The world faces a climate and ecological emergency, and the screen sectors have an important role to play in addressing this. If we are to reduce our environmental impact and support wider industry efforts to get to net zero, we must enact systemic changes.
This means changes across all our activities, our buildings, behaviour, National Lottery funding portfolio, and our programming decisions.
By engaging with themes of environmental sustainability and the climate crisis, stories on screen can make a difference. They can help impress the importance of reducing humanity’s impact on the planet and they can show the many realistic ways in which the public and society can contribute. Storytelling can unite people from all backgrounds around this common cause. We will use our festivals, programme and BFI Player to help creators promote greater awareness of our climate emergency.
Environmental sustainability is a strategic principle in our National Lottery Strategy. We will ensure BFI funding decisions consider ecological impact and that we help recipients improve. Recognising the variety of beneficiaries, we will fund specialist expertise to develop ambitious and achievable plans for a net zero sector. We will also deliver robust carbon accounting of our progress. We will fund research that informs a green transition for the screen sectors, supporting approaches that deliver net benefit to the environment.
It is imperative that we also commit to a step change in how we work as an organisation. In 2023, we will set out a roadmap for reducing our absolute greenhouse gas emissions and establish the internal resource necessary to reach net zero ahead of the 2050 government deadline. This roadmap will help us determine how we embed sustainability into estate upgrades and operational planning. We will prioritise those areas of greatest impact, and find the most sustainable option for the future of the National Archive. As we transition to being a digital-first organisation, it will help us embed low-carbon practices throughout our decision- making.
We will also focus on sustainability during procurement, paying particular attention to our supply chain. We will not merely mitigate our impact but will also create positive change through biodiversity improvement across our estate. We will work with our neighbours on the South Bank, our friends in the environment and screen sectors, including the National Museum Directors’ Council and BAFTA albert. Sharing knowledge, best practice and new ways of working to minimise our carbon footprint and environmental impact.