CBC released the Preliminary Industry Report on Production Carbon Emissions, the biggest to date report of its kind summarizing the carbon footprint submissions of 64 CBC original English-language independent and in-house entertainment productions. Starting in January 2022, CBC has required that Canadian independent and in-house entertainment producers use an albert carbon calculator to complete and deliver a carbon footprint on all CBC original productions. The first Canadian media company to set this standard, CBC is now sharing the insights from the initial report with the industry in order to continue encouraging impactful climate action. The report can be found in its entirety here. Radio-Canada intends to issue its own report at the beginning of 2024.

“As a leader in climate action for the Canadian media industry, it is our responsibility to share the insights we have learned through the carbon footprints of our independent production partners and our in-house entertainment productions,”  said Lisa Clarkson, Executive Director, Business & Rights and Production Sustainability, CBC. “With this targeted data now available to the industry at large, we can better work together to build a more sustainable future for Canada’s creative community, and for the country as a whole.”

The report, written by Leaticia Kaggwa, CBC’s Environmental Sustainability Lead (with a foreword from Clarkson), identifies and ranks the emissions associated with common production-related activities. Among the categories of materials usage and disposal, post-production, accommodation, travel and transport, filming spaces, and non-filming spaces, the main findings of the report indicate that the largest sources of carbon emissions from production are travel and transport (43%), filming spaces (23%), and material usage and disposal (22%). For further context, the report converts the emissions totals for these activities to CO2 emissions from everyday examples of consumption.  These results are consistent with UK and US results and provide Canada with a focus for meaningful action.

Based on the presented data, the report also suggests eco-friendly initiatives to meaningfully reduce the environmental impact of production in the future. The report is the first of a series intended to benchmark the progress of Canadian productions and to share sustainable best practices as the industry focuses on making positive environmental change.

The requirement of an albert carbon calculator footprint for Canadian independent and in-house productions, and the resulting report, stems from the goals of CBC/Radio-Canada’s five-year environmental sustainability strategy Greening our Story. Additional sustainability resources for Canadian producers can be found in CBC’s Green Production Guide as well as on CBC Business & Rights’ Green Production Resources site.

Earlier this year, CBC led the announcement of Canadian Broadcasters for Sustainability, a group of 22 Canadian broadcasters committed to working together to increase environmentally sustainable change across the industry. This is the first time such a broad and diverse group of Canadian public and private broadcasters from different linguistic and regional markets have come together for a common cause.