Austin Williams

It sounds like the start of a bad joke. An eco-activist, a Labour party hack and an EDI advocate walk into a bar. Actually, that was where I found myself last week – in a lounge bar in Kings Cross – after the official candidate hustings for the election for president of the Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba). Full disclosure: I was the fourth candidate – a bog-standard academic who has had enough of the usual suspects seeming to get the presidential title passed down to an anointed successor. I want to shake things up a bit.

Ella Kissi-Debrah, a nine-year-old who died in February 2013 after suffering an asthma attack, is the first person in the UK to have air pollution cited on their death certificate. Two weeks ago, Ella’s mother finally settled her legal action against the government, which said it was ‘truly sorry’ for Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah’s loss and that it was committed to delivering an ‘ambitious clean air strategy’. Ella’s death has become a cause celebre among anti-car and anti-pollution activists. There is no doubt that Ella’s death was a terrible tragedy. But to blame air pollution alone – as some campaigners have done – for what happened risks ignoring the complexities of this case.

Britain’s film and TV industries want to help save the world. That’s hardly news. But one organisation is ensuring the industry focuses its efforts on environmental sustainability: Albert, which also goes by the name of Bafta Albert. You might have seen the logo – a black footprint – at the end of many TV programmes, from BBC’s Newsnight to Sky Sports News. It’s a rapidly expanding body that few people other than industry insiders have heard of. But Albert is increasingly influential in determining how media institutions programme content, conduct their working practices and set their goals. It describes itself as an environmental organisation which aims to encourage TV and film companies to reduce their carbon footprint.