With the focus of the news so heavy with our collective hopes and doubts for COP26, the 26th "Conference of the Parties" it has given me moment to reflect on what Aspect has achieved so far, and how we can continue to play our small part. Not least because the global impact of the wider film production industry to which we belong is huge.
I very deliberately put emphasis on the word small. Like the principal of marginal gains, it is the amplified effect of small things put in place by many people that allow us to contribute to, and ultimately reach, the much loftier goals being discussed in Glasgow this week.
Whilst my children are engaged in the day to day activities of their lives, in the way they should be, I am mindful that as parents we want to be able to look them in the eye in the future and to say that we played our part and influenced the things that were in our control.
The sustainability journey at Aspect started back in March 2018, with some internal brainstorms and lots of enthusiasm to figure lots of small 'wins' or initiatives around the office, where everybody could contribute.
Those initial small steps led to increased confidence and many more production initiatives. Firstly we vowed to eradicate single use plastics across our shoots - introducing bamboo water bottles and re-usable coffee containers on every set back in 2019. Then we started choosing our suppliers based on their sustainability and eco-friendly credentials, and trying to minimise single purchases in wardrobe, props and sets.
We worked with the friendly agency downstairs, along with our landlord, to move to more sustainable energy providers and practices for our premises. And in the summer before Covid our energies culminated in the majority of the team participating in the Greta Thunberg inspired protest marches in Bristol, with my enthusiastic 8 year old daughter joining in, and managing to do the 3 mile circuit mostly without complaint!!!
But faced with the stark realities of climate change, it still all felt a bit gimmicky, just scratching the surface. So during the first Covid lockdown, we upped the anti on ourselves with two initiatives.
Planting Trees
Back in 2019, alongside our client Pukka Herbs, we decided we would plant a tree for every crew member on our outdoor shoots to help offset our carbon impact.
Whilst this sounds easy, it was actually quite difficult in practice - albeit that has changed in the last couple of years with initiatives from the National Trust and Woodland Trust, amongst others.
We were particularly keen to get behind a local community/charity initiative where there might be possibilities for us to get involved and to see first-hand where the money was going.
By happy coincidence there was a initiative right on my doorstep in Westbury Sub Mendip, in Somerset in the form of a local tree group, established to encourage local residents, landowners and farmers to plant more trees and hedgerows in this Area of Outstanding National Beauty (AONB) in the Mendips.
The group was founded because one of the key fears is there simply isn’t the seed stock to support the levels of planting required with the risk that seed stock will be imported from abroad bringing both the risk of further disease and/or diverting essential seed stocks from less developed countries.
The area has a unique ecology with the challenges of ‘run off’, due to modern farming techniques, on the ancient Somerset levels and the heavy impact of ‘ash die back’ in the Mendip Hills which has led to significant felling and pollarding of diseased trees.
From incredibly humble beginnings, supported by our financial contributions we will have collectively contributed to the growth of 500 trees, and the ambition is to contribute 2,000 trees in this area.
Understanding our carbon footprint
The other initiative was to understand our carbon footprint as a business. We needed to understand our starting point in order to determine where we wanted to go. So we found a specialist consultant David Simonson at Strategy B (https://www.strategy-b.com) to help us figure out our carbon footprint and understand what more we could do.
David helped us achieve the following:
- To calculate the actual carbon impact of Aspect, in 2019, which we chose as a more representative period pre-Covid:
2. We have registered our carbon offset for 2019 & 2020 - the details of which can be found on the IHS Markit Environmental Register
We did this with Forest Carbon through their Carbon Club 25.
Forest Carbon is a credible, recognised participant in the carbon capture market in the UK and has planted over 10 million trees in over 200 woodlands since 2006. Their projects are all certified by the WCC.
Our credits are in Tom’s Wood near Thornton le Clay, North Yorks - a broadleaf mixed species scheme made up mostly of willow, alder, sycamore and birch.
3. We signed a declaration to 'Race To Zero' a global campaign coordinated by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UN FCCC).
Our Pledge:
Aspect Film & Television Ltd made its pledge to the Race to Zero via the FNZ CBN Expert Community on 1st September 2021. The record of the pledge can be found at www.futurenetzero.com.
Our company recognises the importance of making a full and lasting commitment to reducing the greenhouse gas emissions from our activities, in support of the wider commitment of the world to limit global temperature increases and the impact on the planet.
As a signatory member of the FNZ CBN Expert SME Community we commit to the following:
- For our company to achieve Net Zero in line with the Science Based targets set out by the UNFCCC i.e. to achieve Net Zero no later than 2050 and target a 50% reduction in emissions by 2030.
- To set realisic short and long term targets that are designed to achieve our Net Zero commitments.
- To report the total Greenhouse Gas emissions of our business regularly and for our performance to be part of
- the Community’s annual reporting back to the UNFCCC.
The Journey not the destination
I started off stating this was a journey, and as such maybe we will never reach the destination. It is only in reflecting back that I've realised the progress we've made, and without the drive, enthusiasm and commitment of the Aspect team we wouldn't have come as far as we have.
Our goals for the next couple of years are to continue to minimise our travel and transport emissions which remain our most significant impact, working towards a Net zero future.
