As an entertainment business in nearly one in three homes in the UK, BSkyB has at its disposal the ideal platform to raise public awareness of environmental issues: TV. While BSkyB is using various resources to encourage sustainability in the home and within the company, Sky News’ coverage of environmental issues, for example, has seen a 41% growth in stories on climate change compared with last year.

The company’s total carbon output is 38,000 tonnes per year and through a range of initiatives, aims to save some 32,000 tonnes. Fiona Ball, the company’s Head of Environment spoke to Mel Poluck about BSkyB’s plans and what the company has done to keep carbon down and awareness up.

What have you been working on recently?

“We recently introduced ‘auto-standby’ on 2.1 million set top boxes.
The software allows set top boxes to turn off for all customers that have SkyPlus or High Definition (HD) boxes.

“We’re also reducing CO2 from our fleet. We have 1600 vans on the road – that’s a big part of our carbon footprint. We’ve installed a route planning system so engineers make the most economical route to jobs and we’re going to start the first commercial trial in the UK of 30% biodiesel vehicles in 10% of the fleet (biodiesel vehicles usually use 5%). We’re also looking at using electric vehicles for shuttle buses for employees and visitors.

“And we recently joined a campaign ‘We’re in this together’ launched by Tony Blair. It’s a commitment by a number of companies for customers to find easy affordable ways of [improving] energy efficiency.”

What’s the most challenging aspect of your job?

“Keeping up with the amount of ideas and interest in our company. We’re working closely with other business areas at BSkyB and there are only two full time environmental people in the company. Also we run something called Innovative Care for the Environment (ICE), where employees submit ideas and there’s an expectation all these things will be done, so meeting people’s expectations is challenging”

How do you deal with this?

“We work closely with the Communications department. We put articles in our magazines updating people on what’s happening. Individuals will understand an idea is being taken on board. We also have 50 voluntary Eco Ambassadors. We give them training to get up to speed with what’s happening in the company and they get the message out there.”

What has helped get environmental awareness off the ground at BSkyB?

“We’re lucky, everything is led from the top. We have a huge amount of senior management support, which is crucial for any campaign.”

What has been the most successful of your low carbon campaigns?

“We gave staff a ‘Carbon credit card’ as a way of telling them about Sky becoming CO2 neutral and as a way people can individually join in with what Sky is doing. Everyone came in one day and had one on their desk. It had a unique registration number for them for the ‘Join the bigger picture’ campaign – which offers ways to reduce CO2 at home and at work. Staff can collect credits, for example, if they cycle to work and 20% of staff log on regularly. A prize draw every quarter is a way of incentivising people to join in.”

What is the secret of a successful carbon reduction initiative?

“You won’t reach everyone in one way. You have to have a completely integrated campaign – online; in programming; and in magazines. We’ve taken a systematic approach. We had to get our own house in order first.”

What measures are you taking to ensure customers are more energy efficient in their homes?

“People feel disempowered about climate change but individuals can make a big difference. We sponsored a Rough Guide to reducing energy available in January 2007. It came out with the Times newspaper and is also available online. And we’ve run TV ‘idents’ and adverts about leaving set top boxes and TVs on standby for example.

“At the beginning of 2007, we began sending customers lightbulbs with engineers and in direct mailouts. At the same time we gave out information on energy efficiency. Three bulbs offset energy use from set top boxes in its lifetime .”

What would you advise other companies to do as a priority?

“[Carbon reduction] is something business has to adopt. They’ll have to measure and report. This will become more binding on companies. Companies already managing their carbon footprint are going to be in a better position when legislation comes in.”

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Best Practice Ideas

Please visit the Forum here and share a tip that you have for organisations to reduce their carbon emissions. Often the very simplest ideas can have the greatest effect in reducing carbon emissions:

• Take care to use the right gears when driving.
  (Tom Denton, Manager of Social and Environmental Affairs)

• When flying, check to see if the airline offers a carbon offsetting scheme. Flybe, for example offers an optional five pound offsetting scheme to travellers.
  (Steve Parrot, Director of Health, Safety and Environment, Flybe)

• Include media coverage into any payback period when assessing whether to implement micro-renewables.
  (Toby Sawday, Business Development and Sustainability Manager, Alastair Sawday Publishing)