Following the pattern set by Andy’s Dinosaur Adventures, his last series for Cbeebies, children’s wildlife presenter Andy Day has made another show which has achieved albert sustainable production accreditation. The BBC Natural History Unit production team from Bristol were keen to make their series Andy’s Baby Animals in as green a way as possible and they succeeded, matching Andy’s Dinosaur Adventures top 3 star score.
Andy’s Baby Animals is a 20 part series of 10 minute films for pre-school children, to be broadcast later this year. It tells stories about the skills baby animals need to learn in the wild – from climbing to swimming, jumping to teamwork. This series had strong green credentials from the start because it’s compiled from the BBC NHU’s library. Recycling footage previously filmed for other programmes but in a different format is a great way to reduce travel carbon emissions.
The team cut their predicted travel carbon emissions in half using a variety of tactics:
- They used a Mitsubishi Outlander hybrid as their main car on the shoot. Using both petrol and a battery, it’s fuel efficient and green.
- The camera and sound crew were asked to share a car rather than drive separately, keeping carbon emissions and costs down.
- Meetings with commissioners were held via video conference where possible and journeys to London made by train cutting travel emissions further.
Andy Day was filmed with animals at Zoos around the UK and the production team contacted them to check their sustainability policies. Unsurprisingly, these conservation aware organisations had impressive green plans in place but Whipsnade Zoo’s stood out. Public facing examples include cutting single-use plastic by selling water in a box (see pic) and providing picnic tables made entirely from recycled plastic.
The BBC crew were also conscious of cutting plastic use and provided the presenter and crew with re-usable bottles for the shoot. On location they also provided re-usable shopping bags and recycled back bags for rubbish.
