Back to All NewsOur Progress on Sustainability: Two Years In
Emma Stewart, Ph.D.
Netflix Sustainability Officer
Social Impact
27 March 2023
Global
Making Entertainment Sustainable: Decarbonizing the Making of Film & TVAligning a company's operations with climate science is a bit like making a television series. It involves producing many seasons, which require tons of planning and feature plot twists, fun stories and characters!
The Trailer : Climate science tells us this is the critical decade to avoid unmanageable climate change. So, we set two near-term climate targets aligned with consensus climate science measured in years, not decades: 1) to halve our emissions by 20301 and, 2) in support of global net zero goals, starting in 2022, to annually bring our remaining net carbon emissions to zero by restoring nature to capture carbon2.
Season 1 : As we've shared previously, most of our emissions come from producing our films and series. The production industry is over a century old, and like most industries, it is traditionally powered by fossil fuels. Reducing these emissions is paramount and makes good business sense. We approach them using our OED framework: first Optimizing energy use, then Electrifying it, and Decarbonizing the rest. Using this framework, we identified four main strategies: Energy Efficiency, Electrifying Vehicles, Clean Mobile Power (alternatives to diesel generators used universally across the entertainment industry), and Renewable Energy.
Last year, we reported that we reduced our 2021 emissions 10% below what they would have been and we'll report our 2022 emissions in our annual ESG report in June. To supplement this decarbonization work, we delivered on our promise to net all remaining emissions to zero by investing in the power of nature to retain and capture carbon3. This aligns with the latest guidance from nine research, NGO and multilateral government institutions who conclude that in addition to cutting greenhouse gas emissions in company operations and across value chains, to help get the world on track for halving global emissions by 2030, all companies need to invest in protecting, managing and restoring nature, for example by buying high-quality nature-based carbon credits. Relative to our work to decarbonize, these credits come last, but per the science (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Nature), cannot come later.
Season 2 and beyond: All that planning and piloting will pay off as we ramp up our use of low-carbon electricity and fuel and start to spur change across the ecosystem of vendors from whom we rent our stages, offices and production equipment.
This is what industry leadership looks like. Netflix is raising the bar by aligning operations with science, pioneering approaches to protect nature, and sending new demand signals to suppliers that sustainability is a measurable priority. Not only do we see progress against ambitious near-term goals, Netflix is also leveraging their platform for positive change. It's clear that Netflix is taking climate action seriously. - Elizabeth Sturcken, Managing Director, Environmental Defense FundMaking Sustainability Entertaining: Supporting Creators Who Want to Better Represent Sustainability on ScreenThe changing climate all around us and the ingenuity of sustainability solutions cropping up everywhere is one of the most epic stories of our time, and it's one creators are already reflecting on screen at Netflix.
In 2022, 165 million households around the world, more than 70% of our members, chose to watch at least one story on Netflix that helped them better understand climate issues and highlight hopeful solutions around sustainability, or both. So that members can more easily discover these stories, we've curated over 200 of these series, films and specials into a Netflix collection - Sustainability Stories.
Sustainability shows up in many ways - green premise titles like Don't Look Up and The Sea Beast can ignite massive conversation about climate inaction or nature conservation while also being two of the most popular films on Netflix. But as climate impacts and solutions become an everyday part of our lives, they are increasingly represented on screen implicitly through character traits, settings, and subplots. Examples of these green contributions include the hunky organic farmer in Sweet Magnolias, the youth climate activist celebrated on Queer Eye and the preschool heroes throughout The Octonauts: Above and Beyond. And even more titles have green moments of dialogue, backdrop, or action, like Ginny's anxiety that no one cares about the planet in Ginny & Georgia or Phil Rosenthal discovering he likes plant-rich meals in Somebody Feed Phil.
While we've made progress this second year, we still have a long way to go. We'll update you along the way and share what we've learned, so continue watching for more.
1 Third-party validated as a science-based target by non-profit SBTi.org to cut absolute emissions by 46%. 2 There is no universal standard or definition for the term Net Zero at the organizational level. At Netflix, we work to reduce our carbon footprint at the speed climate science prescribes and then compensate for emissions we can't yet reduce by matching them with credits. Since FY20 we have engaged EY, an independent accounting firm, to perform a review of our Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, including application of renewable energy credits (RECs) and carbon credits. Our ESG reports include a link to EY's assurance letters. 3 While we await harmonized guidance from the organizations bringing greater transparency to the voluntary carbon market, we continue to use our publicly-available 5 Screening Criteria (p.19) and will share the full list of crediting projects in our ESG report, as we did
