Earth Month may be coming to a close, but a long-term, multi-channel green strategy is blooming at Paramount UK and Ireland. 

Sustainability and climate change are points of passion for many kids today, and Channel 5’s Milkshake! block is looking to meet this demand in the UK with series that showcase the outdoors, says Louise Bucknole, who oversees both Milkshake! and Nickelodeon in the region as GM of kids and family for Paramount UK and Ireland. 

The time for this focus, notes Bucknole, is particularly right. “[While] there’s always been an interest in the environment, kids have spent a lot of time outdoors post-lockdown,” she explains, and her own personal observations of this are backed up by solid data. Nearly 87% of UK kids (ages eight to 15) agreed that being in nature made them very happy in a 2022 survey conducted by the British government. The same report also found that kids explored a greater variety of green spaces last year compared to 2021.

These insights are the seeds of an evolving Milkshake! strategy. Although details are still under wraps, Bucknole says two factual entertainment series are slated for the block—a commission that puts teams of UK kids in the field to learn how to look after animals from pets/vets, farm managers, zoo staff and wildlife experts; and a series about kids exploring the outdoors that’s being developed in-house. Both projects will go into production this year, and Bucknole is looking for more. 

She’s in the market for pitches that might best be summed up as the beet-chocolate brownie of programming: green-themed content that is fun and accessible, with educational elements discreetly folded in. “The most important thing is to make sure that [the content] feels relatable and isn’t an enforced message. Because the minute you tell kids they have to do something, the message isn’t received.”

For slightly older viewers, the Nickelodeon linear channel premiered an Earth Day-themed short on April 22. Bucknole intends to continue this trend, broadcasting more bite-sized sustainability pieces throughout the year. Already on the slate is an Ocean Day explainer short that will launch in June, and a mini-tutorial short on how to grow your own food, which should air in September.

Go Green With The Grimwades

Bucknole is also looking to appeal to preschoolers who are already trying to help the planet, whether they’re picking up litter at the beach or recycling bottle caps at home. 

Milkshake! has laid the groundwork for this programming with a new Green Star Awards program it launched in March, asking viewers to email in photos of themselves doing activities that help the environment. The kids behind the strongest submissions will be featured on air as star environmentalist of the week and some will receive an e-certificate reward.

Last fall, Paramount launched SpongeBob SquarePants: Operation Sea Change (featured image), a multi-year initiative that sees the company working with its licensees to reduce plastics and incorporate recycled material in all SpongeBob-branded products, as well as partnering with ocean conservation organizations like Surfers Against Sewage to organize beach clean-ups, with 1,111 clean-ups completed so far.

SpongeBob was a natural choice to front the campaign. He has a two-decade-strong fan base, a huge consumer products program, and a show that’s set in the ocean. So from the fans’ point of view, it’s about “helping to protect the environment SpongeBob lives in,” says Bucknole. 

On an operational level, Paramount UK has been ramping up its eco-friendly efforts with a long-term strategy called “Peak Sustainability” that kicked off last fall. The company has pledged to reduce its overall carbon emissions by 46% by 2030, with various changes already made across its many divisions. “We have a zero-landfill policy, solar roof panels, centralized printing and lights that go off when you’re not in the room,” Bucknole explains.

Adding to this commitment, she notes that all kids commissions are encouraged to sign up for the albert certification, which measures carbon footprints from pre- to post-production.

“On Milkshake!, for example, shows like Pop Paper City, Milo and Go Green With The Grimwades (pictured above) are all certified,” she says. The goal is to hit 100% of productions being signed up by next year. “In 2022, 99% of our content was certified, so we’re almost there.”