Posted on 29th March 2021

Level Up! ITV has created a Home Planet App for its staff

To coincide with ITV's corporate target to deliver Net Zero Carbon Emissions by 2030, a small crack team made it their mission to embed change on the ground with ITV staff too

The Home Planet App

The ITV Home Planet journey started in November 2019, when Matt O’ Shea, Director of Group Technology Platforms, and Marc Walford, Head of Enterprise Platforms, began brainstorming how technology and sustainability could work together to create positive change.

 

The idea of a sustainability app was born – something fun and engaging that would inform and inspire conversation across ITV and gamify sustainable living!

The app would include tips for better living; a set of behaviours that are simple, useful and accessible, not just ‘sustainable’.  These could be easily refreshed with a mix of tips for home and in the office, aligned to one of the four company climate action targets.

The background to each tip would also be simple and informative with users able to select ‘done it’ with a space to write a bit more about their action to encourage ideas sharing.

There would be leaderboards so teams and individuals could compete against each other and win prizes to drive engagement across ITV so everyone could play their part in reducing their own environmental impact.

ITV’s weather team (Laura Tobin, Becky Mantin and Alex Beresford) got behind the launch of the app and recorded VTs to drive engagement throughout.

The winners were 5 colleagues with the highest ‘planet points’ and 3 top teams (ITV News Anglia, ITV News Central and ITV News West Country) all winning a prize.

The 3 most engaged teams were also recognised – Group Technology had 65% of the team using the app, followed by Multistory Media with 50%, and ITV News Anglia at 48%.

The data captured helped to inform ITV of the most popular changes that were being made and how many behaviour changes had occurred since the app launched.

ITV’s Head of Sustainable Production, Phil Holdgate, provided the location for the winning teams’ prize of trees on the Emmerdale set, giving a lasting legacy to the app.

By early March 2021 the stats were already impressive and showed how well engaged ITV staff were with the app

By early March 2021 the stats were already impressive and showed how well engaged ITV staff were with the app

So what did the ITV team learn?

1.

Technology delivery has come so far and enabled the ideas to be realised swiftly

2.

A simple idea can really help to drive change, especially when you add a competition to earn planet points and win prizes!

3.

You don’t need a big budget, just a brilliant idea and a team of colleagues with the right skills and passion to drive engagement and spot the opportunities.

The ITV Team

Meet the team behind the ITV Home Planet App

Matt O'Shea

Director of Group Technology Platforms

Anna Waldeck

Group Marketing Green Team Steering Group Lead, Controller of Production and Operations - ITV Creative

Marc Walford

Head of Enterprise Platforms

Julia Giannini

Senior Sustainability Manager, Social Purpose