The Policy & Guidelines Lab: Three-Horizon Work Plan
- 18 hours ago
- 3 min read
The Policy & Guidelines Lab has set its 2026 agenda around one goal: translating technical measurement into practical recommendations for the streaming industry. This post outlines the Lab's three-horizon work structure — from near-term best practices on energy efficiency and transparency, to longer-term questions around circularity and consumer awareness.
From Framing the Questions to Shaping the Work Ahead
Earlier this year, the Greening of Streaming Policy & Guidelines Lab introduced its mission: to help close the gap between modelled sustainability assumptions and the measured technical realities of streaming systems.
Streaming has become a central component of global digital infrastructure, yet policy discussions about its environmental impact often rely on incomplete or inconsistent data. The purpose of the Policy & Guidelines Lab is to bring technical clarity to those discussions and help translate industry knowledge into evidence-based insights that policymakers and regulators can use.
The group has aligned its work around a clear objective: to develop practical recommendations that can influence real-world energy outcomes across the streaming ecosystem.
Work Structure
Assuring the work is focused and actionable, the Policy & Guidelines Lab has organized its agenda across three time horizons.
Short-term priorities (12–18 months) focus on areas where practical recommendations could be implemented relatively quickly.
Mid-term topics (18–24 months) involve questions that require further measurement, industry coordination, or clarity before meaningful policy guidance can emerge.
Longer-term: structural issues explore questions that may require broader collaboration across industry, regulators, and standards bodies.
Short-Term: Best Practices
One of the most immediate opportunities lies in identifying technical efficiency best practices across the streaming ecosystem.
These include areas such as reducing unnecessary data processing and transmission, improving storage practices, avoiding premature hardware refresh cycles, and clarifying how features like eco-mode or energy-saving settings are described and implemented.
The goal is not to prescribe rigid technical rules, but rather to define a small set of actionable practices that industry can reference without constraining innovation.
Another near-term focus is energy transparency. Sustainability disclosures are expanding globally, particularly under frameworks such as the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). However, energy reporting across the streaming ecosystem remains fragmented and difficult to compare. The Policy & Guidelines Lab examines how reporting frameworks can better reflect streaming systems' energy usage.
Mid-Term: Devices and Displays
Several mid-term work streams explore areas where measurement and system understanding need to improve.
One example is understanding the operational energy use of consumer premises equipment, such as modems/routers and set-top boxes. Additionally, understanding the devices' optimal service-life helps inform future policy and product design.
Another area under review is screen and display energy management. Display settings, brightness levels, and resolution choices all influence energy consumption, yet the relationships between these factors are not clear from a policy perspective. One example of our work is to influence the standardization of eco-mode settings in consumer devices.
Longer-Term: Structural Issues
Examples include the role of a "Sustainable Streaming" guidance scheme, unnecessary data duplication associated with rights management, and ways to improve consumer awareness of the energy impact of their streaming habits.
Circularity and end-of-life considerations for media and network equipment are also part of the conversation, particularly where collaboration with other industry sustainability initiatives could accelerate progress, e.g. Digital Product Passport.
Looking Ahead
Over the coming year, the Policy & Guidelines Lab will work to translate these themes into evidence-based recommendations. Along the way, guest contributors will be invited to advance specific areas of work.
Greening of Streaming members interested in participating are encouraged to join the conversation as the work evolves.
