AI OFFSETTING & NET POSITIVE IMPACT

The Agenda Earth team is committed to the mitigation hierarchy - measuring, reducing, and offsetting our residual footprint to achieve a carbon-neutral footprint for this project, combined with additional Beyond Value Chain Mitigation (BVCM). We also welcome technology as a tool for creativity. We believe that using AI responsibly is a matter of how, when, where and why. As a self-funded small organisation, our launch film would not have been possible without the use of AI. Many elements of our film were human first, including music; however, we recognise the complex landscape of AI impacts. We have worked with our partners at Studio OPALUKE to create a methodology to track, offset and make a positive climate impact after GenAI use.
METHODOLOGY: The Oxford Principles
To ensure our climate strategy is robust, verifiable, and future-proof, we have adopted the 2024 Oxford Principles for Net Zero Aligned Carbon Offsetting. By actively publicising these principles, we hope to support the development of net-zero aligned practices across the wider creative sector. Our approach maps directly to the four Oxford Principles.
PRINCIPLE 1 | CUT EMISSIONS, ENSURE ENVIRONMENTAL INTEGRITY & MAINTAIN TRANSPARENCY.
 
  • We do not use AI by default, but are conscious of when, where and why it is of value in our workflows and act accordingly In line with the mitigation hierarchy, we prioritise reducing our direct and indirect emissions to minimise the need for offsetting in the first place.

  • We also implement strategic prompt optimisation - such as removing conversational filler, explicitly constraining outputs, and leveraging prompt caching to eliminate token waste and lower computational demands.

  • We transparently disclose these practices, ensuring we measure both operational and embodied emissions, and we exclusively use verifiable Gold Standard credits to guarantee our residual offsets represent genuine, additional mitigation
PRINCIPLE 2 | TRANSITION TO CARBON REMOVAL OFFSETTING BY THE GLOBAL NET ZERO TARGET DATE.

  • While our current offset supports an emissions reduction project (which is critical for accelerating short-term decarbonisation), we recognise that maintaining a true net-zero balance requires permanently removing carbon from the atmosphere.
PRINCIPLE 3 | SHIFT TO REMOVALS WITH DURABLE STORAGE (LOW RISK OF REVERSAL).
  • We acknowledge that carbon removals must be stored safely to prevent greenhouse gases from re-entering the atmosphere.

  • As the supply of high-quality technologies matures, our future procurement will shift toward durable, long-lived storage methods (such as geological reservoirs or mineralisation) that offer a low risk of reversal on millennial timescales.
PRINCIPLE 4 | SUPPORT THE DEVELOPMENT OF INNOVATIVE & INTEGRATED APPROACHES
 
  • We are actively participating in the wider impacts of LLMs, specifically through Studio OPALUKE’s policy work with the IEEE.

  • We go beyond basic compensation by funding extra Beyond Value Chain Mitigation (BVCM) and setting Nature targets to support freshwater ecosystems and deliver crucial co-benefits to communities.
TRACKING
Throughout the film's creation, a hybrid AI pipeline was employed across image and video generation. This usage was tracked, including model use and country of origin, using Adgreen’s calculator.

During the website creative and asset expansion by Studio OPALUKE, usage was tracked using AI Wattch and DrAIn to ensure accurate measurement before any offsetting took place.
Following the Software Carbon Intensity (SCI) for AI specification, we account for both operational carbon (the electricity used during inference and generation) and embodied carbon (the lifecycle emissions of the hardware and data centres, which can account for up to two-thirds of an AI data centre's lifetime footprint) where possible.
 
  • To measure our impact as accurately as possible as an AI consumer, we normalise our footprint using functional units, calculating emissions "per image," "per token," or "per second" of video generated.

  • While we currently have limited access to the complete Scope 3 (supply chain) emissions data for the wider production process, we are taking active steps to minimise our indirect emissions.

  • Our partners at Studio OPALUKE operate on 100% renewable energy. Additionally, our day-to-day operations and the downstream distribution of our film are managed by hosting both our team emails and our website on Infomaniak, a sovereign cloud service provider.

    • We intentionally selected Infomaniak to mitigate our Scope 3 emissions because its data centres are powered by 100% renewable energy, and it holds ISO 14001 and ISO 50001 certifications for strict environmental and energy management.

    • Furthermore, Infomaniak actively offsets its company-generated CO2 emissions by 200% through a verified myclimate carbon storage project in a Swiss forest reserve, and injects energy locally to contribute to the stability of the Swissgrid regulation market.

As our organisation grows, we aim to expand our tracking to comprehensively measure these downstream and upstream cloud computing elements.
CARBON
Our approach is to purchase Carbon credits for a multiple of the full measured and tracked AI production footprint, rounded up to the nearest whole credit. The measured production footprint was under one tonne CO2e.

Purchasing Two Gold Standard credits, therefore, represents more than 2x the actual footprint of the project to date [May 2026]. This allows us to claim Carbon Neutrality for the project with our first credit, while dedicating the second credit to Beyond Value Chain Mitigation (BVCM) to actively support wider societal decarbonisation. The Gold Standard credits we have purchased currently support the Utsil Naj Healthy Homes emission reduction project in Mexico.
 
WATER & NATURE
Alongside carbon, organisations must set Nature targets to protect freshwater and ecosystems.
 
  • Since water is a key resource in the use of GenAI, and despite not having traditional ‘offsetting’, we wanted to ensure a positive environmental and social impact in this area. We have estimated the footprint equivalent of the film's water usage using drAIn.

  • The figure provided by drAIn is a midpoint estimate between two very different sets of data. Tech companies self-report figures 10–30× lower because they only count water used directly on-site for cooling. Independent researchers also include the water consumed by power stations to generate the electricity that runs the servers, which paints a very different picture. The number we use sits exactly halfway between the two to provide a balanced estimate.

  • This water impact is presented as a verified project contribution, not as a literal offset market or give-back equivalent. We have used Charity: Water’s published proxy of about £1 = 1,400 litres of clean water, and multiplied the footprint-equivalent donation by 50x for a more meaningful positive contribution. This supports sustainable development goals and ensures our climate strategy provides crucial co-benefits to communities.

  • Charity: Water says its estimate is based on project data and a hand pump model, so the math is charity-specific and therefore also in receipt of the donation.

  • To further our commitment to biodiversity and broader Nature targets, our project also empowers visitors to take action beyond our immediate footprint. We actively encourage simple, positive behaviour changes, such as switching to the Ecosia search engine to support global tree-planting efforts. Additionally, we drive support for critical conservation work by pushing visitors to donate directly to the Rainforest Alliance, the African Wildlife Foundation, Polar Bears International, and the Red Panda Network. These collective actions help protect vulnerable ecosystems, restore natural habitats, and safeguard wildlife, aligning with the urgent need to protect the natural resources we all depend on
PRODUCTION OFFSET & POSITIVE IMPACT