While the last year has challenged us in so many different ways, it has also shown us the speed at which we can respond to a crisis and drastically change the way we live and work overnight.

And there is no doubt that one of the biggest crises facing us today is that of climate change.

As public broadcasters, we have a duty to help educate audiences about the threats to our planet and the need to live more sustainably. But we can only do this if we ourselves are walking the talk.

Undoubtedly many of the changes we’ve made in the last year as a result of the pandemic have had a knock-on effect of being good for the environment. Most of our events, meetings and trainings have moved online, significantly reducing the need for long-distance travel. Working from home has reduced commuting, again cutting carbon emissions. And lower building occupancy has led to further efficiencies.

Here at the EBU we’ve always taken our responsibility to the environment seriously. We participate in the Today2050 initiative which aims to reduce our carbon footprint to zero. And we’ve made numerous changes over recent years around recycling, energy usage reduction, encouraging reduced car usage etc.

We’ve seen many of our Members introduce similar measures in their own workplaces and many now have dedicated teams in place developing sustainability strategies for their organizations.

Last week we hosted our first ever Sustainability Summit to share best practices from across the membership and the wider industry.

We heard examples of real culture change including:

• Green productions – with Members using tools like carbon calculators to measure the environmental impact of their productions
• Green buildings and green energy use
• Green editorial strategies – with public service broadcasters helping to shape culture and behavioural change

COVID-19 has shown us we can change the way we work rapidly and without detriment to the business. The wider sense of collective action against the virus has also provided hope that we can succeed if we work together in the larger fight against climate change.

Now is the time to act and use the lessons we have learnt from the pandemic to ensure sustainability is at the heart of our corporate culture and we can all build back better.