Carbon footprint of a news broadcasting organisation

Abstract

Carbon footprint analysis has been used as a well-known indicator to study the carbon dioxide emissions of organisations and productions. Although various studies and approaches are developed, none focus on news broadcasting organisations. Therefore, the carbon footprint of such organisations and carbon emission reduction strategies are not well understood. This lack of knowledge potentially undermines such organisations' sustainability and blocks their contribution to the higher level sustainability goals. To address this gap, for the first time, this study aims to explore and quantify the carbon footprint of news broadcasting organisations. The current study took Nieuwsuur, a Dutch news broadcasting organisation, as a case study. The results demonstrated that the news broadcasting organisation emits 235.28 t of CO2eq yearly. The study categorised the CO2 emissions into five main categories, namely: (i) travel and transport, (ii) office and studio, (iii) accommodation, (iv) materials, and (v) waste, which for each of them sub-categories have been defined and studied. Travel and transport contributed the most to the carbon footprint of such organisations. Within this category, air travel has the most significant share (27 % of total emissions), which cannot be mitigated due to the nature of news broadcasting organisations. In contrast, commuter travel and outsourced travel (together with 37.6 % of total emissions) have considerable potential for reducing carbon emissions. The following categories are office and studio, with 20.7 % of total emissions and materials, with 4.9 % of total emissions. The study recommended that working from home and outsourcing from sustainable companies are the easiest and most effective carbon reduction strategies. Other emissions reduction strategies are discussed for each category, and recommendations are provided.