Posted on 20th April 2020

Earth Day: Television looks to the Future

To mark Earth Day, we're looking at how our TV content needs to help move society towards a sustainable future

No one could have predicted that Earth Day 2020 would see us all locked down in our homes, at the mercy of an invisible virus which has stopped the world in its tracks.

It’s a scary and unsettling position to find ourselves in and a time when many of us are turning to our screens for content that can inform, engage, entertain and give us hope.

This pandemic has shown just how important and influential our TV and film industry is so this Earth Day, a year on from our Planet Placement launch, we’re asking what should our TV shows look like in 10 years’ time and how does our content need to adapt to help society transition to a sustainable future?

Featuring interviews filmed in January 2020 with TV commissioners, the page below explores some of the ways in which we’re seeing Planet Placement come to life on the small screen.

"It needs to become an everyday conversation"

BBC's Ruby Kuraishe on how her department is looking to weave the environment into its content

“

It is completely undeniable that this climate issue is going to dominate the next 10 years so I think for TV not to deal with it would be mad.

”

— Richard Curtis - Screenwriter

Here's how different genres have been taking on the planet placement challenge

7 Billion and Counting

Big Little Lies

Last Week Tonight

"The challenge is to come up with a way that shifts behaviour"

ITV's Tom Giles on their 'planet' approach in Current Affairs

3,125

The amount of mentions Climate Change had on TV in 2017 / 2018 (compared to other terms such as 'Cats' 14,454)

Cats Vs Climate

Last year, to coincide with the launch of Planet Placement, we conducted some research with Deloitte to look at how often Climate Change was mentioned on our screens. The results were…interesting!

We’re running this research again and undoubtedly the numbers this year will be higher which is a great result but what must happen next?

We can’t expect our Natural History or Science programmes to do the heavy lifting, every genre has a role to play

Cats vs Climate

"We have a duty to highlight the climate crisis"

Fatima Salaria from Channel 4 on how the role of the broadcaster in this crisis.

To celebrate Earth Day, our event partners have some special offers

Good Energy

Good Energy offer 100% renewable electricity which they generate at their own wind and solar farms and buy directly from 1,500 independent UK generators. Good Energy also offer carbon neutral gas, of which 10% is renewable biogas.

This Earth Day, they are offering albert members and friends £100 credit on their bill when they switch their home energy supply.

If you or your company are albert members or are visiting us for the first time today, you can take advantage of this offer. And why not also check out Good Energy’s Top Tips for working from home.

Find out more

Sargent-Disc

Sargent-Disc is running a month of online training sessions to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of Earth Day and the signing of the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement on 22 April 2016.

In these times both Digital Production Office® applications CrewStart™ and Digital Purchase Order make it easy to work from home whilst also reducing the use of carbon on production and saving time.

Join sessions on Earth Day itself and throughout the month to learn more about how to use the software and how to streamline your next production.

Find out more

With thanks to our event partners for their continued support

Head of Industry Sustainability, Aaron Matthews reflects on the changes we've seen in the year since the Planet Placement launch

Read Now

Articles

A year on from our Planet Placement launch - where are we?

21 Apr 2020

"To keep our content relevant, we absolutely have to deal with Climate Change"

Sky's Gabriel Silver discusses the importance of bringing climate change conversations into our TV shows.

“

"If you normalise (climate change) in popular culture then the general public will shift."

”

— Kevin MacDonald - Director

So what can you do?

Commissioning Editor? Writer? Producer? Whatever your role, there's lots you can do to get planet placement ready

Understand the Issues

Take part in our free training to understand the climate crisis issues we face and understand how the conversation can be brought into the content you're creating, no matter the genre. Search 'online training' on our site and book now

Delve into your role

Scripted Producer, Non Scripted Producer? Writer or Commissioners? Our planet placement website has advice, tips and tricks for every role.

Be Inspired

Watch our Planet Placement case studies and be inspired by the inventive ways that different genres are taking on the planet placement challenge

Inspired to do more? Sign up for our free online training to learn more about the climate crisis and what we can do in the TV and film Industry to make a positive change

Online Training