Netflix and media companies use app to tackle CO2 emissions

Companies are under increasing pressure to report and reduce emissions across their entire value chain and, for media companies, the challenge remains one of identifying digital emission hotpots as they try to become carbon-neutral.

DIMPACT points the way forward

To that end, at least 11 major media organisations – including the BBC, ITV and Netflix – have joined a collaborative project called DIMPACT, an online tool developed by scientists at the University of Bristol in the UK.  

As explained by Wired, DIMPACT is essentially an “elaborate calculator” built to help digital media companies map and manage their carbon footprints. And there are four modules, each representing different sectors – video streaming, advertising, publishing and business intelligence.

Takeaways

• To date, the tool has been used for reporting purposes, helping participants to understand where the emissions hotspots are in their digital value chains.
• Companies can then redesign services to make them more environmentally friendly. For example, TV shows streamed by users in the UK could be hosted by data centres in the UK.
• Using the DIMPACT app, Netflix has calculated that one hour of streaming on its platform in 2020 used less than 100g of carbon dioxide equivalent – or less than driving an average car a quarter of a mile.
• Once successfully piloted, the next stage is to make DIMPACT subscription-based, available to any company delivering digital media content and enabling them to model different scenarios so that their overall carbon emissions reduce.
  

Key quote

“I think the exciting bit now is that organisations want to use DIMPACT to green their services. So, what it gives you is a ranking of where in the system the hotspots are. And the natural thing to do, with a view to those science-based targets, is to think about how you can reduce the footprint of those services” – Dr Daniel Schien, University of Bristol.

Sourced from Wired, IBC, ITV