This page offers specific guidance on our sustainability requirements, what to submit and useful resources. We use the albert system to track the sustainability of our productions and have a range of resources to help producers achieve our commitments.
Requirements
It is a mandatory requirement for all new commissions and recommissions of TV broadcast content including all Nations, Children’s, Education, Â鶹ԼÅÄ Film and non-News related Sport content to:
- Attain albert certification
- Submit an on-screen sustainability form for each episode (for new commissions from 6 January 2025)
There are some limited exemptions for albert certification. Find out more below.
Albert certification
There are two core components to albert certification, both of which must be completed before certification can be granted:
- Completing an albert carbon footprint to measure your emissions
- Developing a carbon action plan to reduce your emissions and provide evidence of the actions taken
When a production attains albert certification the albert logo can then be used in their programme end card.
Both the carbon footprint and action plan should be discussed with the Â鶹ԼÅÄ commissioning representative as part of the commissioning process, and we encourage productions to include a line for sustainability in the production budget. As a minimum this should be the production’s estimated carbon footprint x £10.50 p/tonne of CO2e. Find further advice about budgeting for sustainable productions.
We expect the senior members of a production team to lead on environmental sustainability. The albert process should be started as early as possible and the carbon action plan submitted before filming starts. Failure to do this risks the production’s ability to achieve certification. We recommend setting up a company albert account when a production is at the development stage and/or goes through the commissioning process.
Contact albert to set up an albert company account and logins for staff and see the resources section below for more information and useful contacts.
Once the production company has an albert account, one member of staff should be nominated as the main liaison for all things albert. This person can also develop the knowledge to guide successive productions.
Live or fast-turnaround programmes should contact albert for advice as soon as they can to discuss the best process.
Note albert will not penalise producers for the following:
- A lack of facilities or other restrictions in a particular location where a production or company is based
- Scenarios where clear barriers to emission reduction measures are the responsibility of others (or resolving these barriers would be part of a bigger infrastructure change).
In these cases, certification will not automatically be withheld. Instead, where the sustainable action is mandatory, evidence will be sought to demonstrate the producer has taken all measures that are reasonably within their control to address the barrier.
Completing the carbon footprint form
The albert carbon footprint is the first stage of gaining albert certification.
The carbon footprint form requires the input of data such as a production’s travel, accommodation, energy use in studios or on location, staffing and time in post-production. It's created using the albert carbon calculator.
Getting to know the information required in advance will make it easier to complete the final form.
We recommend completing the draft carbon footprint as soon as possible during pre-production, no matter how small the initial team. This will help when discussing sustainability plans with the Â鶹ԼÅÄ commissioning representative, inform decisions on how best to cut the production's carbon footprint, and when completing the final footprint form. It can be based on the draft budget and is an initial estimate only and can be refined during the production process.
The carbon footprint can either be regularly updated throughout the production process or completed in one go at the end. However, collecting the information throughout the production process will make it significantly easier to fill in the final form.
Please ensure the correct programme UID is added to the 'production code' field on the production details page when registering the programme/series. If there is more than one programme use the first UID.
The calculator can be found at (albert account required).
Submitting the carbon footprint form
The completed carbon footprint form must be checked and approved by the production company’s nominated albert reviewer for accuracy. It will then be automatically directed to an external auditor for a standard assurance review. Once audited and approved, the nominated albert reviewer will receive an automated email from albert@bafta with 'Final carbon footprint has been approved' in the subject line.
It is then the production company’s responsibility to forward this email to their Â鶹ԼÅÄ delivery contact. This must be done within six weeks of the final episode delivery, and ideally at the point of delivery.
Completing the carbon action plan
The carbon action plan helps productions identify how they can reduce their emissions. It should only be submitted to albert once the programme editorial is confirmed as it can’t be updated.
Producers must begin the albert carbon action plan process in pre-production or they are unlikely to gain certification, resulting in a failure to achieve the Â鶹ԼÅÄs mandatory requirement.
To begin, the senior team in the production should talk through the list of yes/no starter questions. These should be considered and answered based on what the senior team judge to be achievable actions. These answers will help identify where environmental actions can be embedded and will form the basis of the production’s carbon action plan. Find advice, ideas and tips for reducing carbon emissions of productions.
Please note, albert does not certify productions that use domestic flights within mainland UK, unless under exceptional circumstances. Exceptional circumstances include medical emergencies, child safeguarding issues and unavoidable disruptions to alternative transport such as strikes or extreme weather. Where a production believes it may be impossible to deliver a project without the use of domestic flights this should be discussed with the commissioner as soon as possible. Read albert's domestic flight guidance (pdf).
Once a title has been commissioned/green lit, but before filming has begun, the completed online carbon action plan is submitted to albert. albert will then respond with a request for evidence of the decarbonisation actions taken, which needs to be gathered during the production process. Providing evidence is a key component of the albert carbon action plan process, and not doing so will result in failure to achieve certification.
We therefore recommend that productions set up a shared ‘green evidence folder’ which can be accessed by the whole production team. All evidence can then be uploaded in one place by the different members of the team, reducing the burden of gathering any outstanding information at the end of production, which can often be hard to find retrospectively.
The carbon action plan can be found at (albert account required).
Submitting the carbon action plan evidence
The completed online carbon action plan questionnaire must be submitted to albert before filming has begun. albert will then respond with a request for evidence of the decarbonisation actions taken.
A minimum of 60% of the evidence should be submitted before the end of the offline edit so albert can check it and issue the logo in time to include in the programme’s end card. Note, albert typically require a minimum of two weeks between the receipt of evidence and the issuing of the albert logo, though there is some flexibility specifically for fast-turnaround programmes if discussed in advance.
