BBC’s Dragons slay fuel emissions by sharing cars

Hit BBC TV series Dragon's Den has gone green for the new series with cast and crew driving carbon emissions down through a new car sharing scheme.


Multi-millionaire investors Deborah Meaden, Piers Linney, Duncan Bannatyne, Kelly Hoppen and Peter Jones ditched their cars while travelling to and from the show, opting to share with fellow Dragons of take public transport.

The combined efforts of the cast and crew fuelled a cut in the BBC Two programme’s travel footprint, saving over 1,000kg of CO2 emissions while the 12th series was in production.

Long-standing investor Meaden, said: “Sharing a car with the other Dragons every night is the best kind of being green, saving carbon and being sociable.

“Everyone on Dragons’ Den does their bit for the environment, in fact I’m proud to say we produced the show one week entirely with solar power. Waste is just bad business sense and cutting it does not cut quality.”

The BBC is committed to continually improving its sustainable production processes. Six BBC programmes – From There to Here, Springwatch, Autumnwatch and Children’s programmes All at Sea, The 4 o’Clock Club and Swashbuckle – have been awarded the albert + mark, a certification scheme which encourages productions to make programmes in a more sustainable way.

Corporate Responsibility

Last month, the BBC released its annual Corporate Responsibility (CR) report, which revealed that the broadcaster had cut thousands of tonnes of CO2 and reduced its energy consumption by 20% in 2013/14.

The closure of Television Centre in west London and the relocation of staff to MediaCityUK in Salford and New Broadcasting House in central London helped the BBC reduce office-related CO2 emissions by more than 21,000 tonnes, contributing to an absolute reduction in CO2 emissions of 19% compared with a 2007 baseline.

And the corporation’s sustainability efforts have moved on-screen, with BBC One programme From There to Here recently sourcing props and costumes from local charities and returning them after filming. Meanwhile, CBBC production All at Sea reduced waste and saved money by using rechargeable batteries and introducing an opt-in policy for scripts, cutting paper use by 60%.

In the below video, Meaden explains more about her commitment to sustainability.

Luke Nicholls

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