Toward a Sustainable TV Industry: Measuring the Carbon Footprint Across a Production’s Life Cycle

Abstract

Despite having a substantial environmental impact, the carbon footprint of the television industry has remained largely unexplored. Most research to date has concentrated on production-related emissions, leaving crucial parts of the process, such as marketing and distribution, vastly unexamined. This thesis addresses this gap by developing a comprehensive, open-source carbon calculator, designed to capture emissions across all stages of a production’s life cycle and to identify key emission drivers and potential reduction pathways. The calculator integrates Dutch-specific emission factors and classifies activities across five stages of the production life cycle: pre-production, production, post-production, marketing, and distribution / end of life; along five overarching emission categories: Travel and Transport, Material Use, Energy Use, Waste, and Broadcasting. The model created was applied to three television programs within the Nederlandse Publieke Omroep (NPO): 3 op Reis (travel documentary, BNNVARA), Het Klokhuis (children’s educational show, NTR), and BinnensteBuiten (sustainability and lifestyle program, KRO-NCRV), delivering the first life cycle carbon footprint analysis of the television industry.

Results revealed that a television show’s carbon footprint, from pre-production to end of life, ranged from 251 to 374 tonnes of CO₂e per season, or 1.6 and 7.8 tonnes per 30 minutes of broadcast. Across all cases, production and distribution were consistently the most carbon-intensive stages, with broadcasting and travel emerging as the main emission drivers. Notably, in Het Klokhuis, broadcasting emissions exceeded those from production, challenging the prevailing assumption that filming is always the most carbon-intensive phase. 3 op Reis exhibited the highest per-episode emissions due to extensive international travel, Het Klokhuis followed, and BinnensteBuiten recorded the lowest footprint per episode, while still heavily influenced by domestic travel. When scaled nationally, Dutch television production is estimated to generate, at least, 16,300 tonnes of CO₂e annually, the equivalent of 8,140 Dutch households’ yearly energy use. Scenario modelling indicated that phasing out natural gas, adopting renewable electricity, and transitioning to electric vehicles could cut emissions by an average of 13% across productions. This potential for reduction is likely much higher in productions that do not yet integrate sustainable practices.

Overall, the findings highlight how adopting a life cycle perspective offers a more accurate understanding of the television industry’s full carbon impact and underscores the need for a national, standardized life cycle tool to better equip the industry to mitigate emissions and ultimately supporting the broader Dutch Sustainability transition.