SmartAccounting for Sustainable UK Production: Supporting Albert's New Emissions Guidance
The UK screen industry is in a new era of carbon accountability – one where sustainability reporting is increasingly expected by commissioners, broadcasters and streamers.
In August 2025 BAFTA-owned albert and the Sustainable Entertainment Alliance (SEA) released updated, independently verified guidance to help productions measure their Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, complementing Scope 3 guidance introduced in 2024.
This guidance forms the basis of the albert certification framework – the sustainability benchmark required by major UK broadcasters, including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky and UKTV. Productions aren’t legally required to comply, but must meet this benchmark to achieve certification, which is an increasingly common condition of commission.
Designed to integrate with the albert Toolkit’s carbon calculator, the new guidance provides a consistent, auditable framework for measuring fuel use, grid energy and supply-chain emissions, helping productions to meet broadcaster expectations while building credible, transparent carbon reports.
Understanding Scope 1-3 emissions for productions
In carbon accounting, emissions are categorised into three “scopes” under the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, a global framework that distinguishes between direct, indirect and value-chain impacts.
- Scope 1 covers direct emissions from sources owned or controlled by the production (e.g., fuel burned on set, generators and vehicles).
- Scope 2 refers to indirect emissions from purchased energy (e.g., electricity, heating and cooling).
- Scope 3 encompasses all other indirect emissions in the supply chain (e.g., travel, transport, accommodation and purchased goods and services).
So, a week of location shooting in Manchester might include fuel for generators and crew vehicles (Scope 1), studio electricity (Scope 2) and hotels or set materials (Scope 3). Under the new rules, all must be captured and reported in a verifiable way, making sustainability a part of day-to-day production rather than a post-production add-on.
2024 albert and SEA emissions guidance (Scope 3)
As Scope 3 emissions often represent the majority of a production’s footprint, these were the focus of guidelines released by the Sustainable Production Alliance in January 2024. Developed in collaboration with albert and industry partners to align with global reporting frameworks such as the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, the 2024 guidelines introduced a unified approach to value-chain accounting. By targeting travel, transport, accommodation, goods, and services, they helped productions to standardise data collection across suppliers, prioritise measured data over spend-based estimates and improve comparability across projects.
This foundation paved the way for the 2025 update, which fills the previous gap around direct and purchased-energy emissions (Scopes 1 and 2) and formalises how productions must capture and report them for certification.
2025 albert and SEA emissions guidance (Scopes 1 and 2)
The August 2025 guidance, which has been independently verified by ICF International, fully defines Scopes 1 and 2 in production contexts and encourages productions pursuing albert certification to complete a standardised GHG Declaration which documents emissions across pre-production, principal photography and post-production.
The guidance outlines how to build an accurate declaration by explaining:
- Data collection responsibilities: Every source – whether vendor-supplied power or on-set fuel use – must have a designated owner who collects and verifies data. This codifies accountability across departments and vendors and improves audit confidence.
- What data to collect: Productions are expected to prioritise measurable data (e.g., fuel logs, meter reads and vendor-verified usage) and rigorously document any assumptions. Reliance on benchmarks or spend-based proxies should be a last resort.
- Auditability considerations: Every emissions entry must be traceable, with supporting evidence including fuel volumes, vendor documents, meter readings, timestamps and assigned responsibility. Inconsistent or opaque records can jeopardise certification.
- How to account for renewable losses: Certified renewables can no longer be treated as zero-emission without considering transmission and distribution losses, and productions must account for non-zero energy losses.
- Specific boundary rules: Guidance now addresses complex cases such as remote shoots, shared vendors, subcontractors crossing jurisdictions, multi-site productions, and modular systems (e.g., containerised power). Documentation must specify which emissions are within or outside the production boundary.
Recording their emissions impact at this granular level helps productions to set achievable targets, accurately track progress and develop high-impact reduction plans.
Although the albert and SEA documents are framed as guidelines, productions seeking certification should treat them as operational requirements. So, what does this mean in practice?
