Streaming with a Conscience: The ECOFLOW Initiative

By Kristan Bullett, CEO - Humans Not Robots

In today's digital age, the convenience of streaming is undeniable. However, as we binge-watch our favourite shows or stream the latest music hits, there's an underlying environmental cost that consumers tend to ignore. Streaming is energy-intensive, contributing significantly to carbon emissions on a global scale. Recognizing this pressing issue, Humans Not Robots joined forces with Accedo to collaborate on the ECOFLOW project. This bold initiative, sparked by a casual conversation over coffee, aims to confront the environmental challenges posed by the media and entertainment industry's streaming practices.  

Understanding the Problem

The media and entertainment industry faces significant challenges due to the energy consumption and carbon footprint associated with streaming. The sheer volume of data transfer and high-definition video streaming contributes to environmental degradation. Key factors include the energy used by data centres, content delivery networks, and consumer devices. This complex ecosystem requires a unified approach to address the environmental impact effectively. Additionally, understanding what data points and metrics to measure has continued to be a contentious topic, with sustainability advocates pushing for carbon footprints and engineers pushing for direct power measurement.

Initially launched as a 2024 IBC Accelerator, ECOFLOW, which stands for Energy-Conserving Optimisation for Future-ready, Low-impact Online Workflows, was born out of the need to tackle these environmental challenges head-on. Our primary objective is to develop and promote sustainable streaming practices that reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. By fostering collaboration among industry leaders and stakeholders, ECOFLOW aims to drive change and create a more environmentally responsible media landscape.

The Collaboration

The project, originally proposed by Humans Not Robots and Accedo, quickly attracted support with additional participants from Quanteec, Bitmovin, Cognizant, and DIMPACT. The initiative is championed by industry leaders ITV, BBC, EBU, Greening of Streaming, RTL, IET, and Fraunhofer. Together, we are tackling the environmental impact of media consumption by developing comprehensive metrics for energy use across key stages of the end-to-end technology supply chain, integrating top-tier energy-saving features into a seamless user experience.

The initiative is divided into workgroups, each with distinct goals:

• Workgroup 1 - Measure: Seeks to determine what and how to measure by examining segments of broadcasters' supply chains to identify current challenges and explore potential solutions. The workgroup leverages our platform, HNR to ZERO, to accurately gather and analyze data.  

• Workgroup 2 - Impact: Its aim is to empower broadcasters to test, utilise, and compare energy-saving features while engaging audiences and raising awareness. The group has designed and built a demo app to measure and highlight sustainability features, such as eco settings and audio-only mode.

• Workgroup 3 - Educate: Develops resources to enhance understanding throughout the media supply chain and facilitates open discussions about challenges and limitations. By sharing ECOFLOW's insights, the goal is to increase awareness and influence decision-makers, integrating sustainability into their practices.

To date, ECOFLOW has focused on measuring the energy performance of consumer devices. The project has also analysed and estimated other critical components of the content supply chain, such as CDN, encoding, transcoding, and advertising delivery, to establish a base measurement.

With this data as the starting point, we have proposed power-saving features to determine the impact within the broader supply chain. These include energy-efficient streaming protocols, optimised data compression techniques, and AI-driven tools to dynamically adjust streaming settings. These advancements not only benefit the environment but also offer cost savings to businesses, making sustainability a win-win scenario.

Our Findings So Far

The ECOFLOW initiative has achieved remarkable success through its concerted efforts and strategic partnerships, underscoring a serious commitment to mitigating the environmental impact of streaming. Through these collaborations, new and tangible insights have emerged, illuminating the diverse data describing the impact of streaming not only for varying content types but also per viewing hour.

While progress has been substantial, it is imperative that we address the limitations of current energy-saving solutions on user devices, as they cater to very specific viewing criteria. Consequently, a call to action for device manufacturers is crucial, urging them to become more involved in enhancing the energy efficiency of streaming peripherals.

There is a recognised value in the continued pursuit of a more reliable and consolidated data set that extends beyond televisions and consumer equipment. Moreover, our capability to measure energy consumption accurately and consistently remains a challenge, both technically and organisationally, paving the way for future enhancements and collaboration.

Join the ECOFLOW Movement

I truly believe that addressing the environmental impact of streaming within the media and entertainment industry is crucial for a sustainable future. This is why Kris Brown and I co-founded Humans Not Robots. ECOFLOW embodies this vision as a collaborative initiative committed to driving meaningful change. It demonstrates that when companies and individuals unite toward a common goal, real progress is achieved.

Member companies are now engaged in Phase 2, focusing on data collection and analysis, as well as exploring innovative methods to integrate energy-saving features into streaming platforms.

Stay updated with our progress by visiting ecoflow.tv. If your company would like to be involved, contact me on kristan@humansnotrobots.com.  

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