We got lots of secondhand things, maybe things we'd already got in stock, and
painted them up to look different.
Get a lot of inspiration from other magazines and things like that, and
just have a bit of fun really.
And not everything works out,
but it's good to try it and there's no sort of set rules, really.
>> My name is Tracy Cliff, and
I work in the costume department at Coronation Street at iTV.
And I'm really passionate about ethical fashion.
One of the things we do here is,
instead of just going out and buying high street items,
we actually research it a little bit more and try and find ethical alternatives.
So that would involve, maybe if we know we need a lot of black tee shirts,
you wouldn't immediately go to a cheap high street shop.
One of the skills we need is to be able to research
ethical alternatives where I could look a little bit deeper and see if we can find,
like a viable alternative that's just as good, just as useful,
but has a more sort of conscious, ethically conscious background to it.
>> Hi, I'm Dan Jackson, I'm the Production Manager in iTV drama and
sustainability here at Coronation Street has been my baby for
the last three years, started out as quite a small idea.
I guess it was something that I felt personally quite motivated by
outside of work and the opportunity came up to, try to make the show
a bit more environmentally sustainable and kind of seized it.
So all of the power to this site is from 100% renewables.
We have got low energy lighting in studio 1,
theatrical lighting in this studio Is LED,
which runs about 90% more efficient than the old tungsten-style lighting.
Hugely reduced the amount of paper that we use.
We've really thought about reusing materials and
reducing the need to start with new materials wherever we can.
So whether that's sort of set design, or props,
or the use of paper, really everybody's been motivated to try and reduce,
reuse, recycle, kind of following that way high rocket down across the show.
A huge part of what we've done
has been made possible by running carbon electricity training, so
all of our crew now are aware of what we are trying to achieve as a show.
That was a really big part for us to make sure that we communicate effectively
to heads of department and their respective crews.
And about 100 people have done carbon literacy training so I've got a really
good understanding of what it means to be sort of carbon literate and both of what
they can do within their personal and professional lives to reduce the impact.
And the negative impact on the planet but as a show we've done all sorts, as I say,
from reducing the amount of that we need to do the various
activities on the show right through running editorials on screen.
We knew that it was a really big opportunity for
us to speak to our audiences.
Millions of people watch the show and it would be a shame not to try to
sneak some kind of sustainable messaging in there when appropriate and
when true to character.
We're really proud of what we've done on that reference as well.
But it's been a huge team effort, the biggest thing for
me has just been how much everyone's embraced it.
The minute you explain to people why it's important then
people who may not have thought about it previously or
really remembered it and kind of ownership for me is so important.
And that kind of enabling empowering piece.
And it's really what has made the difference here.
And so as much as I help kind of chivvy on a bit and kind of keep an eye on it.
But it really is just more babysitting these days.
because people are really kind of owning their agenda, and
really thinking about their actions, and what they're doing and on their own terms.
And when they are at work, now, which is fantastic.
So we come up with new ideas all the time.
It's also given us an opportunity to be really creative in how we make the show.
It's not just about cost cutting or, trying to do double sided printing.
That is a bit of it, but it's a really, really small part.
What we found, really from making the show green
is that we've taken apart all the constituent work flows.
That we're people have been used to working with for years and
years and years.
And we've sort of looked at it and gone right, how can we make that better?
How can we be greener?
How can we reduce the impact on the planet?
The drive be sustainable here
actually wasn't initially kind of from the top down.
ITV now is very green, and last year, we issued our social partnerships,
which is all of ITVs CSR agenda, of which sustainability is a huge part.
But really we started before that.
It was just something that we wanted to do.
We kind of took the initiative, and that's just kind of grown and blossomed.
And we are where we are today.
I think three awards now for the work that we've done, which is great.
We're really proud of those and hope to win some more.
And but yes, to say it was kind of just dance people's integrity and
that desires change as that we've been as successful as we have been.
One of the most important ways to get sustainability really up and
successful and means by enabling people.
I didn't want to be the green guy in Coronation Street,
very much been an education piece.
And as soon as we've kind of empowered people with the knowledge and
the skills that they need to get on and do it, people own it and
they're able to be as creative as they can be and change their role for the better.
>> My name's Kieran Roberts, I'm Executive Producer of Coronation Street.
And that means I have overall editorial responsibility for the program.
And managerial responsibility, I lead some of the teams.
I'm responsible for the way the program deals with a lot of outside stakeholders,
ITV, some of our commercial partners, and of course, the public,
the biggest stakeholder of all.
In my job I do have to stand up and be counted,
I have to stand up and speak on behalf of these issues.
It's very important that I sort of lead by example if you like.
It's not been difficult for
me because sustainability is clearly such an important issue.
I had no difficulty getting behind it, I went on the training courses,
I'm happy to make sure our editorial teams do their job.
I'm very happy to support initiatives right across the production.
For me though, the most important thing is not changing your skill set or
behaving in a different way.
It's just making the decision that you want things to happen, and if you want to
follow sustainability then just do your job well and make sure it happens.
We've been passionate about sustainability for
a good many years where we have this fantastic opportunity when we moved to
this wonderful new site in Trafford to think about the way we made the program,
to think about the way we built our new lot and our new studios.
So, lots of important initiatives like LED lighting in our studios,
100% renewable sources for our electricity,
lots of recycling initiatives, we're recycling over 90% of our waste.
But also we have to think very carefully about the way we portray the world
in the program.
And that’s incredibly important powerful tool that we have
getting messages sustainability across.
So, we have carried this like Roy Cropper and
Shanay Tinkered who are naturally very pro-recycling.
We saw the tinkers wedding when they sort of
upcycled all sort of things to create an 80s theme wedding.
Roy of course is at the fore front with locally sourced, organic produce.
He thinks about food miles all the time.
He thinks very carefully about waste.
We have recycling as just part of the fabric of the program now.
If you go into the Gennel behind the houses, you'll see all the recycling bins
and that's just part of the backdrop of the program for all time now.
We even got a character like Tyone Dobbs who's not the person you might not
naturally think of as being passionate about this issue but he is currently
trying to recycle and sell on scrap metal and find new uses.
And a little bit of spare cash for old material.
So it's all part of the fabric of the program.
Sometimes it forms a storage for the programs.
So obviously character driven, we have to be true to the character and
true to the world.
But we are very conscious now we have this huge responsibility
to portray good examples of sustainable living,
sustainable behavior through our characters and through our stories.
>> We have seen how people here at Coronation Street and
iTV actually practice sustainability, responsibility and ethics.
And they do so from very, very different occupational backgrounds,
from very different departments, and also with different skills and
competencies they need in order to get the job done.
So what we will do this week in the lecture is actually learn
to bring all of these different pieces together, and to understand how they
come together to create a sustainable, a responsible, and an ethical organization.
