Sustainability & Media: YouTube Announces Original Climate, Sustainability Content

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 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.

A variety of YouTube Creators join Gates to discuss the book, the biggest challenges facing the global climate crisis, and a variety of solutions the world can adopt to achieve the ambitious goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from 51 billion tons a year to zero.

That’s not all. In October, three more shows will premiere, including:

• Seat at the Table: This 12-episode series follows YouTube creator and climate advocate Jack Harries as he highlights the devastating impacts and innovative solutions to climate change. YouTube creators, communities, campaigners, and innovative problem-solvers spanning multiple continents come together to discover the untold human and environmental stories behind the climate crisis. Harries also meets with iconic experts, including Sir David Attenborough. At the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), Harries will confront some of the most powerful people on the planet and demand action from those truly on the frontline of the climate emergency. The series aims to give people from around the world a seat at the table and the opportunity to have their voices heard on a global stage.

•Stay Wild (working title): This show arrives from actor Leo diCaprio’s Appian Way and Madica Productions. It will explore Earth’s critically endangered environments through a series of immersive adventures with Mark Vins. In his first expedition, Vins will hack through the treacherous, sloping rainforest of Rwanda in an attempt to find the last of the wild mountain gorillas. While embedding with the park rangers who risk their lives and spend months apart from their families to protect the gorillas, he will ask, “What can we do now that will help these animals stay wild?” Vins follows a chain reaction of events to show viewers exactly what actions they can take that will have a lasting and direct impact on the other side of the world.

• Shut It Off (ASAP): In this show, two city boys leave their comfort zone and head to the country. Part The Simple Life and part I Bought a Farm, Mitch and Greg find themselves on a remote farm, trying their hand at going green, regenerative farming, and building a sustainable lifestyle. They’ll be joined by FarmTubers, experts, and other YouTube Creators who will help execute their vision of living off the grid and deliver takeaways that can be replicated back at home.

• Kid Correspondent: This show returns with a threeepisode block exploring sustainability themes and how kids around the world can help take care of our planet. From SoulPancake and the team behind the beloved Kid President brand, Kid Correspondent first aired as a four-part election-themed special in 2020. It centers around the next generation of kid journalists dedicated to making the world a better place and helping other kids develop the necessary skills to one day become more informed and involved grown-ups. The show’s correspondents will be joined by guest “celebrity grown-ups” as well as real-world kids making a difference through sustainability, while offering viewers practical tips for protecting the environment. ■