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ITV’s direct impacts on the environment come from two sources: our offices and our productions. We also have indirect impacts, through the independent companies that produce programmes we commission and the supply chain that provides our offices, ITV Studios and productions with goods and services.

Making programmes and running studios is highly energy intensive, so our primary concern is to reduce our contribution to climate change by using energy more efficiently and, at some locations, switching to renewable energy sources. We have achieved a significant reduction in the amount of waste we send to landfill, by recycling and reusing as much as possible, and are committed to making continued progress in this area.

Environmental management and monitoring

We have policies and procedures designed to minimise ITV’s impact on the environment. We measure our environmental performance at all sites under our direct operational control, including ITV Studios and the sets of programmes such as Emmerdale and Coronation Street. Our bespoke data collection system allows facilities managers and contractors to input environmental data – such as energy consumption, waste generation and water use – on a quarterly basis.

ITV publicly discloses its environmental performance and in 2009 was listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index.

Reducing our climate impact

Programme-making is energy intensive, largely because of the amount of artificial lighting required. ITV’s carbon footprint is predominantly comprised of the electricity and gas used at our offices and studios, and the fuel oil used to heat our Norwich and Cardiff locations. Travel makes up a modest proportion of our carbon footprint.

We aim to reduce our energy use by 15% by the end of 2012, from a 2007 baseline. We are making progress towards this target: in 2009, our total carbon footprint (46,383 tonnes) and direct and indirect energy use were both around 3% less than in 2007. There was a small increase in emissions from travel even though the amount of travel remained similar to last year, because more accurate data on business flights was available.

Our energy supply includes energy from renewable sources. In Manchester, our sites run on a gas-fired combined heat and power (CHP) system, which produces lower carbon dioxide emissions per unit of energy than conventional power generation methods.

ITV is preparing to meet the regulatory requirements of the UK government’s CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (formerly known as the Carbon Reduction Commitment), which started in April 2010. The legislation requires companies to improve energy efficiency in order to reduce their climate change impacts. We have established a cross-business working group that will manage the risks and opportunities this legislation presents, and plan to increase our focus on energy efficiency in 2010.

Waste and recycling

We generated around 2,200 tonnes of waste in 2009, most of it is general office waste as well as material such as wood and metal used to build sets. This is slightly more than last year but we recycled 65% of it, nearly double the recycling rate of 2008. We achieved our target to recycle 50% of waste by July 2009.

We partner with specialist recycling company Greenstar to operate an award-winning waste disposal and recycling system at all ITV sites. Employing a single waste management contractor make it easier for us to ensure consistent standards across the company, and to monitor our performance.

We also reuse items where possible, especially wooden frames, boards and other materials used to construct sets.

Water use

Water availability is a growing issue worldwide. ITV needs large volumes of water to clean studio sets every day, enabling different programmes to be made in the same space. We also use water for typical domestic purposes such as catering and sanitation. In 2009, we used nearly 87,000 m3 of water, less than 2008 due to the production of fewer programmes at ITV and the reduction in the size of our workforce.

(1) We changed to a new water supplier during the third quarter of 2009, so have extrapolated the data to compensate for some missing information during the handover.