During the current awards season when the music
and movie industries are honouring their own, researchers
investigating sustainability issues at the Richard Ivey School of
Business caution that the media industry still has work to
do.

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class=”MsoNormal”>In the ratings of good and
green, firms in the media industry are split on the issue of
climate change, which is paralyzing forward
progress, and some firms have been slow to adopt
guidelines pertaining to philanthropy, political contributions,
editorials and advertising.

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class=”MsoNormal”>Michael Wood and Brent McKnight, PhD
candidates investigating sustainability issues, along with
Professor Tima Bansal, Director of Ivey’s Centre for Building
Sustainable Value, wrote the newly released research brief
entitled href=”http://www.ivey.uwo.ca/centres/sustainability/docs/Rolling_Green_Carpet.pdf”
target=”_blank”>“Rolling out the Green Carpet:
Sustainability in the Media
Industry”.

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class=”MsoNormal”>This brief analyzes the
environmental, social and governance performance of movie,
publishing, broadcasting, and advertising
firms.

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class=”MsoNormal”>“The Media sector is
polarizing the climate change issue with leaders on both sides of
the debate,” says Wood. This polarization is evidenced by recent
events.

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class=”MsoNormal”>On the proactive side, James
Cameron, the director of Titanic and Avatar, has been a vocal
opponent of the rate and scale of exploitation of the Alberta oil
sands. Cameron has called the oil sands a “black eye” on Canada’s
environmental record.

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class=”MsoNormal”>In contrast, Fox News has
constantly raised doubts and challenged the validity of climate
science, but without referencing other scientific sources. Wood
notes that this polarization is causing conflict that is making
meaningful progress with respect to climate change
challenging.

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class=”MsoNormal”>Media firms should also be
more concerned about maintaining independence between their
philanthropic donations and their media operations. “Firms in the
media sector have an opportunity to increase their use of corporate
foundations in order to maintain stronger independence between
their philanthropic giving and their professional activities” says
McKnight.

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class=”MsoNormal”>The authors further suggest
that more firms formalize policies on political contributions to
avoid potential conflicts of interest; currently only 10% of firms
have such policies.

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class=”MsoNormal”>These Ivey researchers claim
that media firms can motivate powerful change. However, the
majority of firms lacked important guidelines and policies that
guide the creation and delivery of these
messages.

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class=”MsoNormal”>Wood notes that “Media
firms should improve their oversight with respect to editorials,
ethical advertising and conflict of interest policies and
guidelines.”

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class=”MsoNormal”>The data for the brief is
provided by Jantzi-Sustainalytics. The full brief can be found href=”http://www.ivey.uwo.ca/centres/sustainability/docs/Rolling_Green_Carpet.pdf”
target=”_blank”>here.