
Big brands join tve debate to talk seriously about addressing the UN SDGs Lucy/ September 13, 2019/ news
Business and sustainability practitioners from key global companies joined a selected audience for tve's debate on 12 September, to take a good hard look at how corporates are working towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Jennifer Viccars, Brand and Marketing Director of Octopus Group and President of the 2019 tve Global Sustainability Film Awards chaired the event which was hosted in the boardroom of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). On the panel was Mark Watson, Head of Sustainable Development at John Swire and Sons, the shipping, aviation and trading conglomerate; Alistair Clark, Managing Director of Environment and Sustainability at the EBRD; and Jess Kennedy, Associate Director of Sustainability at Arup, the global engineering and built environment specialists.
Debate Highlights:
Jennifer questioned where leadership and accountability should come from with corporate efforts to achieve the SDGs. In the finance sector, Alistair Clark remarked that leadership is coming from a range of sources: from our investors, from business groups like the WBCSD or the TCFD, and even central banks.' Alistair highlighted these organisations as providing more direction than governments in the UK and many other countries.
Jennifer asked the panel to address the issue of how best companies should build sustainability into their business model, commenting, There is a view that a sustainability department is a way for everyone else in the organisation to outsource their thinking about sustainability. On the other hand some organisations have made a huge success of that structure.'
Mark Watson commented: You cannot leave this issue to specialists alone, or it risks becoming a quiet backwater of the business. I work a lot with finance, because if you can't get sustainability prioritised by the guys with the money, it will be hard for it to have any real traction elsewhere in your business.'
The panel discussed how to translate the SDGs into practical business action. Jess Kennedy from Arup responded: We run SDG workshops, socialising the SDGs so people can think about the opportunities that each goal represents - that is the place to start.'
Jennifer pushed the panel to address the question of industries whose product or service cannot ultimately work within the UN goals, such as oil exploration or aviation. Mark Watson, commented that where there are no viable alternatives, corporates in these businesses must improve sustainability where they can. In the long term, investing in innovation to find sustainable alternatives is crucial.
We were the first airline globally to put money into a biofuels facility a closed loop zero carbon system that produces jet fuel from waste. The dream is to bring that technology to other parts of the world including Hong Kong,' said Mark.
The panellists agreed that for business, the key value of the SDGs lies in setting out a common purpose. Jess Kennedy stated: It's the fact they have global consensus, five million people were engaged in the consultation to bring them together and that's really powerful. If nothing else, it gives us all a common language and vision at the national level and across sectors, and we haven't had that before.'
The debate is part of a series of events tve runs in the lead up to the Global Sustainability Film Awards. Showcase your company's sustainability initiative by entering a short film about it for the Awards now, before the deadline on 10 October. Find the entry guidelines here: www.gsfa.tve.org/how-to-enter/.
Share this Post
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
25/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
25/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
25/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
25/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
25/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
25/08/2026
Lingopal, the AI-powered live translation and localization specialist, is unveiling new platform capabilities at IBC2026 (11 14 September, RAI Amsterdam), helpi...
25/08/2026
Bminty is supporting TV5MONDE in the evolution of its editorial processes through a new AI-assisted press information generation solution. Combining the Louise ...
25/08/2026
Two Cultures. Millions Reached. One Berklee Connection. Meet Annie Dickinson and Zhengxi Zhang-the couple who turned their creative partnership into music car...
25/08/2026
Amagi, the media industry cloud platform for unified broadcast, streaming, and monetization, today announced that Law&Crime has migrated its Court TV channel, s...
25/08/2026
Broadcast Solutions, a leading systems integrator and provider of innovative solutions for the broadcast and media industry, is showcasing the breadth of its ca...
25/08/2026
Thatcham, UK 25 August 2026: Test & measurement innovator, Leader Electronics, has announced that leading broadcast rental company Minitech has purchased a Le...
25/08/2026
Appear's X20 Platform enables visually lossless video contribution with sub-frame latency and full path redundancy for TVTEL's centralised VAR operation...
