Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Attack Mode: Little Dot Studios on Developing a Successful Net-Zero Formula for Sports Production

18/08/2022

Attack Mode: Little Dot Studios on developing a successful net-zero formula for sports production By Will Strauss, Editor

Thursday, August 11, 2022 - 14:15

Print This Story

Photo: Andy Hone/LAT Images. Courtesy of Formula E

There is no industry that is taking [environmental sustainability] seriously enough. The industries that talk about it the most are the ones not doing enough. The media sector needs to be more aware of the role that it has both as a communicator but also operationally and logistically.

Strong words from Saunders Carmichael-Brown, a creative producer, digital presenter and, crucially, sustainability ambassador at All3Media-owned content agency and media network Little Dot Studios.

His job is to lead the company's drive to become a more responsible producer and distributor of sports content.

Speaking to SVG Europe earlier this month, he outlined the environmental sustainability efforts that the company has gone to so far, offered up some advice for others in similar situations, and detailed Little Dot's plans for the future.

While he acknowledges that the wider industry needs to up its game, he and Little Dot are certainly doing their bit.

Offsetting should always be the last resort. I am very aware. And I communicated it from the first meeting. Offsetting is plugging a hole. The priority is reduction.

In February, the company was verified as carbon neutral to Future Net Zero (FNZ) standard across its organisational and operational output, making it one of the first production companies to achieve that status. Not only that, it has increased its offsetting efforts to account for its historical emissions going all the way back to the company's inception in 2013.

Similarly, the company has signed onto the UN Sports For Climate Action Framework and is committed to using its voice in the sports sector to drive positive change and awareness on-screen as well as reduce emissions from its operations.

It also has strong links to sustainability-conscious sports, working with Formula E, Extreme E and most recently the eSkootr Championship. Which is no coincidence.

The company's aim, or certainly Carmichael-Brown's aim, is to become the go to' agency for electric and sustainability-conscious motorsport, and indeed other sports.

How did the company get to the position where they are recognised as a responsible agency? For Carmichael-Brown (pictured, above), it began quite small.

The sustainability angle started out as interest about four or five years ago, and then the interest became a passion and then an obsession, he says. And then I needed to study it and know the facts around it, in order to have a bit more of a comprehensive understanding of what it actually means and what progress is.

I was getting really frustrated with not being able to cut through greenwashing, for example, being manipulated and falling for the same traps.

In response, he did an 18-month global impact science course with the University of Pennsylvania. This provided him with science-based targets and the background story of what climate change really is, how the weather works and, crucially, how this is affecting economics around the world.

All I've been wanting to do since getting involved in this is find a way to make my impact greater and, if I can do that within a company [Little Dot], and one that is part of a new even bigger group [All3Media], it's a win-win.

It certainly dovetailed nicely with Little Dot CEO Dan Jones' desire to establish a sustainability vision for the agency.

Little Dot already had a really good social sustainability policy in terms of hiring and in terms of staff culture, continues Carmichael-Brown. So I was focused on sorting out the carbon impact.

I spent about six months going around every different angle of the business, talking to different teams and finding out how their operations work and then from that assessing where the emissions were

This included a wide variety of facets from office power, employee initiatives and ways of working, to how its productions are created and facilitated.

Then it was about calculating that impact, he continues. I tried to do this myself for a long time but I realised that the way that this works in terms of hitting any achievement targets, such as accreditation or evaluation, you need third parties.

They know the process, and you can save a lot of time and kind of streamline the process. So I got a third party involved [called Inteb] and they helped me get more accurate readings, and helped me to look at some things that I hadn't thought about or hadn't considered. Then we built an incredibly accurate emissions [report].

Extreme E: An AFC Energy container during the Desert X-Prix at AlUla in AlUla, Saudi Arabia

Photo by Sam Bloxham / LAT Images

And from then it was about understanding, firstly, where the key impact areas were. Travel is huge. But because Little Dot Studios work is content and channel management and digital reappropriation of existing content, as well as production, it actually means the operational missions were far greater the production emissions.

