Tell Us Your Story. What motivated you to start your business? Why are you passionate about what you do?

Our founder, Zena Harris, has a long background in sustainability (with a Masters in Sustainability from Harvard), and believes in a holistic, culture-driven approach to combating climate change. We believe that art and good stories are as vital to human wellbeing as clean air and water. Stories impart inspiration, knowledge, and connection among people, and our culture uses film and TV as its main storytelling medium. Not to mention, the BC economy relies on film and TV production to flourish. But the entertainment industry simply cannot continue to thrive without changing the way it manages resources, both human and material, and that requires a significant shift in culture and process. Our tagline is "changing the climate of entertainment," because we are passionate about helping the entertainment industry become holistically sustainable, and therefore future fit. The entertainment industry has a huge cultural multiplier effect, and as such can exert powerful influence in the right direction to help mend the disastrous impacts of climate change. Since 2014, Green Spark Group has worked and partnered with studios, production companies, film commissions, and production teams on-set to reduce the environmental impact of production through systemic and holistic approaches. We started out by working on TV and film production sets. We’ve now grown and work throughout every area of the creative industries, from on-set consulting to corporate strategy consulting for corporations like CBC Radio-Canada and Telefilm. It’s also important to us to share our knowledge broadly with the industry, and to that end, we’ve created a plethora of accessible educational resources to support our community (more on this below). Our definition of sustainability includes the wellbeing of the environment, the economy, and people. We are passionate about inclusivity and equal representation, and we weave these values into all of our corporate strategy, on-production strategy, and educational resources. Additionally, through our annual event the Sustainable Production Forum (SPF), we work to support inclusive dialogue on diversity in the industry and explore conversations of inclusivity as part of a sustainable industry. The role of BIPOC in the film industry is an important one to highlight in the context of sustainability. We are especially passionate about uplifting Indigenous voices as we continue to work on their traditional unceded territories.

Describe and demonstrate, including metrics, your community support. How do you support and uplift your community, and how do they show that support in return? Minimum 25 words, maximum 2500 characters.

We do plenty to engage our community, from sponsoring local charitable initiatives (like Reel Green’s Reel Earth Day Challenge) to producing our own educational, collaborative conference — the Sustainable Production Forum (SPF). SPF is an annual event that brings together industry professionals and sustainability thought leaders to accelerate sustainability in the motion picture industry. Since 2019, our registrants for SPF have grown over 100%; SPF22 welcomed over 500 participants both locally and around the world through online and in-person events. SPF is primarily funded through sponsorship from industry partners. Year over year, our partnerships have grown by over 35%, demonstrating enthusiastic community support and engagement. This support has led to a robust hybrid online/in-person event, with SPF22 featuring three in-person receptions, 15 moderated sessions, five wellness meditations, nine vendor chats, and over 2200 unique views of our online content. Our SPF social media metrics echo this support, with post impressions reaching 162.7K across our social media platforms. Between our SPF and Green Spark Group newsletter mailing lists, we now have 1.7K subscribers, marking a 30% growth in the past year. We are humbled by the testimonials of SPF22 attendees, such as: “Inspired, encouraged, and enlightened! With a unified voice and strategy, we may be able to affect change before change affects us.” GSG also created the Creative Industries Pact for Sustainable Action (creativeindustriespact.com), a free online community dedicated to sharing sustainability resources and building community and accountability in the creative industries. The Pact community now has 170 signatories in over 20 countries around the globe. Signatories are encouraged to self-report on their sustainability initiatives and progress every two years, as a knowledge sharing and accountability tool. GSG recently self-reported the following metrics for 2020 and 2021, in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for Affordable and Clean Energy; Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure; Responsible Consumption and Production; and Climate Action: 10.2 MTCO2 emitted; 1150 trees planted; 2 online courses created; 1300 people trained; 5 corporate sustainability strategies launched; 9 film/TV productions improved. From a financial perspective, GSG has also grown by over 30% in the past year. If that’s not evidence of community support, we don’t know what is!

Why do you deserve to win the Business Impact award?

