Sustainability & Media
YouTube Announces Original Climate, Sustainability Content In April, YouTube has announced a new slate of original projects and partnerships, designed to use the power of storytelling to educate users on the biggest sustainability challenges the world faces — and a variety of solutions that can be adopted to inspire change. “Climate change presents a variety of enormous, complicated challenges that urgently need the world’s attention and collective action. In line with Google’s long standing commitment to climate action, YouTube is proud to announce key partnerships and a growing slate of Originals that will provide our massive global audiences access to compelling content with a focus on sustainability,” said Susanne Daniels, Global Head of Original Content for YouTube. “We are committed to producing even more projects that can inform viewers, inspire action, and ultimately improve our chances of making a more sustainable future for our planet.” The YouTube Originals sustainability slate includes “Seat at the Table,” where a meeting with David
24
SUSTAINABILITY TODAY | SUMMER 2021
Attenborough sends creator Jack Harries on a global challenge to give people around the world a seat at the table in the climate conversation ahead of COP 26, the United Nations Climate Change Conference. It also includes Stay Wild (working title), in which Brave Wilderness, in partnership with Leonardo diCaprio’s Appian Way and Madica Productions, will transport viewers directly to the front lines of nature. There, they will bear eyewitness to the effects of climate change, and its impact on wildlife and humanity. Google’s larger sustainability pledge also includes a focus on enabling partners to reach their climate action goals through funding, technology, and resources, and a promise to leverage their most popular products like search, maps and YouTube, to reach one billion people and help them make sustainable choices in their daily lives. YouTube Originals now available include: • Create Together, Season 2: In the second season of the Emmy Award winning mini-series, Joseph Gordon-Levitt invites people from all over the world to come together and create art,
music, mini-docs, short films and more in celebration of our natural planet. Everything conceived for the show will be created collaboratively by the audience and draw inspiration from the natural world in all its forms. The series will feature people making a difference from around the world, including youth activist Mitzi Jonelle Tan in the Philippines to NASA Scientist Dalia Kirschbaum, in addition to
challenges like creating a music video using sounds of nature or animations about renewal after natural disasters. • BookTube with Bill Gates: This monthly learning series features the world’s most renowned authors. It has returned with an episode featuring Microsoft founder, technologist, business leader, and philanthropist Bill Gates and a discussion of his book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster.
