When asked, almost everyone in the media and entertainment industry seems to nod solemnly and agree that sustainability is of paramount importance. A glance at the end credits of pretty much every production from the last 15 years or so will almost always reveal a reference to its impeccable green credentials. Strict rules are often in place, with broadcasters insisting on adherence to their environmental policies. Tickbox exercises must be completed to ensure everyone is fully on-board and compliant with the standards set by experts steeped in best practice. The same is true of companies working to supply services and solutions, all of which are keen to ensure they are seen to be meeting sustainability goals. International events and trade shows encourage people to fly in from around the world then make a big deal of asking people to use public transport from the airport. It is almost as though we are trying to convince ourselves we are doing The Right Thing.
The March issue of TVBEurope features an article about North Yorkshire’s Factual Fiction, the UK’s first off-grid production company. Researching it provided a fascinating insight into what can be achieved when sustainability truly is placed at the heart of a business’s efforts. It also raised an uncomfortable question – one that I wonder if the industry avoids all too often. Let’s face it, image is integral to media and entertainment and, with that in mind, I wonder whether too many of us are guilty of talking a good game on sustainability without actually stopping to consider the impacts of our actions.
Could it be that there is a collective belief that simply acknowledging the problem is somehow tantamount to solving it?
Naturally, there are certain inescapable realities that have to be faced. We work in a business that is utterly reliant on technology for its very existence. There always has been, and always will be, a need to use energy. It’s a well worn cliche but technology is expanding at an exponential rate. New and exciting use cases are finding their way into the mainstream almost as fast as they can be imagined. The very language of media and entertainment is beginning to mimic that of the IT world, with terms such as IP migration, cloud computing, interoperability and machine learning as likely to be heard in Pinewood or Hollywood as Silicon Valley.
By way of example, I recently read of an innovation that was designed to provide fans of a globally popular sport – ok, it was football – with even more options to access match, player and club statistics while watching the game. While I understand the hard commercial realities at play, I couldn’t help but wonder who had actually asked for this. How much more saturation coverage is really necessary? At what point do fans become so overwhelmed with available content that they simply lose the ability to process it? And, to return to the subject at hand, has anybody considered the massive cost in terms of energy required to produce it?
I was reminded of the famous line uttered by Dr Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park: “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”
And it isn’t just in production. When I’ve finished writing this column, I will unthinkingly save it to the cloud, as I do with documents all the time, often three or four versions of essentially the same thing. We all hold lots of meetings using platforms such as Teams or Google Meet. How many of them are really necessary when a simple email or phone call would suffice? It all takes computing power (incidentally, I wonder if this might in part explain the recent rise to prominence of the less-loaded euphemism ‘compute’). It all uses energy. Could we – all of us in the industry – be using tech for tech’s sake?
It is genuinely enlightening to discover what is being accomplished by those who have really considered the impacts of their actions. And the good news is they have a sound business case: energy isn’t a free commodity – using less of it is good for the bottom line. Maybe there’s a lesson we can all learn. Maybe, where our industry’s inarguable overreliance on technology is concerned, just because we can, doesn’t mean we should.
This article originally appeared in the March issue of TVBEurope, available to download here.
