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 ITV and eight other leading media companies join with Bristol University to create pioneering tool to map the carbon impacts of digital value chains.

The 12-month collaboration will see computer science researchers from the University of Bristol’ Department of Computer Science working with sustainability and technology teams at ITV, BBC, Dentsu Aegis Network, Informa, Pearson, RELX, Schibsted, Sky and TalkTalk to map the carbon hotspots of digital media content and services. The aim is to create an online carbon calculator, DIMPACT, available to any company offering digital products and services.

Mapping the carbon footprint of digital services like broadcasting is difficult because the underlying technological systems are complex. Media content passes through content delivery networks, data centres, web infrastructure and user devices, to name just a few, with each element of the delivery chain having different owners.

With climate change high on the agenda, DIMPACT will allow ITV to understand ‘downstream’ carbon impacts, right through to the end user. This, in turn, will enable more informed decision-making to reduce the overall carbon footprint of digital services.

Reducing our environmental impact is a core priority within our Social Purpose strategy, and we’re excited by the opportunity DIMPACT provides to better evaluate the impact of our full value chain, which is crucial for us to accurately set our flagship science based emissions target in 2020.

We can say with absolute certainty that the digital economy will continue to grow. What we don’t know is how those modes of digital consumption translate into carbon impacts and where the ‘hotspots’ reside. DIMPACT will change that. Christian Toennesen, DIMPACT’s initiator and product manager.

We are excited to leverage our existing research strengths to help create a ground-breaking tool with real world applications. Dr Dan Schien from Bristol’s Department of Computer Science.