Jamie Oliver and TV production company Fresh One have offset the 242.6 tons of CO2 emitted during the making of the Channel 4 series “Jamie’s American Roadtrip” by sponsoring projects in India, China and Cambodia. As far as we know, this will be the first time a major UK series involving extensive travel has become “carbon neutral”. Calculations were made for all flights, hotel accommodation and land travel during filming in six states.

After consultation with Green Party staff, Jamie Oliver Limited (JOL) began working with environmental experts Best Foot Forward who calculated the amount of CO2 using information on all flights (including research expeditions), hotels and car travel during the series. Once the calculation was made, JOL turned to ClimateCare and decided to help environmental projects in Asia including energy efficient stoves in Cambodia, a wind-power project in China and a solar power installation in India.

“My company is serious about helping to prevent the dangers of climate change,” says Jamie, “ and we recognize that with everything we do – but especially with TV programs like this one – we create a carbon footprint. Early on in the filming for Roadtrip, we decided that we should do something positive about the CO2 of all the flights we were making and the long car journeys we were taking. I felt that as a programme-maker, it was my duty really to stand up and say that if we’re going to shoot these brilliant programs which involve flying quite a few people everywhere, we should make a difference and help save the planet.”

Best Foot Forward’s Managing Director, Paul Cooper added: “We are all great fans of Jamie Oliver here at Best Foot Forward added "We are therefore especially delighted that he chose to work with us on measuring and managing his carbon footprint for the TV series. Businesses everywhere should be following his lead.”

Edward Hanrahan, Executive Director at ClimateCare, said: “We are delighted that Jamie and his crew have chosen to support ClimateCare offset projects; their funding is helping to enable the roll out of valuable low carbon technologies that are urgently needed to mitigate the impacts of climate change. ClimateCare’s project technologies include ground-breaking innovation in cook stoves that not only reduces emissions but also provides cheaper and healthier cooking for thousands of people in the developing world, something that Jamie is pleased to support”.

“Jamie’s American Roadtrip” visited New York, Los Angeles, Arizona, Louisiana, Georgia and Wyoming over an eight-month shoot but often with long gaps between each location. The series will be shown on Channel 4 in September and there is an accompanying book, “Jamie’s America” published by Michael Joseph/Penguin. Everyone who traveled on location, including those individuals involved in the book (ie David Loftus, photographer) had their CO2 calculated and offset.

About the author: Peter Berry is Jamie's publicist