GDA Conference

Human activity has caused the Earth’s temperature to soar and fundamentally change the world in which we live. Unprecedented levels of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have led to extreme weather events, rising sea levels and biodiversity collapse.

This has forced all of us to reconsider how we live. While we are increasingly aware of the environmental cost of what we buy and consume, less attention is paid to the environmental impact of our gadgets and media habits. Today, media is ubiquitous, and consequently its impact on the environment is unavoidable. Still many people are surprised when they learn of the environmental cost of media. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) estimates that the annual emissions from UK film production totals in excess of 149,000 tonnes of CO2 (the equivalent of the total CO2 output of a small village), while figures from Greenpeace suggests that Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) generate up to 3% of global carbon emissions (on par with air travel). It is estimated that by 2030, ICT electricity usage could contribute up to 23% of the globally released greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, digital assets need to be labeled as any other energy consuming goods, towards understanding of the pollution generated by daily media consumption activities, such as storing pictures and videos, remote meetings, etc. Thus, the media industry also needs to be aware of their input to global warming, where transparency in the information is one of the most powerful arms, including establishment of a EU system to measure and label CO2 emission.