The BAFTA Albert Sustainability Grades For Film And TV Studios Are In

EXCLUSIVE: The grades are in and the film and TV studios taking part in BAFTA albert’s climate assessment have upped their game in the past year.

BAFTA’s climate and sustainability arm albert launched the Studio Sustainability Standard in 2022. The voluntary Standard aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and is a way for studios to calculate and report their environmental performance.

2023/24 is the second reporting year and the results show over half of those signed up achieved a grade of ‘very good’ or higher. The average score achieved by studios was 70%, a year-on-year increase of 15%. Each studio is given a bespoke action plan based on their results, so grade inflation suggests they are implementing the suggested changes.

The number of studios signing up to the program was 29, up from 12 in its first year. Studios are ranked across different themes – climate, circularity, nature, people, and management – and ranked on a scale from ‘participated’ through to ‘outstanding’. Of all of the themes measured, climate is the one with the highest weighting.

BAFTA and albert are UK-based but the Studio Sustainability Standard is open to anyone, with eight of the cohort coming from outside Britain, including from North America, Belgium, Hungary, Germany and Italy. UK studios had an average score of 72% and non-UK studios 63%.

The detailed findings will be detailed in a report released later today, but which has been seen ahead of publication by Deadline. In the report, albert will say “the increased engagement from studios reflects the industry’s recognition about the gravity of the climate crisis.”

All results are anonymized, but the studios taking part are free to disclose their grade. Sky Studios Elstree shared with Deadline that it was ranked ‘outstanding’. It said it is working with producers to help them make sustainable choices and can even track the volume of waste on a production down to the kilogram.

Producers increasingly want to work in spaces that have sound sustainability credentials. Albert acknowledges this in its report, noting “productions are becoming increasingly vocal about wanting to work with studios that align with their sustainable values.”

“The participating studios have put climate action above commercial needs to help each other progress towards net zero,” said Matt Scarff, Managing Director, BAFTA albert. “For the past two years, we have seen how the studios have come together to share best practices. I am hopeful that this collaboration indicates a positive future towards decarbonization for the industry.”