Up to 40% of the carbon action plan evidence can be provided after post-production and after the carbon footprint has been submitted.
Gaining certification and albert logo
Once the carbon footprint and carbon action plan evidence have been submitted for review productions will be assessed by albert based on:
- How many of the agreed actions in the action plan have been implemented.
- The quality of their evidence.
- The level of sustainability achieved - indicated by the star rating awarded based on questions answered (between one and three stars).
After receiving albert certification productions can use the albert certification logo on their programme end card to show that sustainable best practices have been embedded in the production. A production must have completed the entire albert certification process (footprint and carbon action plan) to be eligible to use the logo. To enable this the carbon footprint and action plan should therefore be completed and submitted before the final offline edit.
The logo will be provided by albert. Please see the end card page for logo positioning.
Productions must forward the albert certification confirmation email to their Â鶹ԼÅÄ delivery contact within six weeks of final episode delivery.
On-screen sustainability form
All new commissions from 6 January 2025 must complete an on-screen sustainability form for each episode via the production reporting system. A helpcard for completing the form will be available from the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Academy website.
Forms must be completed and submitted via Silvermouse within four weeks of the final episode delivery.
To complete the form producers select from a checklist of topics related to climate change, sustainability, nature-loss and our connection to the natural world and whether they are included in a programme verbally, in dialogue or commentary, or visibly in props, backgrounds or non-verbal action. The checklist of topics is below.
Completing the form will be significantly faster if the information is captured during production and editing and we recommend a senior member of the production familiar with the editorial of the finished programme is responsible for doing this.
It is a mandatory part of the commissioning process for producers to discuss with their commissioning editor how they can authentically include sustainable or environmental themes in their programme editorial. This conversation is recorded in the programme commissioning specification and referring to the topic checklist at this initial stage will make the form easier to complete at the end.
To facilitate this, below is the checklist of themes producers must track visual or verbal on-screen references to and a download of all the questions for use as a prompt.
The checklist of topics
a) The science of climate change and/or nature loss and how these changes impact us/the natural world
b) How we try to protect ourselves from and adapt to the changes brought about by climate change and nature loss
c) How we travel and move around more sustainably
d) How we use energy and power in our lives, homes and industry more sustainably
e) What food we eat and how we use land more sustainably or restore nature
f) How we use materials and resources more sustainably and avoid or reduce waste
g) How we invest money, run businesses and economies more sustainably
h) Individuals, communities, creatives or artists imagining, discussing, making efforts or demands for a more sustainable world
i) How we can enhance our personal connection with nature
j) Industries and behaviours that are causes of climate change and nature loss
k) Celebrities, influencers or public figures endorsing or being role models for ‘green’ behaviours or attitudes
l) Other (please specify)
Offsetting
Productions are not required to offset their emissions but are strongly encouraged to include a specific line for sustainability in their budgets. At a minimum this should be the amount that would be needed to offset the production’s carbon footprint (at a rate of £10.50 p/t of CO2e).
Find ideas and advice about how this budget can be used to reduce the production’s environmental impact.
Contacts, resources and training
Contacts
Contact the albert team at BAFTA.
The Â鶹ԼÅÄ’s Sustainability team is also here to help if you have any questions. Contact the team.
Find general delivery contacts at the Â鶹ԼÅÄ on the contacts page.
Resources
The has information about how to document and evidence sustainability within a production to gain certification along with best practice guidance, recommendations, case studies and useful tips for making productions sustainable.
There are a range of Â鶹ԼÅÄ resources to help productions be more sustainable on and off-screen including:
Top tips for reducing carbon emissions
Ideas to reflect environmental behaviours on-screen
Guide to budgeting for sustainable productions
Training
The BAFTA albert Consortium offers free training covering the big picture of climate change, what it means for the TV industry and what individuals can do to make a difference. Book a place via the albert website. We recommend the free online training courses 'sustainable production' or 'sustainability in editorial'. These two hour courses can be booked via .
Exemptions
For albert certification, we understand that each production is unique and what can be delivered in terms of sustainability will vary. The nature of individual titles, the location and size of the company and the surrounding production infrastructure will all affect the availability and viability of certain actions. The below is a rough guide to exemptions:
- Where the total programme rights license fee (PRLF) for the entire project (all episodes) is £50,000 or less
- Where the PRLF is over £50,000 but the total, aggregated duration of the programmes or entire series is under 15 minutes
- Acquisitions
- Programmes made entirely from archive footage and reversions involving post-production only, with no specially shot material
- Co-productions where the Â鶹ԼÅÄ is a minority funder (providing less than 50% of the budget): certification is encouraged but not mandatory
- Foreign based indies: are encouraged to use albert or an equivalent local scheme if available in their territory, but certification is not mandatory.
- Fast-turnaround and live programmes: can be certified, but we advise productions to get in touch with albert as soon as possible to discuss. If the speed of production means any of the criteria prove difficult to meet then they will be considered as part of albert’s 'best efforts' approach (see below).
Programmes which are exempt from completing albert certification at the point of commission maintain their exemption, even if they subsequently fulfil the criteria for mandatory certification (for example by extending their length), as certification cannot be applied for retrospectively. For that reason, BAFTA’s albert advisors certify each production on a title-by-title basis according to how the company have delivered on that specific title, and the certification process allows for a 'best efforts' approach. This will be based on the producer influencing outcomes where they can and making the strongest sustainability choices possible, but understanding that ultimately there may be limitations that are outside of the producer’s control.
Acquired programmes do not need to achieve albert certification or submit on-screen sustainability forms.
Please note the Â鶹ԼÅÄ is not responsible for the content of external websites.