Environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategies have come into sharp focus in recent months, although often for the wrong reasons. Indeed, in some areas there has been a bonfire of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) agendas amid US political pressure to scrap such policies, and environmental targets have also come under scrutiny.
It seems a good time to check in with exhibitors in IBC’s Content Everywhere zone on the ongoing drive to make the streaming and media industry greener through sustainability initiatives, as well as more diverse and inclusive. The good news is that Content Everywhere companies continue to insist that sustainability remains one of their biggest priorities.
Take Shruti Padia, chief of staff at Evergent, who says diversity, sustainability, and employee well-being are not just corporate priorities, they are core to how businesses operate, grow and lead.
“We remain committed to supporting meaningful change through ongoing sustainability initiatives, including the DPP Committed to Sustainability programmes,” Padia says. “We also embrace IBC’s sustainability goals by participating in the booth repurposing programme, ensuring our presence at the event aligned with our broader mission to reduce environmental impact.”
Thomas Pearson, global director of people & D&I lead at Bitmovin, says becoming a more sustainable technology company remains one of Bitmovin’s top priorities.
“We’ve already introduced many initiatives to reduce our carbon footprint by promoting sustainable practices within our operations. We’re also committed to reducing the carbon footprint of the video streaming ecosystem, for example with the GAIA project and by having in-house dedicated engineering capacity to ensure our products and features are designed with sustainability in mind,” Pearson comments.
Yang Cai, CEO and president of VisualOn, notes that sustainability is not just a trend, “it is a long-term commitment that guides both our product innovation and operational decisions. As a global provider of video streaming solutions, we recognise our responsibility to reduce environmental impact across the content delivery chain while helping our partners do the same.”
And Tom Dvorak, co-founder and chief commercial officer at XroadMedia, adds that sustainability “is an issue across the entire value chain of the entertainment and media industry, from content production to via delivery to consumption.”
Meanwhile, Accedo has its very own sustainability director, namely Francois Polarczyk. He comments that sustainability “has been embedded into our business practices at Accedo rather than being treated as a standalone priority. We believe it should not be an add-on, but rather an integral part of the solution to customer and industry challenges, as well as part of our entire operations.”
Concrete moves
So what are Content Everywhere companies actually doing to improve sustainability, both internally and in terms of how they work with customers and build products and services?
Padia describes how Evergent has taken “deliberate steps” to align its data storage and security strategies with its broader sustainability goals.
“By implementing a zero trust architecture, we empower secure remote access, significantly reducing reliance on physical office infrastructure and contributing to a lower carbon footprint. Additionally, our commitment to data minimisation — collecting only what’s essential — and enforcing strict data retention and deletion policies ensures we reduce energy consumption tied to data storage. These practices not only support our environmental objectives but also reinforce strong compliance and data governance standards,” she says.
Dvorak says XroadMedia is keen to “not only help our customers grow, but reduce their impact on the planet. Our solution is productised [and] can be installed 100% remotely, reducing operating impact. Also, we prioritise cloud providers that we integrate with, such as AWS and Hetzner, who pride themselves on their sustainability goals. We support companies in reducing or consolidating their cloud operations and carbon footprint thanks to our flexible personalisation solution, which operates seamlessly in any cloud environment.”
Stefan Blickensdoerfer, chief technology of 3SS, provides an example of how his company supported the sustainability objectives of One Hungary, a TV service provider in Hungary and member of the 4iG Group, in the deployment of a new enhanced user interface to improve the viewing experience for subscribers on legacy Sagemcom Linux-based set-top boxes.
3SS employed LightningJS development methodologies, described as a rapidly emerging technology framework spearheaded by Metrological. It is an open-source JavaScript development platform that uses WebGL for rendering, enabling the operator to bypass the generic and more resource-intensive approach of traditional browser-based applications.
Blickensdoerfer explains that this way of rendering is “highly beneficial, and greatly increases UI/UX quality and performance”. One Hungary says the project demonstrates that “breathing new life into ageing hardware — with some devices deployed over a decade ago — while simultaneously delivering a superior customer experience is possible”.
Over at Bitmovin, and Pearson notes that the company has already implemented several measures to reduce its carbon footprint, such as minimising unnecessary travel and encouraging travel by trains and public transport, offering working from home, digitising resources and minimising printed materials at tradeshows and events.
“Alongside operating a robust recycling scheme in our regional offices, Bitmovin also run a recycling scheme for hardware such as laptops, which gives employees the opportunity to buy back,” he says. “We also prioritise working with cloud providers who are actively reducing their carbon footprint and alongside this, offer customers the opportunity to shift encoding workloads into geographically close regions with much lower intensity to reduce carbon emissions.”
Gary Marshall, COO at Merapar, comments that sustainability “is a journey rather than a fixed goal. As a technology company, we are becoming more aware of our environmental impact and are taking steps to make responsible choices in how we operate”.
