British Sky Broadcasting

Sector: Corporate

Employees:

> About 12,000 based primarily in the U.K.

Carbon Footprint:

> 41,411 tonnes CO₂e in 2006

TARGETS

> To reduce direct CO₂ emissions by 10% below 2003 levels by 2010

Achievements

> May 2006: became the world’s first media company to achieve carbon neutral status. 

Benefits

> Investing in carbon offsets cost Sky less than 1% of its 2006 marketing spend (£622 million).
> In committing to carbon neutrality, Sky gained the company brand differentiation, and fulfilled shareholder interests through building loyalty from employees and customers - who see cost savings from increased energy efficiency of products

Low Carbon Solutions

Background

British Sky Broadcasting (Sky) is the leading provider of multi-channel entertainment in the UK and has a viewership of more than 8.6 million customers in roughly 10.2 million households. Among its many services, Sky operates Sky Digital (the most popular subscription television service in the UK and the Republic of Ireland), produces its own TV content, and owns several TV channels. Sky had a turnover of £4.15 billion for its fiscal year 30 June 2005-2006. In May 2006, Sky became the world’s first major media company and the first FTSE100 business to become fully carbon neutral.  In recognition of its efforts, Sky has also achieved ranking on FTSE4Good and the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes and is the world’s only broadcasting company to be ranked in the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations index.  More information on Sky’s carbon strategy is available at its Bigger Picture website. 

Over the last three years Sky has reduced its carbon emissions by 27% through internal energy efficiency initiatives and through the purchase of renewable energy.  Examples include:
> Encouraging staff to purchase fuel efficient hybrid vehicles by negotiating discounts and contributing £1,300 towards the purchase;
> Setting emissions targets for future vehicle purchases; and
> Installing automatic lighting sensors in buildings.

> In combination with policies to reduce its direct climate impact, Sky has voluntarily created a fund to purchase carbon credits to offset the remaining unavoidable CO₂ emissions, thus becoming the world’s first media company to achieve carbon neutral status. Currently Sky invests in four renewable energy offset projects from The CarbonNeutral Company which meet the Voluntary Carbon Standard. 

> Sky worked with The CarbonNeutral Company and the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management (ECCM) to determine its carbon footprint for BSkyB and Easynet.
> Sky is a member of The °Climate Group.
> The media company has signed up to the European Code of Conduct on Energy Efficient Digital TV Services.

> Sky has been able to halve the power consumption of its set top boxes since launch by implementing a number of strategies to increase the energy efficiency of the design.
> Sky is also developing programming campaigns that address environmental issues and has recently launched its Green Shoots competition which is Sky’s search for short films that will inspire our 8.6 million customers to become more climate friendly. One winner will have their 60 second film shown on Sky. 

> Sky purchases 100% renewable energy for all its UK sites.