The Paramount strategy, established to accelerate change, comprises seven key climate action pledges including reducing carbon emissions.
The new commitment is designed to drive collective change across Paramount’s UK business and with its suppliers, partners and audiences.
Peak Sustainability informs part of a longer-term vision for parent company, Paramount Global, which recently released its third annual environmental, social and governance (ESG) report, with the UK primed to spearhead the media organisation’s global sustainability roll-out.
The foundation of Paramount UK’s ecological transition is built upon seven key pledges to:
- Reduce Paramount UK’s Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions by 46% by 2030
- Reduce Paramount UK’s Scope 3 carbon emissions across the remainder of this decade
- Integrate positive environmental themes throughout Paramount UK’s content output
- Make Paramount UK’s content production slate 100% albert certified by 2024
- Collaborate with UK broadcasters on research to understand our impact and inspire change
- Build environmental awareness and responsibility into the UK business
- Be transparent about Paramount UK’s sustainability commitments and progress
As a Directorate member of albert and signatory of The Climate Content Pledge, free-to-air broadcaster Channel 5 is known for its deep library of programming anchored in environmental themes such as nature, seasonality and the countryside, from shows such as Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild to children’s series, Go Green with the Grimwades and partnerships with celebrated natural world institutions such as The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Reinforcing Paramount’s position as a creator of socially impactful entertainment, Channel 5 continues to bolster its portfolio with two new commissions: Natural History Museum: Saving Planet Earth and Britain’s Poisoned Rivers: What Can You Do?, which will air in 2023.
Paramount UK has long been committed to minimising its impact on the environment and will implement a raft of new measures designed to further embed sustainability and its seven commitments into its culture including:
- Building a dedicated Sustainability Team, responsible for accelerating the work already under way
- The establishment of a Sustainability Board, allying its senior management team with employees to hold leadership to account and influence key decisions
- The creation of a new employee-led sustainability working group to help strengthen Paramount UK’s commitment and champion green initiatives
- An ongoing suite of training and engaging events and activities through its internal environmentally-themed Spark World week and beyond
- Exploring the roll-out of an electric vehicle loan scheme for London-based employees via sustainable government tax benefits.
In addition, to reduce its Scope 3 emissions, Paramount UK will consider environmental impact and the sustainability ambitions and credentials of prospective suppliers in choosing its key partners.
“As a media company and public service broadcaster that entertains and informs millions of people in the UK, we must use our powerful voice to shape culture and social attitudes,” commented Maria Kyriacou, president & CEO, Paramount UK. “Our Peak Sustainability campaign and the pledges we have made, will help us drive change and chart a path towards decarbonisation which is not only a business imperative, but essential for the future of our planet.”
As Paramount UK’s parent company, Paramount has a number of environmentally-focused initiatives underway in the US including Operation Sea Change, which aims to divert and clean-up millions of tons of ocean plastic while engaging fans of SpongeBob SquarePants and the public on key restoration issues.
Paramount plans to use the findings from this ongoing UK pilot to assess its approach to scaling its efforts across its company-wide, global emissions footprint.
