What you need to know:

• Sustainable Screens Australia has launched with 16 founding members, which are also seed funding partners.
• The body, which is hiring for an Executive Director, will give resources to the screen industry to reduce carbon in production.
• It will also make a local version of the UK’s albert calculator available to production houses – and advertising bodies – to work out how much carbon is emitted during film, show and video ad production.
• This comes as the broader advertising industry pushes into decarbonisation in a big way. Scope3 formally launched earlier this month, while GroupM has invested in a carbon calculator.

The broadcast, streaming and production industry will be able to measure the carbon generated by making movies, shows and video ads using an Australian version of the UK’s albert calculator, under a new organisation aiming to reduce the screen sector’s environmental impact.

Sustainable Screens Australia has officially launched today, with 16 founding members including Paramount ANZ, Netflix, ABC and SBS – though not Seven or Nine, committing as seed funders.

The newly founded SSA, which is looking for an Executive Director, is hoping to unite the $5.34bn, 31,000-strong screen industry to reduce its carbon footprint.

“We’re 10 years behind the US and the UK,” co-chair Sara Horn said. “We want it to be industry led. The aim is to have a centralised hub for resources and training so we’re all singing from the same hymn book. There’s no structure in this country for where to go to get this information.”

Set up as a member-based organisation, SSA is building an online library for resources, carbon literacy training, a database of vetted, sustainable suppliers, partnerships that will create a standardised approach to reducing carbon and, importantly, a carbon footprint calculator. It is building a website and is due to launch in early 2023.

The BAFTA-backed albert calculator works out the carbon footprint of production and has been used for more than a decade. SSA will make a tailored version freely available for the local market. “Inputs are measured different, electricity is measured differently,” Horn said. It may end up being a standard part of the production process for any show, ad or film. “If a show’s commissioned in the UK, it is mandated - they have to be albert certified,” she said, adding there were no plans to mandate it in Australia.

Decarbonisation has been a big topic in the advertising sector this past year. Brands are now considering measuring the carbon emitted by their digital advertising campaigns through companies like Scope3, while GroupM has told publishers it may shift spend depending on how intensive campaigns are calculated to be. The holdco has launched Project Alpha as a result.

“At the moment our focus has been on broadcasters, streamers, production companies, screen agencies, studios and facilities,” Horn said. “We’ve had some interest from the ad companies. They also use members of the production sector.”

Horn, who co-chairs the organisation with producer Anna Kaplan, is the chief operating officer of Dreamchaser, the company set up by former Nine Entertainment CEO Hugh Marks and former Endemol Shine Australia co-founder Carl Fennessy. Dreamchaser is a seed funder, along with government bodies Screen NSW, VicScreen, Screen Queensland and Screen Tasmania, and production houses BBC Studios, CJZ, Film Art Media, Matchbox Pictures, Regen Studios, Docklands Studios and Shark Island Foundation.

SSA was mentioned briefly in Paramount’s upfronts earlier this month, which was welcomed by media buyers as a positive step from the broadcaster.

“We’re proud to be the first Australian commercial broadcaster to be seed investors in Sustainable Screen Australia and will implement their tools into our own productions and encourage our commissioned content creators to also adopt best practice models,” Toni Skaife, General Manager of 10 Melbourne and Content Business Affairs, said in a statement.

“Our determination to reduce our carbon footprint is focused on protecting our planet and industry so we can ensure the productions of tomorrow.”