Drivers of change in the media tech industry: Sustainability

In a new series of features, TVBEurope is looking at five key drivers of change within the media tech industry. We invited a number of vendors to share their thoughts on each topic, kicking off with sustainability

By Jenny Priestley

Published: July 19, 2023 Updated: July 20, 2023

In a new series of features, TVBEurope is looking at five key drivers of change within the media tech industry. We invited a number of vendors to share their thoughts on each topic, kicking off with sustainability

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Over the next few weeks, TVBEurope will be looking at five key drivers of change within the media tech industry.

The features will focus on sustainability, diversity, professional development, employee welfare and the future of the industry.

All five topics are areas that we know broadcasters are considering more critically in deciding which vendors to partner with.

TVBEurope invited a number of vendors to share their thoughts on each topic with us, kicking off with sustainability.

Tell us about your organisation's green targets/initiatives Fran ois Polarczyk, sustainability director, Accedo At Accedo, we have a Science Based Target for emissions reduction approved by the SBTi. This includes a number of commitments we have made:

to reduce absolute 1 and 2 GHG emissions 46,2% by FY2030 from a FY2019 base year, and by 100% by FY2050.

to increase annual sourcing of renewable electricity from 58% in FY2019 to 100% by FY2030.

that 85% of our suppliers by emissions covering purchased goods and services, upstream transportation and distribution and business travel, will have science-based targets by FY2027.

that 50% of our customers by emissions covering use of sold products, will have science-based targets by FY2027.

We are a member of the UN Global Compact and are in the process of setting up our Sustainable Development Goals criteria.

Accedo is launching a Sustainable Marketplace for customers to assess vendors not only based on cost and performance, but also on sustainability criteria such as ESG KPIs, or products which have a sustainable function. More details will be announced ahead of IBC.

We set up the Sustainability Roundtable to connect content providers and tech vendors from the OTT ecosystem, to brainstorm around potential experiments where sustainability takes a central role, with the aim to help organisations with their sustainable transformation. In the first session we were joined by 10 service providers, including ITV, A&E, and Waterbear Network, and 10 vendors, including AWS, Cleeng, Seenthis, and Greening of streaming. Our guest speaker opened everyone's eyes to the negative impact of advertising and the need to redefine it.

We have also led some research on app-level changes influencing the energy efficiency of devices. This involved looking at the engineering and design factors that would impact energy efficiency of OTT devices.

Matthew Williams-Neale, VP marketing, Appear At Appear, we're committed to ensuring we have the lowest environmental impact possible across everything we do - this includes our R&D process, manufacturing, shipping, testing, deployment and eventual product disposal. All our products are designed and assembled in Norway using electricity from hydropower production, and our products comply with all EU directives, including ISO 9001, ISO 14001, REACH, and WEEE.

The real key to making our solutions as green as possible is our elegant engineering that bakes-in sustainability from the R&D and product concept. It means we don't need to specifically design our products from the first phase to be sustainable, it's a by-product of the way we design solutions and products. Elegant engineering is efficient engineering, and it ensures that the values of sustainability are at the heart of everything we do.

Caroline Meyer, chief human resources officer, Bedrock We have taken proactive steps towards promoting sustainability and addressing climate change through our green targets and initiatives. One such initiative is the deployment of La Fresque du Climat for all employees. This unique programme enables our team members to deepen their understanding of the challenges posed by climate change, its underlying causes, and its far-reaching consequences. By participating in this initiative, our employees are equipped with the knowledge and awareness needed to identify both individual and collective solutions for taking action. We believe that empowering our workforce with this valuable information fosters a culture of environmental responsibility and enables us to make informed decisions towards a more sustainable future.

How much is sustainability now a part of your R&D function for new and future products? Christopher Br hler, vice president of product, at SDVI Designing for sustainability has been a core engineering tenant for several years, as it makes both ecological and financial sense to make our platform more energy efficient. We continually look for ways to use more efficient processors to perform more of the jobs in our supply chains.

We've also partnered closely with AWS, which means we (and our customers) benefit from their ongoing efforts to make the AWS cloud more carbon-neutral. In fact, in 2022 we saw a significant reduction in our AWS carbon footprint, even though we processed 24% more jobs on the Rally platform, thanks to the renewable energy usage in AWS data centres.

In a media supply chain, most gains in sustainability go hand in hand with gains in efficiency and money savings. If I reduce my waste by cutting out unnecessary steps, I save time, money and emissions. A win-win-win!

Danna Mann, director of marketing, TAG Video Systems We've been a software company that runs on COTS hardware and has had native cloud capabilities from day one,

LINK:	https://www.tvbeurope.com/business/drivers-of-change-in-the-media-tech...
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