ABOUT
The AOP Sustainability Working Group is tasked with demystifying sustainability within photography and short-form moving image production and providing clear strategies for all professional image-makers to use in the urgent pursuit of a net-zero carbon future.
Our aim is to provide advice and information on the business case for photographers and producers to be developing low carbon or carbon-free ways of working, along with helpful resources from practitioners and links to tools that measure greenhouse gas emissions from shoots/production, and how to use gathered data to benefit your clients and business.
This is a place to find out about carbon reduction techniques to be used within your production decisions that will help bring the industry towards the only viable option we have, which is a carbon-neutral economy.
WORKING GROUP
WG Chair, AOP non-executive director and Accredited Photographer, Holly McGlynn
AOP Agent member and AOP non-executive director, Hat Margolies
AOP Affiliated Company member, Angus Light, Producer and Founder - Locate Productions
AOP Accredited Photographer, Carol Sharp
AOP Accredited Photographer, Kai Bastard - Bad Star Studios
AOP CEO, Isabelle Doran
AOP Membership Services Administrator, Chris Mackins
USEFUL LINKS
Click HERE for a a PDF document version of the 'Easy Green Wins for Reducing Carbon Footprint'.
Think Before you Print!
AOP Carbon Audit 2024 Report Cover
AOP CARBON AUDIT REPORT 2024
Summary
- As a first step into measuring how well the AOP and the wider membership are adopting a sustainable business practice, we hired Creative Zero to undertake an AOP operational carbon audit.
- The results are positive resulting from having the AOP team work remotely, excluding the AOP from Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions.
- The AOP’s total footprint from 1st April 2022 to 31st March 2023 was 10.37 tonnes CO2e (equating to 2.08 tonnes CO2e per full-time employee compared with an individual in a UK advertising agency who on average produces 3.4 tonnes CO2e).
- The largest portion of our emissions come from Purchased Goods & Services (33%); followed by Awards Book (28.7%) and Homeworking (21.9%).
Download the AOP Carbon Audit Report 2024 HERE
AOP SUSTAINABILITY SURVEY RESULTS 2024
Summary
- The AOP are taking vital steps to be more sustainable and are looking to provide tools, workshops, and guidelines for its members.
- The Sustainability Working Group designed a member only survey with the aim of creating sustainable objectives that are tailored to the needs of the membership.
- Survey results indicate that of the responses we received members are interested in learning more about applying a sustainable business practice, but not sure where to start.
- Overwhelmingly, the majority of respondents felt that sustainability will be important for their clients and their business in the future, and to achieve this members would like to see more practical guides (such as the Easy Green Wins guide).
To find out more results...
Download the AOP Sustainability Survey Results 2024 HERE
AOP sustainability webinar - Quick wins and more - 2024
In February 2024 the AOP's Sustainability Working Group held a quick wins webinar, to help get your business on a more sustainable footing. You can watch the recording, here.
Available reosurces from the webinar:
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Presentation by Carol Sharp, can be found here.
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A list of expert repairers, that Carol referred to, can be found here.
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Presentation by Locate Productions, can be found here.
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Presentation by Bad Star about data storage can be found here.
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MIT article by Melissa Heilkila, regarding AI's carbon footprint, can be found here (or follow this weblink to source: here).