Tips for complying with the new albert and SEA emissions guidance
To stay compliant and avoid costly data gaps, productions can follow five key steps:
- Assign clear ownership early: Appoint a carbon data lead for each department.
- Centralise collection: Use one shared platform for all energy, fuel and travel data.
- Capture actuals first: Record meter reads, fuel logs and receipts wherever possible.
- Document assumptions: Be ready to clearly justify any estimates used in reporting.
- Conduct rolling audits: Validate data periodically instead of waiting until certification.
Following these steps not only streamlines certification but also positions productions for stronger commissioner relationships, lower audit risk and more defensible sustainability claims.
In addition, in November 2025 albert launched Accelerate 2025, a practical guide to sustainability for the film and TV industry. This report highlights the importance of integrating sustainability into production accounting workflows so that finance teams can effectively offset carbon data with cost data and properly assess whether a higher cost option is worth the payoff in reducing emissions or environmental impact.
This is where Entertainment Partners (EP) can help. By embedding carbon tracking directly into SmartAccounting, EP provides productions with a streamlined, integrated way to capture, classify, and report emissions data in line with the new guidance.
Contact us today to learn more about how SmartAccounting simplifies carbon tracking across UK productions!
SmartAccounting automates carbon emissions tracking across every transaction
Carbon tracking compliance takes more than spreadsheets and good intentions. Productions need systems that can capture detailed, verifiable data without disrupting your day-to-day workflow.
SmartAccounting keeps productions on track, with:
- Full-scope coverage: Track Scopes 1, 2 and 3 emissions in one central system, covering everything from generator fuel and grid electricity to travel, accommodation, and material purchases.
- Seamless integration: Carbon tagging is embedded into daily accounting transactions – including AP invoices, purchase cards, petty cash, and journal entries – so data collection happens naturally within existing workflows.
- Flexible, configurable entries: Each transaction line can include a carbon code, quantity/unit (e.g., litres, kWh and rooms) and mapped category (e.g., fuel, travel, accommodation and waste). This allows accountants to record and classify emissions even when suppliers can’t provide detailed data, helping you to remain compliant.
- Built-in traceability: Transaction-level detail supports audit readiness. Productions can quickly respond to questions about data sources, assumptions or methodologies.
SmartAccounting also directly supports the clarifications brought by the new albert and SEA guidance:
- Regular emissions factor updates: SmartAccounting updates emission factors to maintain consistency with albert’s annual reviews and third-party audits.
- Renewable energy nuance: Certified renewables are no longer treated as zero-emission by default. SmartAccounting automatically factors in transmission and distribution losses for more accurate reporting.
- Boundary clarity: Productions can tag emissions by department, vendor or jurisdiction, making shared responsibility transparent when working across multiple sites or subcontractors.
- UK-specific adaptability: SmartAccounting aligns with annually updated DEFRA emission factors and can normalise data across international shoots, ensuring consistency for UK reporting while maintaining comparability for global productions.
SmartAccounting’s comprehensive carbon tracking tools make it easier for productions to stay compliant without adding extra steps or slowing things down.
In addition to the features highlighted above, SmartAccounting also offers safety nets to help accounting teams navigate common operational hurdles:
- Default codes and categories help legacy shows fill in missing Scope 1 or 2 data, so teams don’t have to start from scratch.
- Transactions can still be tagged and tracked accurately when supplier data isn’t complete, keeping reports moving while vendors get up to speed.
And for productions working across different regions? Built-in filters automatically align emission factors, creating a clear, consistent footprint that meets both UK and international standards.
A more sustainable future for UK productions
The new albert and SEA emissions guidance makes sustainability measurable, comparable and – through broadcaster certification pathways – effectively mandatory for many UK productions. By weaving carbon tracking directly into everyday accounting, SmartAccounting turns compliance into a natural part of production finance – one that helps UK producers to lead the industry towards a lower-carbon future.
Ready to embed carbon tracking into your UK production workflows? Contact Entertainment Partners today to learn how SmartAccounting can help you stay ahead of evolving sustainability standards.
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