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ESG Video Production: Aligning Content With Sustainability Goals
AI is often framed as an efficient tool in video production, but it’s not always critically evaluated. Consumers are increasingly conscious of AI’s environmental impacts.
At the same time, many corporations are ramping up their use of AI to produce video marketing content at scale, without paying mind to how these may impact their sustainability goals — and corporate responsibilities.
This blog explores ESG video production, the challenges of AI and how to align your content with environmental promises.
What Is ESG Video Production?
ESG video production is the process of creating video content in ways that reflect environmental responsibility. This encompasses any production method that is not resource-intensive and potentially detrimental to the environment.
To practice ESG video production, a corporation must adopt eco-friendly filmmaking tactics to reconcile its video production with its ESG targets.
Why ESG Now Impacts Video Production Decisions
In some parts of the world, particularly Europe, global corporations are now facing increasing pressure to report on ESG issues — including the use of AI in operations. Brands must remain accountable to both consumers and investors, but the “shadow” resource consumption from AI use in video creation can inadvertently push figures beyond what public claims indicate.
Across the video production lifecycle, environmental impacts may stem from travel and the transportation of gear to outdoor shooting locations, as well as from unsustainable equipment manufacturing and production logistics.
In the age of AI, the latter is becoming impossible to ignore.
The AI vs. ESG Conflict
Most enterprises view AI as efficient for processes and workflows. However, when the conversation turns to sustainability, AI comes with a hefty overhead:
- Energy usage: To process and store the high volume of data that AI and machine learning tools require to train models and generate content, these systems rely on data centers with servers running around the clock. This contributes to high energy consumption — especially for video content, which uses exponentially more energy than inference or generating visuals.
- Data center impact: Data centers with high energy consumption levels are using liquid cooling to circumvent the resulting heat. In addition, the electricity powering data systems is often generated through fossil fuels, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions.
Climate impact reporting covers activities within a corporation’s value chain, including AI video production. Oversights during these processes can introduce risk to a business’s corporate responsibility claims, ESG performance and audience perception.
How Enterprises Can Align Video Production With ESG Initiatives
The swift move to sustainable hybrid events during the pandemic is a great example of companies engaging technology and expertise to overcome corporate challenges, although sustainability was secondary to operations at the time. Refocusing this innovation on environmentally-friendly video production will require an intentional shift.
To meet ESG targets, businesses must choose video production methods that:
- Reduce waste: Consume the minimal viable energy and leave the minimal viable impact on the environment.
- Improve efficiency: Explore processes and resources that deliver content at scale without slowing down production or misaligning with consumer needs and expectations.
- Plan strategically: Develop an adaptable, agile plan that can withstand shifts in content demand and production methods.
In that light, when it comes to integrating creative video production and sustainability goals, teams could consider centralized production — setting up shop in-house to deliver at least some aspects of their content internally — or distributed teams, where dedicated outsourced professionals execute the deliverables.
The next obvious consideration circles back to efficiency: How can enterprises maximize production efficiency without pouring resources into duplicated efforts and while shouldering financial dips in market demand?
A Smarter Approach to ESG Video Production
Embracing sustainable video production now creates an opportunity to insulate corporations from potential regulatory action and consumer backlash down the line. It requires the right teams and processes that can deliver on the company’s content strategy while accurately reflecting its ESG claims.
As video consumption continues to rise, brands should consider agile, scalable solutions that can sustainably meet just-in-time demands while compressing during low-demand periods to remain consistently accountable.
Download the ESG Video Production Guide
The conversation around AI and sustainable corporate video production is evolving, and now’s the best time to start getting prepared.
Explore Crews Control’s AI vs. ESG: The Sustainability Hypocrisy in Corporate Content eBook to learn how to align video production with your corporate ESG strategy.
FAQs: ESG Video Production
What Is ESG Video Production?
ESG video production is the process of aligning corporate video production methods with the company’s sustainability claims.
How Does Video Production Affect Sustainability?
Environmentally conscious video production methods have minimal environmental impact. However, resource-intensive methods, such as AI production — particularly when considering duplicates and multi-prompt generation — consume large volumes of energy and water and contribute to higher emissions.
Is AI Content Sustainable?
AI content creation is generally not considered sustainable. However, it can be sustainable when it’s paired with video production specialists, top-of-the-line gear and experts who deeply understand the AI tools and production processes required to efficiently deliver on a brand’s content strategy.
How Can Companies Reduce Production Impact?
To reduce the environmental impact of AI-generated video, companies can partner with expert human production teams to partially or fully execute their strategies. These teams use digital workflows, ensuring higher accuracy and quality, fewer duplicates and aligning content production with sustainability targets.
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