What is the name of your organization and what is your area of focus in the film and video space?
Green The Bid – we are a non-profit organization that supports the advertising production industry in transition to sustainable and regenerative practices. We are a community with resources that are open source and available to all.
What’s your organization’s origin story?
Green The Bid was founded by people who are deeply concerned about the climate emergency, and were committed to reducing the industry’s needless waste and carbon footprint. We started in the depths of the pandemic, which was an inflection point that proved that our industry could shift and innovate more quickly than anyone anticipated. We thought: what if we could apply that same swift action to changing our behavior in other ways? We understood, through the course of many conversations, that it wasn’t enough to ask people to take a pledge – they needed resources, education, and a community of collaborative support. We are now an official 501c3 non-profit with hundreds of member companies around the world.
What is your organization’s ethos and how does it set you apart from industry competitors?
Green The Bid is a shame free, pre-competitive environment. We are free to join, member-supported, and create resources that harness the industry’s expertise so that change can come from within. There are other environmentally focused industry organizations which have different offerings and unique approaches – which complements the work each other is doing. We are colleagues, supporters, and members of each other’s communities all pushing toward a shared outcome.
What projects are you most proud of and why?
It is incredibly heartening to see and hear about people really committing to change, and helping others to do the same. Some of our big, collaborative accomplishments are the Complete Green Production Manual, The Complete Green Post Manual and the Green Manual for Service Production – all of which were created with our members. Green The Bid has become a verb – with agencies and brands asking production to “Green The Bid.” This shows that we have had some success in elevating this conversation from niche to the mainstream.
What initiatives are you working on that you’re excited about?
We are working on many things that are exciting, among them working with our post members to deliver understanding and best practices around the carbon impact of data. It’s a huge area of impact and one that is unfortunately often overlooked. We’d also like to see greater commitments from agencies and brands to reduce unnecessary flying.
What’s one part of the video and television industry you would change and why?
It would be incredible to have a future where a green production is just standard issue production.
Where is there opportunity for collaboration or intersection between your community and the Telly community?
The communities are really the same – or at the very least they have the potential to be. There’s so much existing crossover, which makes the collaboration feel very organic. We’ve already worked together on a few opportunities to bring people together for thoughtful conversations on issues that transcend genre or role and are really rooted in the intersection of craft and commitment to change.
How can people join or learn more about what you do?
Come to the website at greenthebid.earth – membership is free and joining is as easy as clicking on Join Us and filling out a quick form. You can also email us at hello@greenthebid.earth to find out more.
