Skip to content
OVER & ABOVE
0207 458 4997

Policy

Environment Policy.

Last updated: 14 May 2026.

1. Commitment

Over & Above Aerial is committed to operating with a measurable and continuously reducing environmental footprint. We acknowledge that drone and film production work has direct environmental impact through travel, equipment manufacture, equipment disposal and post-production energy use. This policy sets out the actions we take to reduce that impact and the measures we use to track it.

Our standard is to make environmentally lower-impact choices the default rather than the exception, wherever the alternative does not compromise the operational quality our clients require.

2. Scope

This policy covers the environmental impact of all Over & Above operations. The principal impact areas are:

  • Travel to and from construction sites by crew and equipment.
  • Energy use in post-production (storage, render, file delivery).
  • Equipment manufacture, lifecycle and end-of-life disposal.
  • Office operations (energy, waste, paper).
  • Supplier choices, including equipment hire and software.

3. Travel

The largest single environmental impact of our operation is crew travel to construction sites. Our policy is:

  • Hybrid or fully electric vehicles for crew transport where the journey, the load, and the available charging infrastructure allow. Our principal crew vehicle is hybrid as of 2026.
  • Public transport for any London or Greater London journey where equipment volume permits. Single-crew shoots within central London are scheduled around tube and overground access by default.
  • Where a fossil-fuel vehicle is necessary, we plan routes to consolidate journeys. We do not run separate vehicles for crew and equipment when one vehicle suffices.
  • Air travel is used only where the alternative would compromise project delivery. Domestic UK air travel is avoided in favour of rail. International air travel is used only on rare client-specific requirements and is carbon-offset through a credited scheme.

4. Post-production energy

Our post-production workflow runs on a combination of local workstations and cloud infrastructure. Our policy is:

  • Cloud storage and render hosted on UK-resident infrastructure powered by renewable energy where available. Our principal cloud provider is contracted for renewable-sourced energy as of 2026.
  • Workstations and edit suites use efficient hardware refreshed on a replacement cycle that prioritises useful life over annual upgrade. We do not refresh equipment annually for marketing reasons.
  • File delivery is sized to the requirement. We do not deliver 4K masters where the client's use case requires HD. Oversized deliverables increase storage and transmission energy use across the supply chain.
  • Working files are retained on a defined schedule. Files outside the working window are archived to lower-energy storage and eventually deleted in accordance with our data retention policy.

5. Equipment lifecycle

Drone and camera equipment have significant embodied carbon in manufacture. Our policy is to maximise the working life of every piece of equipment.

  • Equipment is bought to a professional standard and maintained through the manufacturer's full service life. We do not replace functioning equipment for marketing or trend reasons.
  • Maintenance is carried out by accredited service centres rather than replacement of working components.
  • Batteries are charged on a managed cycle to maximise useful life and are recycled at end-of-life through the manufacturer's take-back scheme or a UK-licensed waste battery handler.
  • Equipment that is no longer fit for our requirements but remains functional is sold or donated rather than scrapped, where possible.
  • End-of-life equipment is recycled through licensed UK WEEE facilities. We do not export end-of-life electronic equipment.

6. Office operations

Our office footprint is small. We work from shared workspace facilities that meet recognised environmental standards for energy and waste. Our office practice:

  • Paper-light. Most operational documentation is digital.
  • Office waste is segregated for recycling.
  • We do not provide single-use items in the workspace.

7. Suppliers

Where suppliers offer materially different environmental profiles for equivalent service, we prefer the lower-impact supplier. This principle applies to:

  • Equipment hire houses.
  • Cloud and software vendors.
  • Print and physical deliverables (used rarely).
  • Office goods.

We do not engage suppliers whose environmental practice falls below UK regulatory minimums.

8. Measurement

We measure environmental impact through three indicators reviewed annually:

  • Travel emissions. Annual fuel and electricity use for crew vehicles, plus rail and air mileage. Converted to a CO2-equivalent figure using DEFRA conversion factors.
  • Cloud and storage energy. Annual cloud storage and compute use, multiplied by the published carbon intensity of the relevant infrastructure.
  • Equipment turnover. The number of items disposed of in the year against the active inventory. A low ratio indicates equipment is being maintained through its useful life rather than replaced.

Findings are reviewed by the Director and inform the action plan for the following year.

9. Continuous improvement

This policy is reviewed annually and updated to reflect operational changes, new data, and improvements in available alternatives. The ambition is a measurable year-on-year reduction in absolute environmental impact, while accommodating organic growth in business activity.

10. Approval

This policy is approved by Sam Hendrick, Director of Blood Orange Ltd, on 14 May 2026. It is reviewed annually.

Questions about this policy: hello@overaboveaerial.com or 0207 458 4997.