Monthly Archives: August 2016

Shortlist Announced for 2016 Fringe Award! #edfringe

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

We’re pleased to announce those Edinburgh Festival Fringe productions who have been shortlisted for our award for sustainable practice.

With more applications than ever before, the shortlisting process was hard to do, and we commend all productions who applied. Productions were assessed on their consideration of sustainability practice and/or themes in their work, with a particular emphasis on excellence and innovative design.

The list encompasses a variety of topics from homelessness and young people’s experiences in today’s changing world to futuristic societies and the very real impacts of climate change and rising sea levels on people and their homes.

The shortlisted productions are now being watched by our team of judges to evaluate quality and audience engagement – you can follow along and read about our experiences on the #GreenFests blog over the next few weeks. The shortlist is also published online by The List, our media partner, and shortlisted productions will be highlighted in subsequent List festival editions.


EFSPA Award Ceremony

August 26 @ 10:30am

The winner of the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe Sustainable Practice Award will be announced 10.30am, Friday 26th August, at Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre. Come celebrate sustainability and creativity with all the applicants, members of the arts and sustainability sector and host Holly Burn!

Register to attend the ceremony here.


The Edinburgh Fringe Sustainable Practice Award was established in 2010 by Center for Sustainable Practice In the Arts, and is now run as a joint initiative between the Canadian organisation and Creative Carbon Scotland, in partnership with The List magazine and PR Print & Design.

The award toolkit is available year-round for any production wishing to use its resources, suggestions and tools to grow the sustainability of their production.

For more information, please take a look at our Edinburgh Festival Fringe project page, or contact catriona.patterson@creativecarbonscotland.com

The post Shortlist Announced for 2016 Fringe Award! appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

———-

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

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Edinburgh Fringe Sustainable Practice Award Ceremony

The Ceremony

The ceremony will take place in the Lafayette Bar (1st floor) in the Festival Theatre: a year roundGreen Arts Initiative venue and host for Edinburgh International Festival events during August.

Taking the form of a celebratory breakfast reception, the ceremony will start at 10:30am and tea, coffee and pastries will be provided.

All applicants to the award are invited to attend, as are all those interested in arts and sustainability on show at the world’s largest arts festival!

The Award

The Edinburgh Fringe Sustainable Practice Award was established in 2010 by Center for Sustainable Practice In the Arts, and is now run as a joint initiative between the Canadian organisation and Creative Carbon Scotland, in partnership with The List magazine and PR Print & Design.

Each year the award is given to a company or individual at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe that has created a high-quality production that thinks creatively about sustainability and engages their audiences with the issue, from sustainability-driven content to elements of sustainable production. Social, economic, and environmental sustainability dimensions are considered, as well as the content and technical production of the show.

Previous recipients include:

  • The Pantry Shelf, produced by Team M&M at Sweet Grassmarket;
  • Allotment by Jules Horne and directed by Kate Nelson, produced by nutshell productions at the Inverleith Allotments in co-production with Assembly;
  • The Man Who Planted Trees adapted from Jean Giono’s story by Ailie Cohen, Richard Medrington, Rick Conte and directed by Ailie Cohen, produced by Puppet State Theatre;
  • How to Occupy an Oil Rig by Daniel Bye;
  • A Comedy of Errors and Macbeth by The HandleBards/Peculius at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh;
  • Lungs by Duncan Macmillan, by Paines Plough at Roundabout

Applications to the award are open until 12 August, and productions can apply here.

Click here for more information about environmental sustainability at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

RSVP here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/edinburgh-fringe-sustainable-practice-award-award-ceremony-tickets-26803228177?aff=es2

Event: Feeding the Insatiable

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

This international summit takes place at the remarkable Dartington Hall in southwest England from 17.00 on November 9 to 16.40 on November 11, 2016. This extraordinary site sits within some of the UK’s most spectacular landscapes, with more protected areas than anywhere else in the UK.

