Red Bee Media – Sustainability in the Media Broadcast Industry: Shaping a World Where Future Generations Can Thrive
Gabija Jonsson, Head of Communication, Red Bee Media
For years, climate change, pollution, over-consumption, and dwindling natural resources have dominated our daily conversations. Driven by passionate individuals and non-governmental organizations, world leaders are now rolling out bold strategies and implementing new laws, transforming how we consume and holding major corporations accountable. The media broadcast industry plays a pivotal role in this story. While it keeps the world informed and entertained, it also leaves a significant carbon footprint, from the technology powering our screens and the creation of content to the energy-hungry smart devices in our households. Today’s rising media broadcast professionals are drawn to employers who showcase clear sustainability objectives. Making environmental values part of a company’s DNA is not just a badge of honor, but also a way to attract rising talent.
The Environmental Impact of Media Broadcast Operations
The broadcast and media sector has long been very energy-intensive, relying on extensive data centers, large transmission networks, and frequent equipment updates. These activities produce significant carbon emissions and electronic waste. Recognizing this impact, industry leaders are now adopting innovative approaches to reduce their environmental footprint.
This brings us to a question: what is our industry doing to protect our beautiful but fragile planet?
Energy Efficiency
As technology in broadcast equipment rapidly evolves, the constant upgrade from cameras to switchers fuels a mounting wave of electronic waste. In response, broadcasters are embracing energy-saving solutions, from LED lighting and virtual studios to low-power servers. Some media companies are even powering their facilities with renewable energy like solar and wind, taking bold steps to break free from fossil fuel dependence. For example, Netflix has aimed to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, integrating renewable energy sources and adopting rigorous carbon offsetting strategies. Microsoft has even set an ambitious target to become carbon negative by 2030, launching a generous $1 billion climate innovation fund.
Reduced Travel and Virtual Production
When I started my corporate career in 2014, the stories of senior professionals flying to another continent for a one-day meeting already seemed like old-time tales. After COVID, the industry has transformed completely, with a realization that virtual work and online team meetings, gathering colleagues from different parts of the world, are just as effective as face-to-face interactions. Technologies, like high-speed internet and cloud computing, facilitate collaboration without the environmental costs of physical presence. We must admit, the joy of waking up at 4 AM, squeezing all essentials into a tiny carry-on bag and rushing into the airport, fades away after the first years of corporate travelling. The adoption of virtual sets, remote editing, and virtual meetings has significantly minimized travel-related emissions. Companies have started implementing various internal practices, like showcasing the carbon emissions of each flight and suggesting more sustainable route options.
Environmentally Friendly Data Centers and Cloud Solutions
Shifting to cloud-based workflows means fewer on-site data centers guzzling energy. Many cloud providers now champion sustainability, tapping into renewable energy and fine-tuning data storage to shrink their environmental footprint. Yet, as we embrace cloud solutions and high-resolution streaming, the energy needed to power and cool these sprawling data centers keeps climbing. There is still much room for improvement. The 2024 CrowdStrike IT outage is a great reminder: nearly 8.5 million systems crashed and could not be restarted. The disruption rippled far beyond broadcasting, halting operations in hotels, airlines, airports, gas stations, retail stores, and even core institutions like banks, governmental offices and hospitals. The global financial toll soared to an estimated US$10 billion. It is also important to note that end-user devices like Smart TVs and mobile phones account for the lion’s share of streaming’s energy use, sometimes as much as 80 per cent. While media vendors cannot control these devices directly, every upstream improvement, such as using more efficient codecs or smarter adaptive streaming, lightens the load on devices and helps shrink the world’s overall energy costs.
AI: An Environmental Savior Or A Power-Hungry Tool?
The hottest topic in the industry is, without a doubt, AI. While AI offers various solutions for environmental management, such as optimization of energy grids and improving resource efficiency, the rapid development and deployment of powerful generative AI models come with environmental risks, including increased electricity demand, water consumption, and the extraction of critical minerals needed for AI infrastructure for data centers. The power required to train generative AI models, which have billions of parameters, such as OpenAI’s GPT-4, can demand a staggering amount of electricity, which leads to increased carbon dioxide emissions and pressure on the electric grid. AI searches require about ten times the electricity, from 0.3 watt-hours for a traditional Google search to 2.9 watt-hours for a ChatGPT query to respond to user queries, according to the Powering Intelligence: Analyzing Artificial Intelligence and Data Center Energy Consumption report. Another report states that ChatGPT consumes 1.059 billion kilowatt-hours annually just to answer questions. That electricity usage is estimated to be almost $400,000 a day and $139.7 million a year.
The rise of sustainability-themed content
There has been a huge increase in documentaries, short films, TV shows, and educational programs that promote environmental awareness and receive huge audience success. Recent movies like My Octopus Teacher, Don’t Look Up, Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret, and Tidying Up with Marie Kondo educate audiences about climate change, natural wildlife, the meat industry, sustainable lifestyles, over-consumption, conservation, and sustainability practices. Many of these TV shows and documentaries also often receive government grants and funds for production. While location shoots require extensive travel, expensive accommodations, large power generators, and set materials that contribute to environmental waste, we have also seen movies like Flow, produced using only free animation software, receive the highest industry awards, such as the Oscars.
Conclusion
To sum up, media companies are embracing sustainable procurement, choosing eco-friendly equipment, recyclable materials, and responsible waste disposal. Sustainability has moved from the sidelines to center stage in the media broadcast industry, now seen as an essential both in everyday operations and future innovations. By embracing energy-saving technologies, fostering virtual teamwork, and championing environmental awareness, broadcasters can make a real difference for the planet. For technology vendors, sustainability is more than a box to tick; it is a path to resilience and a powerful edge in a competitive market. Most importantly, we can all implement small, environmentally conscious habits in our daily private and professional lives.
