We consume an average of three to four hours of entertainment every day. We watch dramas, variety shows, and sports broadcasts, spending our time laughing and crying. Until now, there was no need to scrutinize what processes the content that brought us joy in those hours had gone through to be made. However, now that climate change is no longer an issue confined to a specific field, one question may be worth adding: What processes did this content we enjoy go through to be created, and how much greenhouse gas was left behind in that process?
This question is not meant to criticize entertainment. Rather, it is closer to a proposal to harness the influence and scalability of entertainment to expand the space in which more citizens can be naturally exposed to and participate in the theme of climate change response.
Climate Disclosure for Sustainable Enjoyment
Generally, ‘information’ becomes a tool that broadens consumers’ discernment, and this in turn has led to a virtuous cycle that raises the competitiveness of the entire industry. When buying food, we check the nutrition facts label, and through the eggshell code stamped on eggs, we examine the rearing environment and production history. Even when buying clothes, information on raw materials and country of manufacture is close to the default. Such information broadened the criteria for choice rather than shrinking consumption, and before we knew it, consumers verifying information about the production and operation processes has become an established practice. If entertainment content also came accompanied by such information, it could become ‘yet another point of interest worth knowing’ for viewers.
This trend is already partially emerging in the sports industry. Some European football clubs disclose their energy use in stadium operations, carbon emissions from travel, and renewable energy transition plans. Several clubs in the English Premier League are attempting to reduce away-match travel, operate eco-friendly stadiums, and run emission-reduction campaigns linked to fan travel, and similar cases are being observed in the K League as well. This is not about giving up sports but closer to an experiment in enjoying sports more sustainably.
[Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, using 100% renewable energy © Populous]
The ‘Process’ by Which Content Is Made Matters as Much as the ‘Message’ of the Content
The entertainment industry has also begun to take its first steps. Domestically, Studio Dragon has attempted climate disclosure by measuring and publicly releasing the environmental impact of its production processes. The global OTT platform Netflix is also calculating the carbon emissions from the filming and production processes of some of its productions and operating production guidelines and pilot projects to reduce them. Disney, through its ESG sustainability report, specifies the greenhouse gas emissions occurring during the film and drama production process as objects of management and is pursuing the energy efficiency of filming sites and the expanded use of renewable energy. Warner Bros. Discovery is also treating energy use and travel reduction at production sites as one pillar of its sustainability strategy. While it is difficult to say that this has spread across the entire entertainment industry, it is significant in showing that not only the ‘message’ of content but also the ‘process’ by which content is made can become a subject of social discussion.
[Studio Dragon Sustainability Report © Studio Dragon]
Beyond this, what we should pay attention to is the ‘scope’ and ‘reliability’ of such climate information. This is because not only the physical travel of the production site but also the ‘digital carbon footprint’ generated in the process by which the completed content reaches us cannot be overlooked. The climate impact of entertainment can be fully grasped only when the power consumption of the data centers operating for high-definition streaming is transparently disclosed as well. Moreover, if such figures are derived not through the arbitrary calculations of the production company but through authoritative production guidelines or standardized calculation tools, the credibility of the information felt by viewers will increase further.
A New Culture to Be Formed Through the Disclosure of Climate Information
Such disclosure of climate information can become a new arena for experimentation and competition, rather than regulation or obligation. One production company might reduce travel, another might utilize renewable energy, and yet another might offset unavoidable emissions with reduction efforts in other ways. In this process, a new axis of competition could form among creators: ‘who created content more creatively and with fewer emissions.’
For viewers as well, change approaches not as coercion but as a new form of participation. A culture could form in which people discuss per-episode emissions, voluntarily compare them online, and pose questions about the production methods of content they enjoy. This produces the effect of naturally bringing the climate crisis into everyday conversation topics without heavy preaching.
Entertainment is an industry that creates social imagination. Adding one line of ‘climate information’ to that imagination does not take away the enjoyment. On the contrary, it can become an opportunity to make us recognize together on what kind of world the enjoyment we experience rests. In that sense, the disclosure of climate information in entertainment is closer to a new invitation through which more citizens can indirectly participate in climate response.
by Kim Won-sang (Climate Solutions, Media Communications)