Paramount UK unveils new environmental sustainability strategy

Paramount UK has announced its new environmental sustainability strategy - Peak Sustainability - which comprises several key climate action pledges.  

The new commitment promises to drive collective change across Paramount’s UK business and with its suppliers, partners and audiences.

Peak Sustainability is 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 set to lead the media organisation’s global sustainability roll-out.

Paramount UK’s ecological transition consists of seven key pledges that aim 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

Channel 5, which is a directorate member of albert and signatory of The Climate Content Pledge, is recognised for its portfolio of environmental themes such as nature, seasonality and the countryside, including Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild and its slate of rural programmes to children’s series, Go Green with the Grimwades, and partnerships with natural world institutions such as The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 

Channel 5 continues to bolster its library with two new commissions: Natural History Museum: Saving Planet Earth and Britain’s Poisoned Rivers: What Can You Do?, which is aimed at raising awareness around global climate and nature crisis, and encouraging positive behavioural change among its British audience.

So far, Paramount UK has adopted policies such as zero waste to landfill, chemical-free cleaning and the use of cloud migration as standard practice. The company 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 brand-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.

Paramount UK will also 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,” said 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.”

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.