The verified carbon footprint…

At the end of an episode of Lewis recently I was surprised to see the words - "The verified carbon footprint of Lewis is 830 tonnes." I asked Ian what it meant. He said “the carbon footprint is the weight of carbon you are responsible for releasing into the atmosphere. so you have to add up every journey you take, heating and lighting you use, miles that the food you have bought has travelled. carbon released during the rearing of cattle for meat...... etc.” He pointed me to the relevant website about Lewis… In summary this reads -

The words global warming would probably have made Inspector Morse choke on his pint. But his trusted number two, Lewis, now promoted to Inspector and with a series of his own, is taking the matter very seriously. Programme maker ITV said it was so concerned about the future of the planet, that it had calculated the carbon footprint of the new drama series.

Following the first of four new Lewis episodes last week, viewers saw the following flash up on their screens after the credits: "The verified carbon footprint of Lewis is 830 tonnes."

In a bid to reduce greenhouses gases, those taking part in the shoot shared vehicles and read scripts on recycled paper. It's the first occasion that ITV has calculated the carbon footprint of a drama series and the 830-tonne total is for the whole series.

The carbon footprint of Lewis was measured using the World Business Council for Sustainable Development's Greenhouse Gas Protocol methodology which covers Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions (direct energy use, indirect energy use and travel/supply chain). Lewis, in consultation with ITV, established the scope of the footprint as measuring the following: Scope 1 emissions (use of diesel generators on location) Scope 2 emissions (electricity use in production offices) Scope 3 emissions (transport to and from production office to location, transport use for other purposes (couriers, taxis, flights).

I wonder how much Morse turning in his grave contributed to the carbon footprint?