Posted on 28th January 2021

We’ve launched a News Consortium

The news consortium will work alongside the BAFTA albert consortium which is now in its 10th year and the albert sports consortium which launched in 2020

Today, we are very proud to announce the launch of the albert news consortium, a group which has been set up to support the broadcast and production community specifically engaged in news television.

The news consortium will work alongside the BAFTA albert consortium which is now in its 10th year and the albert sports consortium which launched in 2020 with Hazel Irvine as its chair.

Much like the other two groups the news consortium will focus on the specific environmental issues related to news and will work collaboratively to create initiatives designed to reduce the impact of news production as well as inspiring sustainable futures through its content.

Michelle Whitehead, Special Projects Manager at albert commented “The challenges faced by the broadcast news community are quite unique when compared to those of our core Consortium members, not least because news producers have to react with a moments notice to breaking news and have to broadcast from all over the world. We wanted to create a separate group that could discuss the challenges they face and work on tailored solutions that can help them achieve net-zero carbon emissions.”

Climate stories have been steadily rising up the agenda for news teams and now is the time for us to take decisive action to shape the future of our news programming and ensure that through our actions and our reporting, we are helping the general public to understand the climate issues and more importantly, feel empowered to take positive action to prevent the deepening climate crisis

— Oonagh Forster, Environment Group Lead, ITV News

The founding members of the group include ITN, BBC, ITV News, Sky News and Channel 4. More news groups are invited to join and should contact albert via their website for more details.

Together the group will explore creating certification for news programming, standardising the carbon footprint measurement of a news room and increasing albert training and engagement with staff.

Richard Lawson, Director of Commercial Production at ITN added, ‘We are delighted to be part of the albert news consortium. The TV industry has long shown that collaboration is a key component in the fight against climate change and we look forward to working with our colleagues from across the sector to share best practice and deliver the very best climate related content to our viewers.

As the Principal Partner and Media Partner of the COP26 Summit, Sky is committed to using our voice and our reach through Sky News to report on this pivotal moment for climate recovery.

There has never been a more urgent need for our Industry to report accurately and informatively on the climate crisis. At Sky News, we have campaigned for the removal of single-use plastics, appointed a dedicated climate change reporter and brought our audiences environmental stories from around the world with 'A New Climate'.

The albert consortium provides a fantastic platform to share best practice among peers, including learnings from Sky's overall ambition to be net zero carbon by 2030

— Sarah Whitehead, Deputy Head of Newsgathering, Sky News