Trigage's collaboration with the UK's largest media & broadcast SI: dB Broadcast

Introduction

When running a busy medium size company, one of the biggest challenges can often be finding the time to invest in areas of the business that are not within an organisations core area of expertise. This is a challenge that Managing Director of dB Broadcast, David Bird identified with when considering how to approach the specific details of sustainability within the business. 

Therefore, dB decided to outsource this project and were seeking a knowledgeable, passionate advocate for sustainability. Trigage’s Lynden Potter was the perfect fit for this role, with his passion for sustainable technology as well as 20 years’ experience within the media and broadcast industry including 14-years with the BBC.

One of the biggest challenges can often be finding the time to invest in areas of the business that are not within an organisations core area of expertise.

dB’s approach to sustainability: 

Together with Lynden, dB have built a thorough sustainability policy which has set a framework toward how the organisation can work to reduce their environmental impact.

The policy is used to define specific objectives and action plans to do this.  

Within the policy, seven themes are covered including: Culture, Energy, Travel & Transport, Customers, Industry & Suppliers, Solutions & Designs, Materials, Waste & Water and Measurement. 

Within these themes, an extensive action plan has been built considering a wide scale approach including how to engage employees with the plan. This element has been deemed a great success as a result of employees across the wider business getting involved in building the policy and the auditing process, ensuring all members of the business are informed and actively aware of their environmental roles and responsibilities. 

The construction of this plan has several benefits for dB including:

• Identifying new ways of operating which has the potential to drive efficiency, reduce costs and minimise dB’s environmental impact.
• The involvement of employees and consideration of company culture can lead to employees feeling more valued within the organisation which can result in a more passionate and productive workforce.
• Identifying the key sources of carbon emissions within the company so that working toward reducing their impacts are clearer and easier to tackle. 
• Elevating dB’s understanding of the market of which it operates by aligning its approach with its customers policies and environmental requirements, resulting in a distinct competitive advantage.
• Underlining of how dB will review, disclose and publish their carbon footprint each year, ensuring long-term commitment to sustainable practices and the plan that has been constructed. Additionally, this will ensure transparency with dB’s customers.

Customers & Industry Accreditation 

Within the media and broadcasting industry, key organisations are making sustainability a specific requirement when selecting partners and suppliers. dB’s customers including the BBC and ITV have their own sustainability plans and targets. Embedding sustainability is ever more critical to the major broadcasters throughout the media production value chain, including procurement of products and services. Therefore, these organisations request that key suppliers disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, including via the globally-recognised Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP)

In response to this growing demand from customers, Lynden has advised dB Broadcast on the accreditation and measures their nationally and internationally based customers recognise, including ITV, Warner Bros Discovery, TV2 Denmark and Bloomberg. Lynden has built an approach to gain the most valued accreditations for the industry and their customer requirements.

With Lynden’s support, dB has secured the CDP accreditation, which MD David has described as ‘a marathon’ due to the extent of data and analysis that is required to evidence the business’s environmental impact and approach to sustainability. David described one of the lessons learned from the project by highlighting that ‘the word sustainability is complex and nuanced’ and reinforced how critical Lynden’s role in this was in providing a guide. 

This approach and accreditation will support dB in securing future projects and maintaining their leading position in the industry. Further, this transparent approach supports fostering stronger relationships with all stakeholders.

Operations 

Together with Lynden, an extensive energy usage audit has been carried out on dB broadcast to underpin how much energy is being used and how it is being managed. Upon review, it was estimated that the initial sizing estimate indicated a potential 10% to 20% reduction following the action plan. This is a reduction that will not only support the planet, but also reduce operating costs drastically.

Within the plan, Lynden identified various opportunities ranging from medium to high impact, at medium or low costs.

This supported dB in illustrating the options available while maintaining the flexibility to select what they felt was most appropriate. 

Suppliers 

Within dB’s revised sustainability policy, suppliers are considered as a key source of Scope 3 emissions.

Therefore, dB has committed to engaging with suppliers to understand the environmental impacts of their products.

This provides suppliers with clear actionable guidance with regards to dB’s requirements as a customer, spreading the need for businesses to take action in order to maintain demand.

The Consultants View:

Lynden’s partnership with dB broadcast began in December 2022 and completed in June 2023. As mentioned in the introduction, Lynden was the perfect fit for this project where he could apply his passions for engineering and sustainability as well as his experience in the industry. Lynden worked closely with David Bird as well as the wider business through the conducting of workshops that helped spread the sustainability message and ensured the wider team’s commitment to the company’s objectives. 

Further services that Lynden provided included; the reviewing of data and materials relevant to dB’s sustainability and energy usage, site visits, conversations with customers & suppliers, engagement with industry bodies, fortnightly check-in meetings, achieving relevant accreditation and setting new company targets. David Bird has confirmed that dB have achieved all the objectives that were set out at the beginning of the project, and some additional achievements on time and within the budget. Further, David has expressed that he is confident that this work will be recognised by dB’s client base and result in more projects now knowing that dB have a strong plan and examples with regards to sustainability.

Following the project’s completion, dB felt that Lynden’s passion and dedication regarding the issues related to sustainability and his commitment to help others make a difference is inspiring. 

dB will now continue to operate in the media & broadcast industry with a clear plan as to how they can move forward and grow while always considering and minimising their environmental impact. 

Thank you to David and the whole dB broadcast team for your commitment.

The Trigage Team

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