The only way is ethics

Whether it’s Banijay unveiling an eco-friendly stand at Mipcom, or Fremantle hiring its first global sustainability manager earlier this year, some of the world’s biggest TV companies are taking major steps to limit their impact on the environment.

But so far, B Corp certification – widely seen as key to establishing if a company has high-quality social and environmental business standards – has not risen up the to-do lists of those in charge at most small, medium and large TV companies.

“I don’t think enough people know what B Corp is. I’ve mentioned it to people in the last couple of months and none of them have known what it is or what it means,” says Kate Beal, who harbours hopes her indie, Woodcut Media, may one day gain B Corp certification.

Doing so will not be easy, although Woodcut’s majority female ownership stands it in good stead. Gaining B Corp certification begins with a company answering a series of questions about their practices and output across five categories: governance, workers, community, the environment and customers. From there, various assessments follow and the whole process can take many months, even years.

The certification process involves more than 170 rigorous metrics to improve the lives of staff, customers, suppliers and the local community, ensuring companies are not just saying they are ethical with empty gestures, but independently demonstrating it.

to improv and th are ethica independe Tom Bo animatio the gai the first world to d “exhausti again, he certificati with a sc much

Tom Box, co-founder and MD of UK animation studio Blue Zoo – one of the only TV companies in the UK to have gained B Corp certification and rst major animation studio in the world to do so – describes the process as “exhaustive” and “hard work.” But then again, he adds, if it wasn’t, then gaining cation, as Blue Zoo did in 2021 with a score of 85/200, wouldn’t mean much.

Despite plenty of declarations around inclusivity, equity and sustainability, barely any TV companies are certified by the leading environmental, social and governance initiative B Corp. Could that be about to change?

By Nico Franks

possibly can. Being B Corp is a great way of communicating that very easily,” says Box.

Awareness around B Corp in the TV circles in which Blue Zoo moves is growing too, he adds.

“When we speak to broadcasters, networks and studios, it is one of the first things they ask about. It makes pitching for commissions a lot easier as we have all the stats in terms of diversity and inclusion and energy consumption. It makes it a lot easier to meet all those requirements because we collect all that data, because we’re a B Corp.

“Also, almost every person we speak to in a job interview mentions B Corp being one of the big reasons they want to come and work for us,” says Box, whose company has released animated shorts such as In Shapes, about body positivity.

Along with US prodco Participant, one of the other leading media outfits with B Corp certification is WaterBear Network, the environment-focused streaming service set up by Off the Fence founder Ellen Windemuth in 2020.

“We created WaterBear with an impactled approach, and the B Corp model in mind, so that we could build the company in the right direction from the very beginning. Therefore, most of our business operations were designed in this way and as a result we received an awesome score of 126.6, which we are very proud of,” says WaterBear CEO Sam Sutaria.

“We beca and val t pot do c to ou

“We decided to get certified because I’d seen the B Corp name and thought it aligned with the values of our company. We did it to communicate our values to potential employees. We really do care and we try and be as good to our staff in as many ways as we

WaterBear is currently in the midst of a major marketing push, with ads around London displaying taglines such as “WaterBear and chill (the planet)” as it looks to draw more online viewers to documentaries such as The Black Mermaid and Mother of the Sea

“We want to transform the streaming industry by creating a free platform dedicated to powerful socioenvironmental content and offering viewers the tools to take action by connecting them to impact campaigns and NGOs,” says Sutaria.

B Corp certification can be revoked – as in the case of Scotland-based BrewDog following revelations around its workplace culture – and B Corps must prepare for recertification every three years. B Lab is also in the process of stepping up its qualifying criteria following dissent about the number of multinational corporations gaining certification, while the backlog of companies seeking it stands at about 3,000, its cofounder, Bart Houlahan, told the FT newspaper recently.

“When we got the B Corp certification, I didn’t see it as the end of a journey. I saw it as the start of one to make sure the company is being as impactful and purposeful as possible. If our company disappeared, we want to make sure it left a positive dent in the planet rather than having existed [just] for the benefit of some shareholders,” says Box.

Does the kind of programming a TV company makes have any bearing on B Corp certification?

Box says, in his experience, it helped that Blue Zoo was able to demonstrate its preschool show Numberblocks has become a vital resource for teachers around the UK.

How to B Corp

To achieve B Corp certification, a company must:

Demonstrate high social and environmental performance by achieving a B Impact Assessment score of 80 or above and passing its risk review. Multinational corporations must also meet baseline requirement standards.

Make a legal commitment by changing their corporate governance structure to be accountable to all stakeholders, not just shareholders, and achieve benefit corporation status if available in their jurisdiction.

Exhibit transparency by allowing information about their performance measured against B Lab’s standards to be publicly available in their B Corp profile on B Lab’s website.

Finding this out as part of the process of gaining B Corp certification has allowed Blue Zoo to then use those stats to drive sales and marketing for the show, highlighting how B Corp can have positive impact well beyond just being seen as a “force for good.”

However, Woodcut’s Beal believes B Corp certification hasn’t become a priority for the world’s independent TV community because the nature of running an indie means business leaders will always prioritise commissions over documentation that ultimately might not mean much to a buyer.

“If I have X amount I can invest in the next year to help grow Woodcut, do I put it into development for a project that could keep people employed for the next few years or do I get a sustainability officer who could fill out the B Corp form for me? It’s quite a tough choice for a company of our size,” says Beal, who is keen to see some of the bigger TV organisations step up to the plate.

“We are probably going to do it but it’s not simple. There are real-world consequences for an indie like mine not putting money into development or if I spend my reserves and Covid happens again. People lose their jobs.”

But will the industry’s giants be willing to provide the requisite levels of transparency to their employees that B Corp certification demands while committing to changing their corporate governance structures?

“I’m not going to ever say we wouldn’t be B-Corp-certified, but we have focused on what our most important issue is, and that’s tackling our carbon footprint,” says Katy Tallon, who was hired as Fremantle’s global sustainability manager earlier this year.

Fremantle is aiming to become climate-neutral by 2030, a target that includes a 50% reduction in absolute emissions from a 2018 baseline.

Programming made by Fremantle labels was represented strongly in the Sustainable Production Award category at the recent Global Production Awards, with Strix Norway’s The Farm emerging as the winner for its various environmentally friendly production processes on set.

Rather than push for the entire TV industry to become B Corps, Tallon instead wants to see a certification scheme that assesses the impact of content in terms of its contribution to fighting the climate crisis. “That would be more relevant to our industry,” says Tallon, who encourages TV companies to think just as much about their carbon “brainprint” as they do their carbon footprint with the help of environmental organisations such as albert.

“We are huge influencers, whether producers like it or not. If you have a character or celebrity on screen who is wearing fast fashion, that changes audience behaviour. If they’re campaigning for reusable clothes, that equally changes audience behaviour and has a knock-on impact,” says Tallon.

For Box, it’s a case of the more the merrier when it comes to B Corp. “There’s every opportunity for any company to become a B Corp, unless you’re an arms dealer. But you need to mean it and have top-level buy-in. It is a lot of hard work and you have to make fundamental changes to how your company works. It has to be authentic and can’t just be a marketing exercise,” he says.

2023

Find Your Next Brand Partnership

Thousands of brands looking for their next collaboration. What will you discover?

4-6 October 2023

ExCeL London brandlicensing.eu