Building a sustainable TV and film industry

Our commitments, requirements and support across commissioning and production

Tim Davie

Tim Davie

BBC Director General
We’re at a point where sustainability, the agenda around nature, must be there front and centre. This is a real moment for us to do that. The audience is very interested in this topic and we, as public service broadcasters, have a huge creative opportunity. It’s not just a corporate initiative, it is a priority to bring it alive even more in programming beyond the obvious strands.
— Tim Davie, BBC Director-General

Sustainability is a creative opportunity on-air and a fundamental requirement for our productions off-air. We have science-based targets to actively reduce the carbon emissions of our productions and, as part of the Climate Content Pledge, have committed to embedding more and better climate storytelling in our content. We know audiences not only care about environmental themes and issues but are also increasingly impacted by them, so it’s important we reflect these experiences in an authentic and relevant way.

To deliver on our commitments we require all the producers we work with to take the following steps:

  1. Focus on minimising and reducing carbon emissions from energy and travel, including not using diesel/petrol in generators on UK–based shoots
  2. Achieve albert certification by completing an albert footprint and carbon action plan to provide accurate emissions data, drive sustainability initiatives
  3. Provide a company level sustainability policy
  4. Have a conversation with the commissioner as to whether there are opportunities to authentically reflect sustainable themes in the programme editorial. Submit an on-screen sustainability form to track references

We've created a range of resources to help producers meet our requirements:

Watch a behind the scenes film about sustainability on and off-screen on drama The War Between the Land and the Sea

Our requirements

  • albert certification

    Certification and carbon footprint
  • Company sustainability policy

    Attached to commissioning specification
  • Embed themes on-air

    Reflect and track climate themes
  • Resources

    Everything you need to ensure your content has the minimum environmental impact and the maximum audience impact
  • Sustainable editorial guide

    Inspire audiences and reflect climate and related themes on-air
  • Read the environmental sustainability guide

    Watch Climate Creatives 2025

    Achieve our sustainability requirements

    Further guidance

    Help and support for producing sustainable content, on and off-screen
  • Production case studies

    Tips and inspiration
  • albert website

    Industry-wide resources for on and off-air
  • BBC Environmental Sustainability website

    Our strategy to become Net Zero
  • Please note the BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites.


  • Working with producers

    How we commission and support
  • Skills and training

    Industry training and skills development
  • Search by Tag:

    Rebuild Page

    The page will automatically reload. You may need to reload again if the build takes longer than expected.

    Useful links

    Demo mode

    Hides preview environment warning banner on preview pages.

    Theme toggler

    Select a theme and theme mode and click "Load theme" to load in your theme combination.

    Theme:
    Theme Mode:
    Trending Now