The first goal, therefore, was to achieve carbon neutrality. They scoped it out based on 2020.

Working with this third party, we were able to achieve carbon neutrality for 2020 and when we had the figures back we had an understanding of the emissions and the month-by-month breakdown, so we knew how and where to make improvements for this year and next year and the years that followed.

But, for Carmichael-Brown, that wasn't enough. Which is where the idea for going back to the launch of the company came from.

It didn't feel like a big enough learning curve. I didn't feel that we were holding ourselves accountable for the impact we had. We decided to get as much infor
LINK: https://www.svgeurope.org/blog/headlines/attack-mode-little-dot-studio...
See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines

09/11/2025

Dalet Unveils Agentic AI Media Workflows at IBC2025

Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...

06/10/2025

France Tlvisions Wins Prestigious 2025 EBU Technology & Innovation Award in Groundbreaking Collaboration with Dalet

France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...

18/09/2025

FOR-A America Appoints Jo Aun to Lead US Product Developm...

FOR-A America named Jo Aun as Senior Manager of Product Management and Engineering, reporting directly to Satoshi Kanemura, President and COO. In this new posit...

18/09/2025

MASV Highlights Partner Integrations Fueling Modern Media...

MASV (massive.io), the fastest and most reliable large file transfer platform for media professionals and an IDC Innovator 2025 for Media & Entertainment*, toda...

18/09/2025

Dish TV India partners with ThinkAnalytics to power AI-dr...

ThinkAnalytics, the global leader in video content discovery and persaonalization, today announced that Dish TV India, the leading content distribution company,...

18/09/2025

DirecTV Adds Three Sports Channels to Its FAST Streaming Offering

DirecTV continues to expand its women's sports offerings by adding Sports Fanatics' and Whoopi Goldberg's Free Ad-Supported Television (FAST) All Wo...

18/09/2025

Fall Football Kicks Off With Native HDR Production, NextGen TV Telecast

WASHINGTON NextGen TV viewers are beginning to see what high dynamic range (HDR) brings to their football enjoyment with the launch of the sport's fall seas...

18/09/2025

FCC Extends Deadline for EEO Audit Replies

WASHINGTON After issuing audit letters seeking Equal Employment Opportunity data from a randomly selected group of TV and radio stations in August, the Federal ...

18/09/2025

Warner Bros. Discovery Signs New Deal with Nielsen

NEW YORK Warner Bros. Discovery and Nielsen have signed a new, long-term, multi-year deal that covers measurement for all Warner Bros. Discovery platforms acros...

18/09/2025

CIMM Launches Startup Program and Innovation Showcase

NEW YORK As part of its ongoing efforts to develop better measurement solutions, the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) announced the launch of t...

18/09/2025

UPDATED: ABC Takes 'Jimmy Kimmel Live! Off the Air Indefinitely

IRVING, Texas Following threats from the Federal Communications Commission and the announcement that the nations largest station group, Nexstar Media Group, wou...

18/09/2025

RT Prime Time investigation uncovers location data of thousands of smartphones in Ireland for sale

Individual phones could be tracked back to specific residential addresses Sm...

18/09/2025

GeForce NOW Unleashes Dying Light: The Beast' in the Cloud

GeForce NOW is packing a monstrous punch this week. Dying Light: The Beast, the latest adrenaline fueled chapter in Techland's parkour meets survival horror...

18/09/2025

Dolby Atmos arrives in Maruti Suzuki Victoris, expanding premium in-car entertainment in India

September 18 2025, 04:20 (PDT) Dolby Atmos arrives in Maruti Suzuki Victoris, e...

17/09/2025

Tech Focus: Audio Training, Part 2 - Manufacturers Offer Extensive Online Learning

Tech Focus: Audio Training, Part 2 - Manufacturers Offer Extensive Online Learni...

