Aardman Environmental and Sustainability Update, June 2025

Aardman is committed to communicating our environmental goals and achievements every 12 months. This follows the publication of our Environmental and Sustainability Charter in June 2023. The first of the studio’s annual updates was subsequently published in June 2024.

Progress made in the previous 12 months (July 2024 – June 2025)

Below are the actions we committed to in our previous update. The notes in bold are what we achieved against each in this time period.

• Setting the studio’s target timeframe by which we will achieve ‘Net Zero’ across the business.
  
  The studio has committed to setting this target timeframe once we have three full years of emissions reporting, to allow us to set a target which is both ambitious and realistic. As we did not account for emissions from our Franchises in 2021 and we now know how significant a proportion of overall emissions these make up, we will set our target timeframe by which we will achieve ‘Net Zero’ in 2026.
  
  
• Hold a Town Hall for our staff in September, during which we will communicate our latest efforts to meet our E&S goals to Partners.
  
  This Town Hall took place as planned in September 2024. We will continue to communicate our progress to the business through PRG (Partner Representative Group) updates as well as future Town Hall meetings.
  
  
• Conclude work to identify the four key areas of the business which contribute the most to overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and form strategy groups to work towards reducing emissions in these areas.
  
  We have identified purchased goods and services, and business travel, as the top areas contributing to GHG emissions at the studio. This will inform our efforts and initiatives in the future.
  
  
• Compile the studio’s Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS)  submission.
  
  We compiled the studio’s submission and are now fully compliant with the ‘ESOS’. We will work with our consultant team, 8Versa, to ensure our submission is reviewed and updated annually, along with our action plan.
  
  
• Set ambitious carbon reduction targets for the future, initially covering Scope 1 and 2 emissions.
  
  The studio is committed to reducing its dependency on fossil fuels and will be phasing out a significant proportion of its natural gas use and replacing all lighting with LED at our Features Shooting Facility at Aztec West to improve its Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) status. Specific targets for carbon reduction will be set in 2026.
  
  
• Improve data collection and implement reduction strategies in the Scope 3 area of ‘Purchased Goods and Services & Capital Goods’, undertaking the following activities:
  
  
• Initiate conversations with the studio’s biggest suppliers around their environmental performance and reporting.
• Standardise procurement processes to ensure that supplier environmental performance is considered whenever the business procures goods and services.
• Provide training on sustainable procurement processes for Partners involved in this work.
• Develop an approved Sustainable Supplier list that all Partners can refer to.
  
  The studio continues to work towards this goal. Once Scope 3 data for 2024 has been collected, we will be able to develop new systems and processes in these areas.
  
  
• Develop a Business Travel Policy to include:
  
  
• Assessment of business travel criticality and approval process.
• Drive the use of more sustainable modes of transport.
• The booking of travel through a green-conscious vendor.
• More detailed recording of data on all travel journeys to improve the accuracy of data for reporting.
  
  There is currently a system in place for assessing business travel and whether it is essential, as well as the active encouragement of the use of sustainable modes of transport. We will be updating our travel policy to reflect a Green Business Travel Policy with the aim of it being in place by June 2026.

• Undertake the studio’s annual employee commuting survey and take the following actions:
  
  
• Regularly review Partner commuting profiles.
• Encourage sustainable transport options.
• Ensure facilities support sustainable transport through their operations.
• Develop working relationships with the Local Authority to provide clear understanding of public transport availability at our sites.
  
  The studio is working with Travel West and recently concluded its ‘Travel to Work’ survey, with a higher proportion of partners participating than in previous years. The responses will allow us to extrapolate data and calculate a carbon figure linked to partner commuting with a higher degree of confidence.
  
  
• Work with Aardman’s business partners, primarily our licensees, and implement the following data accuracy improvement and reduction strategies:
  
  
• Develop a process to identify the Scope 1 and 2 emissions of licensees.
• Identify key partners with whom Aardman has regular and ongoing business partnerships to develop a process for capturing the data needed for our reporting.
• Develop guidelines for best practice in selecting and approving who we have new licensing deals with.
  
  This work remains ongoing. Having refined our Scope 3 Franchises data collection in 2023, we have now adjusted our reporting to show a considerable reduction in the carbon emissions report from 2022.

In addition to making the above stated progress on goals set in our 2024 update, we are pleased to have achieved the following:

• Secured Albert Certification for all our features and major series including the recently released Shaun the Sheep series 7 and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. We are now undertaking Albert certification on Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom which is currently in production.

Our areas of focus for the next 12 months will include:

• Collecting Scope 3 emissions data relating to our Franchises for 2024.
• Assessing the carbon emissions of our top 20 suppliers, working with these parties to secure meaningful data which may inform future actions and initiatives.
• Using the full three years of reporting across Scopes 1, 2 and 3 to establish a target timeframe for achieving ‘Net Zero’ across the business.
• Establishing benchmarking criteria, working with consultants 8Versa to identify an effective process that considers our carbon emissions year on year and enables us to track our performance considering business activity levels i.e. emissions relative to turnover, or partner headcount.
• Develop a comprehensive Green Business Travel Policy.
• Progress efforts to phase out a significant proportion of the business’ natural gas use and replacing all lighting with LED at our Aztec West studio to improve its Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) status.
• Continue to update our partners on progress made against our environmental and sustainability goals through PRG updates and Town Halls.