• The report aims to support media companies in understanding the material sustainability issues facing the sector today, and ensure their focus is aligned with the expectations and needs of their customers, employees and investors
• Climate change has risen to the top of the agenda for the media sector in the RMF’s latest review of the materiality of sustainability issues facing the sector. It joins responsible content, diversity, equity and inclusion and data privacy and cybersecurity as the top five issues facing the sector.

*29 March 2022, London* – Responsible Media Forum (RMF), a partnership between 26 leading media companies to identify and act on the social and environmental challenges facing the sector, launch their Media Materiality Report for 2022.

Media is of paramount importance to resilient, democratic societies as the major source of information for the majority of the population; this places a heavy responsibility on media companies to adhere to a sector-specific moral code.

In recent times we have witnessed a heavy challenge to science and reality as the lines between fact and opinion have become more blurred than ever before. There have also been great societal changes over the last three years, not least with the COVID-19 pandemic, murder of George Floyd and increased global focus and efforts to tackle climate change. As society has become increasingly divided, media companies have a responsibility to not capitalise on the division, but instead do their part to mend what has been broken.

RMF’s Media Materiality 2022 report comes in response to these societal shifts and aims to support media companies in their efforts to understand and tackle the major sustainability issues being faced by their sector. The report is based on a desk-based review of Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) reporting frameworks, investor indices and recent materiality assessments, interviews with senior sustainability practitioners from media, and interviews with external experts. The report identifies the material, strategic, emerging and operational issues for the media sector.

It also identifies whether a particular issue is becoming more or less important and distinguishes new concerns, as well as opportunities. Offering a focus on the crucial issues of today at a time when topics like Responsible Content, Climate Change, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, and Data Privacy have never been more important and in the public eye, this report offers a summary of the state of play on these important topics as well as guidance on where focus should be placed.

Having written five reports on materiality in the media sector since their founding in 2001, RMF are experts in this area and the release of this report is very exciting. Spokespeople from RMF and the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment have commented positively on the report –

*Mr. Nathan FABIAN, Chief Responsible Investment Officer at United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment* said: “A healthy media ecosystem plays a crucial role in helping citizens decide who to vote for, consumers decide who to buy from, and investors decide who to invest in. No sector has more cultural relevance than media, and therefore the material sustainability issues that face media companies should be of paramount interest to consumers, investors and policymakers alike.”

*Mr. Daniel WITTE, Partner Manager at Carnstone,* said: “Media plays a uniquely important role as we strive to deliver a more sustainable world in this decade of action as a storyteller, information provider, accountability mechanism and platform for connection. We hope this report is a useful snapshot of what issues are important for responsible media companies to manage in these dynamic and volatile times.”

*Mrs. Anna LUNGLEY, Chief Sustainability Officer at Dentsu International, who supported the production of the report,* said: “Climate change has become the defining economic and social opportunity and challenge of our age. The media sector identifying it so clearly and prominently as a material issue is welcome, and needs to be matched by clear and progressive action. Two other issues stand out in the findings: the rise of consumer environmental awareness, and the emergence of sustainable value chains. Both demonstrate how no organisation can act alone on climate change, and that’s why the RMF’s report and continued cross sector collaboration is so important.”

The Responsible Media Forum is a project run by Carnstone Partners Limited, a specialist management consultancy working globally at the intersection of sustainability and business strategy.

“We must all continue with zeal and hope to maintain the best traditions of the past, but be ever ready to assimilate and take advantage of the practical and scientific progress that develops, owing to the gift of human ingenuity”.
William Pirrie, Titanic-shipbuilder and former Lord Mayor of Belfast, to his employees in 1922

It won’t be easy to achieve the efficiencies promised by a more circular approach to resources. So William Pirrie’s words rang true for us when we visited Belfast last week, to announce the results of the 2017 Northern Ireland Environmental Benchmarking Survey at the Belfast Harbour Commissioner’s Office.

Since 1998, Carnstone has supported Business in the Community NI’s environmental benchmarking survey. This year, 90 organisations took part, disclosing how they are managing their environmental impacts through strategy and governance. They were also scored on efficiency against key resources: energy, waste, water and transport.

The survey gives a strong reflection of Northern Ireland’s economy, with respondents from a wide range of sectors – both public and private enterprises. Respondents range from the country’s best-known brands to SMEs and those near the beginning of their environmental journey.

This year, we focused new elements of the survey on the circular economy. The results point to an emerging commitment to managing indirect or less obvious environmental impacts. Equally encouraging, the majority of survey respondents have developed ongoing relationships with their supply chain and / or their customers to reduce environmental impacts; for example, through recovering end of life materials from customers, providing service-based alternatives to product sales, working together to optimise transport efficiencies or share resources. Partnerships will play a vital role in unlocking efficiencies throughout the product or services lifecycle.

However, there is much further to go, for example in setting more ambitious targets that aspire towards restorative and regenerative approaches, moving beyond mitigation of negative impacts.

The Northern Ireland business community is exceptionally close-knit, and it’s a privilege for us to have been a part of their environmental journey since the survey’s inception.

For more information about the survey and highlights from this year’s results, click here.

The rate of technological change today is so fast that it’s hard to keep up with. So much has changed over the last 30 years; what on earth do the next 30, 50 or 100 years have in store for us?

Take driverless cars. They’ve been on the horizon for years, and yet only 6% of state transportation plans in the USA have taken the technology into account (Ref: ‘City of the Future’ report, Center for City Solutions & Applied Research, 2015). So, more roads and parking lots are built despite their impending obsolescence.

The Age of the Anthropocene is often chalked up to advantages of intellect and logic, but non-rational thought guides so much of human behaviour that ignoring the importance of how things feel is folly. And not least in the world of sustainability, where the success of so many well-intentioned projects boils down to human behaviour.

At Carnstone, we place evidence at the very heart of our work. But finding smart, future-proof solutions to sustainability problems sometimes requires creative thinking. So, we were delighted to partner with Tata Consultancy Services’ Spark Salon series to explore what the arts have to offer sustainability and technology alike.

Sustainability leaders today must offer a prophetic set of skills: as guides to the organisation, they identify risks and opportunities before others do, and set strategy fit for a rapidly changing world. Could an artistic mindset – imaginative, non-linear and comfortable with uncertainty – complement a scientific, evidence-based approach and help those working in sustainability? Can the arts open up cognitive horizons to myriad future paths and help us better prepare?

To further explore the question, we commissioned five talented artists to create artworks depicting our future world. The artists were: Becci Louise (poet); Duncan Cameron (sculptor); Michiko Nitta and Michael Burton (BurtonNitta, interdisciplinary art and design studio); Matt Parker and James Dooley (collaborating in sound and video art); and, Marie von Heyl and Philipp Eberle (art and jewellery design collaboration).

Using technological changes on the horizon, we provided the artists with provocations, or muses, to stimulate their thinking. Over six months, they responded to our brief in diverse ways: some hopeful, dystopian and even absurd, whilst others were disturbingly real.

On 24 January 2017, we opened the question up to wider debate. Over 80 people from across the art, technology and sustainability worlds joined us for an exhibition and panel session with the artists themselves. It was clear they didn’t all agree about the role of the artist: some thought their role was to reflect the world around them, without judgement, whilst others thought that artists could look ahead to important ethical boundaries, warning of trouble ahead.

Whatever the answer, it’s clear that artists nurture their ability to imagine realities beyond the visible, predictable and concrete. Perhaps that’s something the sustainability profession would benefit from, too.