17/09/2025

Tech Focus: Audio Training, Part 1 - A1 Shortage Remains a Major-League Challenge for Sports Broadcasting

Tech Focus: Audio Training, Part 1 - A1 Shortage Remains a Major-League Challeng...

17/09/2025

Dua Lipa's Service95 Book Club' Goes Live at the New York Public Library

It was the ultimate convergence of pop culture and literary prestige: Last night, Dua Lipa brought her Service95 Book Club podcast to the stage for a special li...

17/09/2025

The Gauge: Mexico August 2025

During August, streaming's share of TV viewing in Mexico showed an increase of 0.4% compared to the previous month, accounting for 25% of TV viewing. Discl...

17/09/2025

Jo Aun Joins FOR-A America as Senior Manager, Product Engineering

CYPRESS, Calif. FOR-A America has named Jo Aun as senior manager of product engineering, a new role responsible for guiding the planning, development and rollou...

17/09/2025

PlayBox Neo and CIS Group Power CazeTV with a seamless Pl...

PlayBox Neo, in partnership with CIS Group, a leading provider of media and broadcast technology solutions, has successfully deployed PlayBox Neo's Dual Cha...

17/09/2025

Energy Regulatory Agency Underscores Commitment with Ene...

In a relationship that mirrors societal advances in sustainability, Brightline Lighting and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Headquarters have en...

17/09/2025

Clear-Com Powers Star-Studded Communications at Houston A...

Clear-Com is proud to support the world-class productions of Alley Theatre, one of the oldest and largest nonprofit resident theatres in the United States. With...

17/09/2025

Arch Platform Technologies Announces Strategic Collaborat...

Arch Platform Technologies (www.archpt.io), a pioneer in automated, scalable cloud infrastructure for high-performance workflows, today announced a Strategic Co...

17/09/2025

With over 39bn EUR in assets under management and record-...

Over 300 selected decision-makers from start-ups, corporates, and VC funds worldwide will gather for the third edition of the event, united by a single goal: to...

17/09/2025

Telestream Celebrates Award Win at IBC2025

Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, is excited to announce that its flagship Vantage platform and its next-generation AI capabilities re...

17/09/2025

Mediagenix Celebrates Triple Best of Show Wins at IBC2025...

Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions that profitably connect the right content to the right audience, proudly announces its three Best of Show...

17/09/2025

PlayBox Neo Appoints Transtel Universal as Top Reseller P...

In a move to further establish a firm foothold across South East Asia, PlayBox Neo, the well-respected name in broadcast playout and channel branding, has appoi...

17/09/2025

Wisycom Unveils Two New Solutions at IBC 2025

Wisycom, a global leader in advanced wireless audio solutions, announced two major wireless solutions at IBC 2025 (Stand 8.D30). This includes the Portable RF-o...

17/09/2025

Six Berklee Alumni Win Emmy Awards

Six Berklee Alumni Win Emmy Awards The recipients were recognized for their contributions to acclaimed programs Severance, The Studio, The Penguin, SNL50: The...

17/09/2025

Applications Open for Berklee in Santo Domingo

Applications Open for Berklee in Santo Domingo The weeklong contemporary music program will run January 5-10, 2026. By Colette Greenstein September 17, 2025 ...

17/09/2025

Ukrainian Students Find Creative Consonance' at Berklee Valencia

Ukrainian Students Find Creative Consonance' at Berklee Valencia Through ELIA's UAx Platform, six students from Kyiv joined Berklee Valencia for a week...

17/09/2025

Meet Kenna Hilburn, Avids New Incoming Chief Product Officer

Earlier this year Avid announced Kenna Hilburn as its new senior vice president of product. Recently Hilburn was promoted to Avids new Chief Product Officer, su...

17/09/2025

SES and K2 Space to Accelerate Development of Next-Generation MEO Network

Transatlantic collaboration combines experience and agility to drive innovation in network design and delivery Luxembourg, September 16, 2025 - SES, a leading ...