For example, Merapar’s offices use LED lighting, modern heating, and smart building management to reduce energy usage, and the company is also transitioning to renewable energy. It reduces travel where possible, encourages sustainable forms of transport, and works digitally with DocuSign and cloud storage to reduce paper use.
Marshall adds: “We know that sustainability is an ongoing process, and we are committed to making realistic improvements over time. We have established a Sustainability Working Group to explore new initiatives, and we regularly assess our progress through frameworks such as the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). In February 2025, we received a CDP SME B rating.”
As for VisualOn, Cai says it has taken concrete steps to improve efficiency throughout the streaming workflow.
“For example, our VisualOn Optimizer reduces bandwidth usage by fine-tuning playback strategies and adaptive bitrate decisions, lowering network load and energy consumption across delivery networks. Our VisualOn Player is designed to minimise processing demands on end-user devices. By reducing CPU and GPU usage during playback, it helps lower device-level power consumption, which is especially important for mobile and embedded systems.”
Internally, he adds, “we leverage a remote lab setup for testing and quality assurance. This enables remote access to real devices, cutting down on hardware shipments and travel, thus reducing the carbon footprint of development and support. Additionally, we support energy-efficient practices at the encoding and delivery levels by adopting modern codecs such as AV1 and optimising adaptive bitrate streaming.”
Cai comments: “These steps are small but deliberate, aimed at fostering a more sustainable streaming ecosystem—not just within our own operations, but also by enabling more resource-conscious choices for our customers and partners.”
Paweł Hładkiewicz, CEO and CTO of Remotly and Mirillis, declares that energy efficiency and sustainability “are more than just buzzwords, they’re fundamental to our mission. With products like Remotly and Action!, we’ve implemented advanced technologies that dramatically reduce power consumption, particularly at the GPU and CPU level”.
Hładkiewicz says Remotly is engineered to use up to 50% less energy than comparable solutions on the market.
“To illustrate the scale of this impact, imagine a remote desktop connection running at 60 frames per second. If one connection consumes 1 watt of GPU power, and Remotly cuts that in half to 0.5 watts, the difference may seem small until you multiply it across millions of simultaneous connections. That’s where the environmental benefit becomes truly significant on a global scale,” he says.
Erik Otto, CEO at Mediaproxy, says his company has always had a strong ethos of providing sustainable technologies.
“More than ten years ago we were the first to certify and deploy blade-based, high-density hardware to offer power-efficient systems. That policy continues today with a focus on optimising our software to take advantage of modern software ecosystems and hardware platforms. We have a dedicated hardware engineering team able to deliver the most efficient set-up best suited to our customers’ needs. This extends to cloud installations, for which we offer cost-effective methods of reducing overheads wherever possible,” he says.
Polarczyk comments that Accedo always has an eye on sustainability when designing solutions for customers, and it often emerges as a by-product of tackling broader challenges, such as total cost of ownership.
“When we help customers streamline operations or improve platform efficiency, we uncover opportunities to lower environmental impact — often without needing to frame it explicitly as ‘green’ at first,” he says. “We have also worked with streaming platforms that are more advanced in their sustainability journeys. There we propose initiatives like sustainable content hubs, carbon-conscious user experiences, and campaigns that engage audiences on climate issues — helping brands activate sustainability through storytelling and design.”
Polarczyk adds: “We are committed to measuring and communicating the environmental footprint of our technology choices and platform operations, laying the groundwork for further improvements. This includes participating in industry initiatives such as the ECOFLOW project we were a part of for last year’s IBC, as well as pushing for better standards around carbon disclosure.”
Diversity and inclusivity, too
In addition to sustainability, diversity and inclusivity initiatives remain important for the Content Everywhere ecosystem. For instance, Evergent’s Padia says over 40% of the company’s leadership roles remain held by women, and more than 75% of its leadership team represents ethnic diversity.
“We also prioritise our people’s well-being. In our Hyderabad office this past year, a ‘Happiness Bootcamp’ focused on emotional wellness and peer appreciation. Our company-wide cricket tournament united teams across departments, highlighting teamwork, balance, and shared success,” she says.
According to Padia, “in today’s climate of global uncertainty, values such as equity, trust, and environmental responsibility are more important than ever. Media technology companies have a unique opportunity — and responsibility — to lead the way in building a more inclusive, sustainable, and resilient industry. This begins with fostering a workplace culture rooted in empathy, fairness, and support for employee well-being, from mental health initiatives and flexible work environments to inclusive leadership and equal growth opportunities.”
Pearson notes that Bitmovin is “deeply committed to integrating DEI into every aspect of its corporate strategy. It has made tangible progress, such as increasing female representation in senior management and leadership roles and diversifying our talent pool through inclusive recruitment policies”.
