Working in Partnership to Make a Real Difference
Originally published in Best Practice Winter 2015 issue
When broadcast giant Sky teamed up with WWF back in 2009 it was one of the biggest corporate conservation partnerships going – and also one of the first. It all centred on tackling one of society’s biggest issues: deforestation and climate change. So what triggered an entertainment company into thinking it could take on such a challenge?
Fiona Ball, Head of Responsible Business at Sky, says that prior to the collaboration, Sky’s sustainability focus had very much concentrated on internal priorities such as examining its own carbon footprint and working towards becoming a carbon-neutral organisation. The WWF partnership however shifted that focus to become more outward-looking.
“We declared ourselves carbon neutral in 2006 and we were looking more and more at energy efficiency. The energy consumption of our set-top box was a big part of our thinking and at the time we were also printing a monthly magazine, so paper and, ultimately deforestation, were also very much on our customers’ radar,” explains Ball.
