Observer Ethical Awards 2015 winners: Coronation Street

“I don’t think we could have got greener cobbles,” says Kieran Roberts, executive producer of Coronation Street, surveying the hallowed ground. When the whole production moved across town to Media City two years ago, 54,000 cobblestones were acquired from derelict Salford streets and upcycled into service on the world’s longest-running soap. And it is that kind of detail that has won the programme the inaugural Ethical Award for Film and Television (with Bafta and the Bafta Albert Consortium, the production industry’s leader on sustainability).

“Relocating to Trafford gave us so many opportunities to look at the way we make our programme,” he says. He’s standing in front of the façade of the Rovers Return – the interior is housed in Studio One, now illuminated by LED lighting, which is 90% more efficient than the old tungsten variety.

In the famous Corrie ginnel (back alley and scene of many a nefarious going-on) Robbie Sandison, head of production, talks me through achieving realistic recycling on screen. Any bad guy scurrying away after dusk must now negotiate the full complement of bins.

Then there’s off-screen. “We have 300 to 400 people working here, and drama by its nature has always been transitory, so it’s about working right across the production to change,” says Sandison, “whether that be the art department or recycling old sets [Corrie has achieved an impressive 90% recycling rate for its waste streams] or making sure that new wood is from sustainable resources. We also have an allotment and we’re growing some of our veg on site here, too.”

In the costume department the previous din of tumble dryers has given way to the sustainable silence of the washing line as characters’ costumes are laundered in a green way. Meanwhile the whole production is now powered by renewable energy.

Everyone seems to have been swept up in Corrie’s green transition. “As a young man growing up, environmental issues probably weren’t that important to me,” says Alan Halsall, now 32, who has played Tyrone Dobbs since the age of 15. “But what’s happening here has had a knock-on effect. Now I’m taking a bit home with me. At home we’re considering solar panels and ground-source heat pumps for a building project we’re working on.”

By consensus of cast and crew, Roy Cropper is the street’s greenest character. His eco behaviours include carrying the Cropper Shopper – the UK’s most famous bag for life. “There are people that drop litter and people that pick litter up, and Roy would be as obsessive about picking up as I am,” says David Neilson, outside Roy’s Rolls, which recently began selling local organic produce. “I find with sustainability that with a little bit of thought you can change things. It’s kind of essential, isn’t it? But we don’t preach. It has to be right for the character. Roy is naturally green.” (As apparently is Neilson, who rides a bicycle to the set).

“It’s a creative challenge but not one that we wanted to shy away from,” says production manager Dan Jackson, who has worked tirelessly to turn theory into practice here. He’s particularly proud that 80% of the production staff have now completed a carbon literacy training course for TV professionals as Corrie edges towards becoming the first carbon-literate production in the world.

So one day could we see solar panels on the Platts’ roof? “We’ve had the quote,” says Jackson. “When it’s true to character on screen it’s absolutely possible. And we’ll probably get some comedy out of it, too. At the end of the day Corrie’s a really fun show.”

Runners-up: Springwatch; Terminally Happy