However, he also concedes that while the company is proud of its progress, “we acknowledge that more work remains, both at Bitmovin and within the broader industry, to create a truly inclusive and sustainable future”.
Meanwhile, Paul Pastor, co-founder and chief business officer at Quickplay, has used his platform to amplify LGBTQ+ voices, “pushing for more authentic and positive representation”.
Pastor and the Quickplay team initially launched their LGBTQ+ Happy Hours in 2023. The event is now held at leading industry trade shows such as CES and NAB, and most recently took place at IBC 2024, co-sponsored by Evergent, Google Cloud and Caretta Research.
Jordan Bartow was recently recruited general manager for North America at Quickplay, and cites the opportunity to work for Pastor as a key reason for accepting the post.
“After ten years in corporate America (Oracle, Google), I knew the next chapter of my career had to be different. A key part of that was working for someone who truly got me. While I had built a successful career, it often came at the cost of feeling misunderstood. Being gay has been a secret weapon but in heavily technical roles, it can also feel isolating. I can count on one hand the number of gay men I’ve come across in the past 15 years,” Bartow says.
Industry view
As they implement their own ESG policies and initiatives, Content Everywhere suppliers also highlight concerns that the wider industry commitment to making the industry more sustainable has decreased. At the same time, many of them offer reasons to be optimistic despite this trend.
Otto notes that there are many things that are high on broadcast executives’ agendas right now, and sustainability is just one of them.
“Sadly, it is jostling for position with other pressing issues, such as the battle for audience attention over a wide variety of devices, the shift to internet-only services and cutting cost where possible. In that context, sustainability should be considered as an opportunity to reduce operational overheads. The broader area of ESG has probably taken on its own dynamics with more flexible work arrangements, including home and remote working,” he says.
Otto adds: “There is some encouragement in the fact that a lot of newer companies — startups or those managed by a younger demographic — are making a difference in both ESG and DEI compared to their more traditional counterparts. Ignoring the sudden and unjustified turn against DEI in the US, businesses and institutions in many other countries — including the UK and within the EU — are now prioritising programmes for greater inclusivity and diversity, with significant improvements over the last four years.”
Dvorak thinks that sustainability is still at the top of executive minds as it’s more common today to ask suppliers to provide evidence of how they are supporting green initiatives. “There’s a growing recognition that eco-friendly practices are not only good for the planet but also support business needs.”
However, he agrees that the urgency around environmental initiatives sometimes competes with other pressing concerns such as data privacy and costs, especially in unstable market conditions, “which can sometimes mean that the priority can fall behind as executives need to find the right balance that helps their company thrive, this can sometimes mean the less greener option”.
According to Pearson, “I think it’s fair to say that C-Suite’s commitment to making the industry more sustainable has decreased. This is largely down to the fact that the industry has faced difficult macroeconomic conditions, and as a result, sustainability has fallen down the list of business priorities. This was evidenced in the Bitmovin Developer Report published earlier this year that found that 70% of respondents said they are not prioritising sustainability, and with almost 45% saying they would like to prioritize it, but cost is the main driver of decisions. The report also identified a decline in those committed to green streaming at any expense, down from 6% last year to 3% this year.”
He adds: “While it’s far from ideal that sustainability has been deprioritised, it doesn’t mean to say that it is unachievable. The industry needs solutions that deliver both environmental responsibility and cost-efficiency, and initiatives like Bitmovin’s GAIA project, which aims to develop climate-friendly video streaming solutions, are designed exactly with that purpose in mind.”
Merapar’s Marshall also notes that given the current challenges in the media industry, “it is fair to say that sustainability has probably had a lower priority than it should have for some companies as executive time is focussed on the wider industry challenges. There is always room for improvement, and Merapar and our clients in the industry continue to take incremental steps that move the media industry to a more sustainable future”.
Cai agrees that in many organisations, sustainability has slipped somewhat down the agenda, “often due to near-term economic pressures and evolving regulatory demands. Recent surveys like EY’s 2024 CEO Outlook highlight how cost concerns have slowed some initiatives. However, we expect the focus to return as customers, investors, and regulators increasingly demand clear, measurable progress. At VisualOn, sustainability remains a key part of our long-term strategy and conversations with partners”.
Polarczyk says sustainability is “certainly still at the top of executives’ minds, but much of that comes from strategic necessity rather than ethics or the desire to improve the planet. Indeed, sustainability is being reframed to encompass other topics such as resources, security, resilience, and supply chain stability, as well as future-proofing the business”.
While he says this is great in terms of getting executives behind initiatives that achieve all of these things, including improving the environmental impact, “it comes with a risk. If we are only viewing sustainability in terms of business improvements, without that connection to climate and social goals, we may miss the opportunity to drive true transformation.”
