Sky cuts carbon but waste to landfill increases

Sky has reduced its 'carbon intensity' by 33% since 2008-9 as the broadcaster begins to "realise the gains" made from its long-term investment in renewable and low-carbon sources of energy. Absolute carbon emissions remained stable at 100,045 tonnes.


Six per cent of Sky’s energy now comes from renewables, with a target of 20% by 2020. Fleet efficiency has also been increased by 5%, with 15% the turn of the decade target.

Business travel is an area where significant progress has been made: CO2 emissions per full-time employee have been cut by 18%, with the aim to hit 20% by 2020.

It wasn’t such good news in terms of waste, however, with a small increase in materials sent to landfill. This was “due to improved reporting at our Scottish sites and our move to an integrated service provider”, the company explained in its ‘Seeing the bigger picture, summary report 2013’. However, it is “on track” to meet the 2020 target to achieve zero waste to landfill at its main offices.

The 2013 summary provides a simple snapshot of the company’s progress on a range of corporate sustainability commitments. It is accompanied by a comprehensive website which provides more detail on an ongoing basis.

“From a small published report in 2002, to online reporting in 2009, we’ve now moved to a summary report accompanied by our Bigger Picture website where there is detailed information available for people to read and interact with,” says the company. “We want to make it easy for our stakeholders to understand what we do at Sky and the value we bring to society so we have our reports available to download from this site.”

As a communications company with a presence in 11 million homes, Sky has been focusing on direct engagement with its customers to “inspire them to make as difference”, said chief executive Jeremy Darroch. There are four areas of work, including “taking action to protect the environment”.

Over 60% of Sky customers are now aware of the initiatives, said Darroch, with one million people now cycling more often and £6m raised for its Sky Rainforest Rescue project with WWF. More than 5,000 people in the Brazilian state of Acre have committed not to slash and burn their land – which is helping to save one billion trees from deforestation.

edie staff

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