"We're all accountable": How Destination X is paving the way for more sustainable television

Destination X burst onto screens this summer, taking its audience and players alike on a wild ride across across Europe - except no one knows where they are!

The premise is exciting and fresh, following a group of contestants aboard a bus which they can't see out of, but they are given hints and clues to tease where they are – or are even misled so as to not give the game away immediately.

With the format already popular in Belgium and having had a run in the US, it was now time for the UK to get their hands on yet another adventure series for their enjoyment.

But one key part of the series is its extensive travel, with the players transported from one location to another across Europe either via the aptly named X-bus or a train, as seen in episode 3.

The series is certified by BAFTA Albert, a leading organisation that supports the film and TV industry to reduce the environmental impacts of production, and as executive producer David Clews pointed out, the show's environmental impact was something the production crew were "always conscious of".

In an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com, Clews explained that when planning the show's journey, it was always at the forefront of what was the best way to take the trip.

"It's always thinking about how we can reduce the environmental impact and those measures that we can [be] put in place to make sure that we've got a carbon action plan that we feel comfortable with," he said. "So there's obviously lots of things that we did to get that certification."

Travelling by coach is already a form of environmentally friendly transport, with a report from Roberts Travel Group noting that just one coach full of passengers can keep up to 50 cars off the road, making the emissions per passenger and journey significantly lower.

The production for Destination X included diesel generators on location and shared power and battery packs so it wasn't solely reliant on the generators.

Clews told RadioTimes.com: "We were sort of thinking about lower carbon catering choices. The buses have got LED lighting, recycling, and the coaches themselves have got Euro six diesel engines so they admit less CO2 than standard vehicles."

It wasn't lost on the team that the scale of a show such as this one required a large crew travelling cross country, as Clews noted that they opted for larger vehicles when it came to transporting crew, usually "16-seater mini-buses, some nine-seaters as well".

He continued: "Travelling by coach has lower emissions per passenger than car travel, so that was something that was integral to our planning.

"The movement order of everyone across the series... [for example] how many people do you need versus how many office jobs can you [have] in terms of production roles? Can you keep [people] back in the UK from a planning perspective?"

A green memo was also created for the staff, "tasking everyone to think about how they could be as sustainable as possible".

Interestingly, it was also the show's practices of ensuring secrecy around where the contestants were that added to the sustainable efficiency of the show's production.

"If we were using local caterers, there would be things [where] we would be decanting the food into into containers where it wouldn't give the game away," Clews told RadioTimes.com. "So it was more things like that. We'd always have a portaloo with us. So I guess you could argue that was definitely all part of the sort of sustainability."

But what's next? There is no word on a second season of Destination X, but the output of sustainable TV is increasing, with BAFTA albert having working with clients across the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 as well as streamers like Netflix.

In 2023 alone, 3,003 productions completed carbon footprints and 2,451 achieved certification, while 3,967 members of the screen industry also attended albert training, with the organisation also having teamed up with ITV soap Emmerdale helping to support the show's transition towards becoming a net-zero production.

Looking to the future, Clews told RadioTimes.com: "We're all accountable, aren't we? And we all have to think about this and that's whether we're filming abroad or very locally. [How] can we be as sustainable as possible? It's super important and something that we all have to think about."

Destination X continues on Thursday 7th August at 9pm on BBC One and iPlayer.

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