25/08/2026
World-first demonstration combines 5G Broadcast and Media over QUIC for seamless, ultra-low-latency hybrid media delivery
Big Blue Marble will showcase new dev...
25/08/2026
MNC Software, a global leader in network management and operational support systems tailored to the broadcast and media industry, will showcase its complete sof...
25/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
25/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
25/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
25/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
25/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
25/08/2026
Company to Demonstrate Practical AI Applications That Add Value Today and Longer-Term Path Toward Agentic AI
At IBC2026 (Sept. 11 14, RAI Amsterdam, Stand #1.B...
25/08/2026
Serving South Florida with a unique blend of jazz, Latin jazz, salsa, reggae, blues, and culturally reflective programming, WDNA 88.9FM operates as both a tradi...
25/08/2026
GlobalM announced that it is integrating its GMX software-defined media platform with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), bringing together Oracle's global c...
25/08/2026
NVIDIA is bringing the next wave of RTX gaming to the Gamescom conference running this week in Cologne, Germany, with support for new games, anti-cheat technolo...
25/08/2026
The new series begins Tuesday 1 September at 7pm on RT One and RT Player
The search for Ireland's hidden housing gems is back as Cheap Irish Homes return...
24/08/2026
Co-authors Mike Soltys and Garrett Sutton reflect on Rasmussen's vision, intentional optimism,' and fan-first philosophy following his death last week...
24/08/2026
Human-played drum fills on demand
Sample library developers Yurt Rock have announced the launch of a new plug-in that's dedicated to creating drum fill...
24/08/2026
Debut plug-in in new Professional Series
Black Rooster Audio's latest plug-in delivers an all-in-one vocal-processing tool, and is the debut release in ...
24/08/2026
SBS WorldWatch embraces digital future with move to SBS On Demand
24 August, 2026
Media releases
On 18 September, SBS WorldWatch will transition from a lin...
24/08/2026
Rohde & Schwarz addresses operational efficiency and infrastructure resilience a...
24/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
24/08/2026
As the broadcast industry moves toward more flexible production platforms, Calrec will present its evolving audio ecosystem at IBC 2026, on Stand 8.C47. The dem...
24/08/2026
Stop Using Boring Static Highlights - Pro After Effects Workflow
Graham Quince August 24, 2026
0 Comments
Did you know you can use After Effects expre...
24/08/2026
Paledusk Performance Captured with URSA Cine Immersive
Brie Clayton August 24, 2026
0 Comments
Creative production company THINGS. brings the band'...
24/08/2026
The Handel Scandal and Dangerous Debussy will both air on Sky Arts this AutumnMo...
24/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, w...
24/08/2026
Arvato Systems Becomes a Service Partner of HANDELSVERBAND.swiss
Zurich - Arvato Systems Switzerland has been a service partner of HANDELSVERBAND.swiss since ...
24/08/2026
According to OpenRouter data, agentic AI workloads consume 15x more tokens than ...
24/08/2026
The next era of AI inference won't be defined by a single breakthrough chip,...
24/08/2026
To generate intelligence at scale, AI factories run continuously, and their economics are defined by delivered output: tokens per second, tokens per watt, cost ...
24/08/2026
We Only Want the Earth: The Life & Ideas of James Connolly airs
Wednesday 26 August on RT One and RT Player at 9.35pm
RT is to air the compelling documenta...
23/08/2026
Offers up to 10 bands of compression
Parish Audio's latest release allows users to place individual compressors anywhere in the frequency range, but tak...
22/08/2026
O'Shea Jackson Jr., Dave Franco, and Mason Thames appear in Idiots by Macon Blair, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of ...
22/08/2026
By the time Hacks reached its fifth and final season, Adam Bricker ASC had spent six years shaping one of television's most distinctive visual identities. T...
22/08/2026
Polsat reclaims second place, ByteDance climbs to eighth, and live football miti...
22/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...