Sky fends off 'carbon neutral' complaints

Sky claims to have been carbon neutral since 2006

The Advertising Standards Authority has rejected complaints over the accuracy of carbon neutral claims made by Sky in a recent ad campaign.

Sky claimed in its 'Carbon Neutral' TV and press ads that the firm has been carbon neutral since 2006.

The ASA received several complaints which challenged whether Sky could substantiate that it is actually carbon neutral.

One complainant argued that Sky could not possibly be carbon neutral because the installation of satellite dishes is carried out by engineers travelling in vans that emit carbon.

Other complainants suggested that Sky had not included its set-top boxes when calculating carbon emissions and that the claim was therefore based on inaccurate figures.

Sky explained that the claim related to its status as a company, which it said had achieved carbon neutrality working with The CarbonNeutral Company (TCNC), a firm specialising in carbon consulting and business carbon offsetting.

This meant that Sky had measured its carbon footprint, taken operational steps to reduce it and purchased offsets to counteract the remaining carbon emissions to achieve certification with TCNC.

The media giant added that the measure of its carbon footprint was verified by two independent third parties: the Edinburgh Centre of Carbon Management and Environmental Resource Management.

Sky submitted detailed dossiers of evidence including details of its agreement with TCNC and key offsetting programmes.

The firm also provided a copy of the Carbon Neutral Protocol and a copy of its Carbon Neutral certificate to the ASA.

The ASA reviewed the complaints and the information provided by Sky and took independent expert advice to evaluate the claims.

The watchdog concluded that, although there is no generally accepted definition of 'carbon neutral', the claim could be evaluated against generally accepted best practice.

With this in mind the ASA agreed that Sky's carbon claims were accurate and did not find the adverts in breach of any of its regulations.