new carbon footprint requirement for all original Canadian English-language productions to advance sustainable practices within the Canadian media industry.
As of Jan. 3, “CBC will require completion and delivery of a carbon footprint on all original Canadian productions from independent producers with budgets over $400,000 using albert, a film and television industry tool that calculates the carbon emissions of productions,” a CBC press release reads.
This new requirement builds on the Corporation’s five-year environmental sustainability strategy, Greening Our Story, which the national public broadcaster released in June 2021.
According to its press release, CBC was the first media company in Canada to use the albert tool, first to complete a carbon footprint for the CBC Kids’ in-house production Gary’s Magic Fort this past spring, and later for additional in-house productions including Family Feud Canada, Marketplace and the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
CBC says it will accelerate the pace at which in-house productions need to deliver carbon footprints next year.
“Climate change is the challenge of our lifetime, and the time to act is now. With the ever-increasing pressures on our climate from human activity, every decision we now make about any aspect of CBC’s business will be put through an environmental lens,” said Barbara Williams, executive vice-president of CBC, in the release.
“In addition to the ambitious goals we have already set internally to make our work more environmentally sustainable, we are now broadening our scope to include our external partners. By working with Canadian independent producers to track carbon footprints across our original productions, we will better understand their environmental impacts and create opportunities to advance more sustainable practices,” Williams said.
To help support Canadian independent producers with the new carbon footprint requirement, CBC recently posted a job listing for a newly created environmental sustainability lead position, a role which the broadcaster says will support independent producers in their creation of a carbon footprint.
In addition, CBC has created and released three video training sessions on greening productions, in partnership with the Canadian Audio-Visual Certification Office (CAVCO) and the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA). These videos include frequently asked questions from producers and a demonstration of the albert carbon footprint calculator.
Other resources CBC has collected to help independent producers transition to more sustainable production are available here.
“Furthermore, as a temporary measure to support smaller independent Canadian producers who feel they are unable to complete a carbon footprint, CBC will accept a sustainability plan for independent productions with budgets under $400,000. CBC has created a sustainability plan template that offers options on how to make productions more environmentally sustainable,” the press release says.
For more information and to access a link to CBC’s sustainability plan template for smaller independent producers, please click here.