We directly contribute to the economic, social, psychological, community, and physical health and wellbeing of our province and country by creating economic and environmental viability in the entertainment industry. We are deeply passionate and committed to our work, and offer as many resources and opportunities for connection to our community as we possibly can (including The Pact and The Sustainable Production Forum). Over the past seven years, we've built up a business model and culture that is inherently supportive and generative to our economy and community. Our entire team is deeply passionate about contributing to the health and wellbeing of our local community. We work to support the Arts and Entertainment industry in BC by sharing sustainable practices, and increasing sustainability and circular economy literacy throughout the film and television industry. This directly contributes to the health and wellbeing of those involved in the industry, as well as the health and wellbeing of the communities where filming takes place. All of these contributions increase the viability and longevity of the Arts and Entertainment sector in BC as a whole. Furthermore, the Sustainable Production Forum (our annual event) brings together industry thought leaders and business owners to facilitate growth and collaboration (see above for metrics related to SPF). By focusing on the creation of a circular economy within the creative industries, we support the long term wellbeing, growth, and innovation of the arts and entertainment sectors. Our activities also help position BC as a global leader in sustainability in film & TV production. While we are based in BC and will always prioritize local community building, we now work in many places across the globe, using the experience and knowledge gathered in BC to help other filming communities become more sustainable too. This, of course, allows us to bring different sustainability practices from around the globe back home to BC, further improving the industry.

Tell Us About Your Culture. How are you creating a sustainable and healthy workplace where everyone feels welcome? Provide examples of leadership you show in interactions with clients, vendors, contractors, staff and others.

We strive to create a culture of inclusivity, respect, kindness, and accountability. We feel uniquely well positioned to do this because we are experts in social sustainability. We believe that kindness is a key ingredient in sustainability, and that strong, resilient communities are built on respect and acceptance. Everyone on our team recognizes the value in inclusion, and we practice what we preach. Our business is comprised of 80% women, and our human resource policies contain comprehensive equality and inclusion articles which every team member is required to uphold. We provide extended health care benefits for our team, and encourage everyone to prioritize work/life balance. Each of our team meetings includes time for team members to share big life news so that we can build a culture of support, encouragement, and celebration. Team access to the yoga and wellness center Studio BE was also a perk for the SPF team this year. We were also honoured to have more Indigenous representation at SPF this year than ever before. The traditional welcome for SPF22 was delivered by T’uy’t’tanat - Cease Wyss, Indigenous Matriarch of the Skwxwu7mesh, Sto:lo and Hawaiian people. The Vancouver reception at SPF22 was hosted by Indigenous actor and producer Simon Baker, and comprised a diverse array of Indigenous speakers including Johnna Sparrow (Musqueam Nation | xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Indigenous Relations Advisor), Faith Sparrow-Crawford (Musqueam Nation | xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Co-founder of Salish Locations Inc. & Host Consulting Inc.), Dennis Thomas, Whonoak (Tsleil-Waututh Nation | səlilwətaɬ, Member and an elected Councillor of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation), and Wilson Williams, Sxwíxwtn (Squamish Nation | Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw, Spokesperson & General Councillor). We were also pleased to welcome Dr. David Suzuki, Prem Gill (CEO, Creative BC) and Francesca Accinelli (Interim Executive Director & CEO, Telefilm Canada). When working with clients, a huge part of our job is to help them find ways to uplift their team and create a healthy workplace culture and environment. This includes making recommendations on supporting employee, environmental, and community health. One example of this is minimizing the use of diesel generators. Plugging into the grid and/or using a battery e-generators eliminates pollutants from diesel generators so crew and the surrounding community do not suffer from impaired air quality.

Why do you think you should win the Premier’s People’s Choice Award?

We are, first and foremost, here for the people! Every single part of our business, from concept to implementation, centers around the sustainable wellbeing of our communities and our planet. We believe in the power the arts have to make life meaningful, and to enrich culture. Winning this award would help us continue to support the arts and share our sustainability knowledge with even more people, creating healthier organizations and a thriving creative culture. We know there are many incredible businesses in BC who absolutely deserve to be recognized. We simply hope that, if we were to be recognized in this way, it would contribute to building our platform so that we can better support, build, and connect our community. As one SPF attendee wrote to us after the event, “I believe in actions, not just in meetings and forums. And this forum led me to a direct contact at Materials for the Arts. I was able to facilitate the donation of a set from a weekly sketch variety show to a local performing arts school and save it from a dumpster!” These kinds of stories are the reason our business continues to thrive. We are deeply grateful to our community for valuing the arts and the environment as much as we do, and we will continue to give back as much as we possibly can.