The event features thinkers and makers from across the world, with an opening keynote event from Land Art Generator Initiative (Robert Ferry and Elizabeth Monoian) with ecoartist / producer Chris Fremantle from eco/art/scot/land. Other sessions focus on Ecologies, Shaping the World, Artist projects, Communicating, Energy Generation and Poetics.

See more detail as it emerges in the programme at http://artenergysymposium.info/programme/

The Land Art Generator Initiative has become one of the world’s most followed sustainable design events and is inspiring people everywhere about the promise of a net-zero carbon future. LAGI is showing how innovation through interdisciplinary collaboration, culture, and the expanding role of technology in art can help to shape the aesthetic impact of renewable energy on our constructed and natural environments. 
The goal of LAGI is to design and construct a series of large-scale site-specific public art installations that uniquely combine art with utility scale clean energy generation.

Register here.

The post Event: Feeding the Insatiable appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

———-

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

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Opportunity: ECCA 2017 Call for Abstracts

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

The third European Climate Change Adaptation Conference 2017 Call for Abstracts is now open!

 

The theme of ECCA 2017 is ‘Our Climate Ready Future’. Our vision is to inspire and enable people to work together to discover and deliver positive climate adaptation solutions that can strengthen society, revitalise local economies and enhance the environment. We will bring together the people who will deliver action on the ground – from business, industry, NGOs, local government and communities – to share knowledge, ideas and experience with researchers and policymakers. Set in the cultural city of Glasgow, at the heart of a city-region that is putting climate adaptation and climate justice at the core of decision making, ECCA 2017 offers a unique opportunity to visit innovative local adaptation projects and share experience of how climate adaptation can work in practice.

ECCA 2017 is aiming to encourage broad participation and interaction across the science, policy, business and practice communities. ECCA 2017 invite both session and abstract submissions for the European Climate Change Adaptation conference.  Three types of sessions will be organised: Practice, Science-practice, and Science . All session and abstract submissions should link to one of theconference themes.

ECCA 2017 welcome abstracts from practitioners and scientists that show real-world examples of climate adaptation, and encourage case study abstracts to show how their experience can be useful to others, e.g. through identifying lessons learned, providing recommendations on best practice and considering whether the approach could be transferred to other regions or different contexts.

Abstract Submission Deadline: September 30th

More information and how to apply available at the ECCA 2017 website.

The post Opportunity: ECCA 2017 Call for Abstracts appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

———-

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

Powered by WPeMatico

#GreenFests: The Fringe Swap Shop is back at #edfringe

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

The Fringe Swap Shop (formerly known as the Reuse & Recycle Days) is an established sustainability initiative run by The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, with support from Creative Carbon Scotland and Festivals Edinburgh. It occurs each year at the end of August at Fringe Central and is a great opportunity for companies, individuals, and those that have participated in the Fringe to dispose of any unwanted props, sets and costumes in an easy, inexpensive and sustainable manner, whilst also sourcing new materials for future productions.

Unwanted props, usable furniture, gorgeous costumes, venue and set construction materials – we want them all! Every Fringe, tonnes of waste go to the bin when they could be reused elsewhere or recycled. A combination recycling depot and free rummage sale: bring what you have, take what you want.

Contact participants@edfringe.com for full details of what we can accept and how, or speak to Fringe Central staff.

Watch the timelapse filmed at the Swap Shop two years ago to get a feel for the day:

 

Whilst only Fringe participants are allowed to donate items, everyone and anyone is allowed to come and collect items of interest and use. The props and costumes are perfect for companies planning on putting on future productions, while the raw materials can be of great use to artists and craftspeople.

Last year, a whole variety of items from a wooden desk with wheels to a motorbike helmet were picked up by North Isle, an Edinburgh-based production company. They were planning a sci-fi production called Outer Spiral Arms that was trying to use 100% recycled and reclaimed materials for their set and props. Visit their facebook page for more information on the production, and look at the amazing work they did on the machete they found in the Swap Shop!

upcycled machete

Upcycled Machete – Image credit to North Isle Productions Ltd.