17/09/2025

Fox TV Stations Join Madhive's Local Live Sports Marketplace

NEW YORK Madhive has announced that the Fox Television Stations have joined its Live Sports Marketplace....

17/09/2025

Sony Electronics Partners with Newhouse School at Syracuse University

SYRACUSE, N.Y. Sony Electronics has announced that it is partnering with the Newhouse School at Syracuse University to provide state-of-the-art equipment, hands...

17/09/2025

Roku's First TV Smart Projector Now Available in the U.S.

SAN JOSE, Calif. Roku has announced that the first smart projector using its Roku TV operating system, the Aurzen Roku TV Smart Projector D1R Cube, is now avail...

17/09/2025

Meet the Streamlabs Streaming Assistant, Accelerated by NVIDIA RTX

Today's creators are equal parts entertainer, producer and gamer, juggling game commentary, scene changes, replay clips, chat moderation and technical troub...

17/09/2025

Portrait Artist of the Year returns to Sky Arts with a dazzling line-up of celebrity sitters on 1 October

Wednesday 17 September 2025 UK artists capture icons of stage and screen, inclu...

17/09/2025

FOR-A America Appoints Jo Aun to Lead U.S. Product Development

Jo Returns to FOR-A as Senior Manager of Product Management and Engineering...

17/09/2025

AIR's Big Comeback with DPA Microphones

For the Moon Safari anniversary tour, AIR opened the doors to their backstage. Just a few hours before the Paris concert, DPA met with two key figures of the te...

17/09/2025

The Late Late Toy Show hits the road in search of Ireland's brightest young stars

Auditions will be held in Dublin, Cork and Galway The County Parade returns f...

16/09/2025

SVG All-Stars: Leigh Michaud, Manager, Remote Operations, ESPN

SVG All-Stars: Leigh Michaud, Manager, Remote Operations, ESPNThe UConn grad rose from ESPN's mailroom to become one of its most valuable ops leadersBy Bran...

16/09/2025

Live From IBC 2025: Friday's Latest From Halls 1-4, Outdoor Exhibits in Amsterdam

Live From IBC 2025: Friday's Latest From Halls 1-4, Outdoor Exhibits in Amst...

16/09/2025

Live From IBC 2025: Saturday's Latest From Halls 5-7 in Amsterdam

Live From IBC 2025: Saturday's Latest From Halls 5-7 in Amsterdam By SVG Staff Friday, September 12, 2025 - 17:00 Print This Story The SVG Europe and ...

16/09/2025

Live From IBC 2025: Sunday's Latest From Halls 8-10 in Amsterdam

Live From IBC 2025: Sunday's Latest From Halls 8-10 in Amsterdam By SVG Staff Saturday, September 13, 2025 - 17:00 Print This Story The SVG Europe and...

16/09/2025

Live From IBC 2025: Monday's Latest From Halls 11-14 in Amsterdam

Live From IBC 2025: Monday's Latest From Halls 11-14 in Amsterdam By SVG Staff Sunday, September 14, 2025 - 17:00 Print This Story The SVG Europe and ...

16/09/2025

Amazon Prime Video Picks Up Four Hours of Early-Round Masters Coverage in 2026

Amazon Prime Video Picks Up Four Hours of Early-Round Masters Coverage in 2026 By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S. Tuesday, September 16, 2025 - 10:15...

16/09/2025

VERSANT Inks Deal for League One Volleyball as Women's Sports Rights Slate Grows

VERSANT Inks Deal for League One Volleyball as Women's Sports Rights Slate G...

16/09/2025

ESPN VP, Corporate Communications, Katina Arnold Named SVP, Disney Advertising Communications

ESPN VP, Corporate Communications, Katina Arnold Named SVP, Disney Advertising C...

16/09/2025

IBC 2025 in Review: SVG Europe's Full Collection of Video Interviews From the Show Floor

IBC 2025 in Review: SVG Europe's Full Collection of Video Interviews From th...