Business Climate Guidance Case Study: Sky

Sky, Europe’s leading media and entertainment company has been carbon neutral since 2006 but launched its net zero ambition in February 2020. The Sky Zero, strategy covers the business’s entire value chain, including its operations, supply chain and the use of its products with its 24 million customers across Europe.

A key driver of Sky’s success in taking climate action, is that it has had the full support of its direct senior leadership. This approach has enabled buy in from all business departments and planted the ownership and responsibility of sustainability and climate action firmly as part of Sky’s culture. This approach has allowed Sky to maximise results with limited resources as all employees are empowered to take climate action.

Sky has scale and brand reputation which helps create impact. Economies of scale means it can influence real change in supply chains. As a consumer-facing company, Sky is uniquely placed to promote the climate agenda to a wider audience. It holds itself accountable through numerous partnerships, including the UN’s Race to Zero, SBTI, EV100, RE100, etc.

Key Drivers:

• Company ethos: Sky has always aimed to push boundaries and be responsible.
• Operational: Efficiency and cost savings were a key consideration when taking action to reduce emissions and become carbon neutral.
• Competitiveness: As a consumer-facing brand, public perception is important. Action on climate change is seen as being core to positive public perception.

Challenges:

• Behaviour change: It is easy to underestimate how ingrained existing behaviours are amongst employees and supply chains and how difficult they are to change.
• Beliefs and understanding: Access to correct information and issues with misleading facts can slow down the understanding of environmental impact. This can be mitigated through proper training and policy setting within the company.
• Knowledge: Understanding the sustainability of products and materials is complex.

Benefits

• Awareness: Initiatives have gained far more widespread awareness and support than first anticipated and have resulted in constructing one of the most sustainable film & TV studio in Elstree and switching over 100 of its engineer vans to EV plugins.
• Friendly competition: Competition between departments has helped identify carbon reduction opportunities.
• New opportunities: Acting on sustainability and climate change has allowed Sky to identify new business opportunities and more efficient/streamlined operations.

Read the Information, Communication & Technology framework