Have you participated in the Swap Shop in the past? If so, we’d love to hear what you did with the materials that you collected. Please send your stories to luise.kocaurek@creativecarbonscotland.com.

The post #GreenFests: The Fringe Swap Shop is back! appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

———-

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

Powered by WPeMatico

Festival Vision: 2025 Unites UK Festivals for a Sustainable Future.

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

Over 40 UK music festivals have pledged to work together to create a more environmentally sustainable festival industry by signing Festival Vision: 2025 — the vision and roadmap for a sustainable future presented by industry think-do tank Powerful Thinking in its seminal environmental report, The Show Must Go On.

Festivals both large and small, with genres from rock music to words, are united around the vision. Bestival, Hay Festival, Shambala and Secret Garden Party have taken the pledge, and Festival Republic have signed up their entire portfolio of 11 UK festivals including: Latitude, V Festival, Reading, Leeds and BBC Proms in the Park.

The Vision: 2025 Festivals aim to halve festival emissions and reach 50% recycling rates by 2025. They have also pledged to reduce travel-related emissions and improve the sustainability of food sourcing. Integral to the pledge is the intention to measure, record and share key environmental impacts from festival operations using credible methods, such as the Julie’s Bicycle free Creative Green IG tools or by working with the A Greener Festival Awards, in order to track progress.

A full list of the participating Festivals and details of the pledge can be found on the Festival Vision: 2025 webpage along with key resources from The Show Must Go On report to help festival organisers make successful changes toward sustainable practices.

Festival Vision: 2025 Webpage: www.festivalvision2025.netfestival vision

About Powerful Thinking: Powerful Thinking is a not-for-profit industry think-do tank working towards an energy efficient, low carbon and cost effective future for festivals. They are a coalition of industry stakeholders, working together to drive positive change for businesses, audiences and the environment. Powerful Thinking’s steering group members include: Julie’s Bicycle, A Greener Festival, The Association of Independent Festivals, Firefly Clean Energy, Festival Republic, Shambala Festival, Bestival, Kambe Sustainable Events, The Association of Festival Organisers, The Production Services Association and The National Outdoor Events Association.

Follow Powerful Thinking on:
Facebook : @powerfulthinking.org
Twitter: @powerthinkorg
#FestivalVision2025 #PowerfulThinking

Further information:
www.festivalvision2025.net

The post Festival Vision: 2025 Unites UK Festivals for a Sustainable Future. appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

———-

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

Powered by WPeMatico

Power to the Festivals – Greener Alternatives

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

Creative Carbon Scotland’s Guide to Temporary Power

Click here to download the guide

It’s summer, the outdoor music festival season is upon us and many festival organisers will be making a determined effort to reduce the carbon footprint of their events.

With the help of Jon Clark of BoldWorks we’re aiming to highlight ways to make your festival power generation smarter and greener.

Because we can see it, It’s easy to be aware of waste generated (and often left behind) during festivals and as part of the drive to reduce their environmental impacts and carbon footprint, festival organisers have made fantastic efforts to improve reuse and recycling habits among their audiences.

When it comes to carbon emissions, that’s only part of the story and many festival goers will be blissfully unaware of the power behind the scenes that drives everything from stage sound and lighting systems to phone chargers. Diesel generators along with travel and transport are the biggest contributors of CO2 emissions by outdoor festivals. Power generation emissions are likely to make up around 70-80% of the onsite festival carbon footprint and about 15-20 % of the overall footprint when travel is included.

Jon has checked out what’s available, what’s practical and what’s affordable. So let’s take a whistle-stop look at some truly green alternatives to diesel…

  • Understanding your power needs
  • Making a Commitment to reduce consumption
  • Reducing emissions from your outdoor power generation
  • Renewable sources of power
  • Novel Technologies

Find out more in our resources on Temporary Power

The post Power to the Festivals – Greener Alternatives appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

———-

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

Powered by WPeMatico

Decolonizing Nature

While ecology has received little systematic attention within art history, its visibility has grown worldwide in relation to the pressing threats of climate change, global warming, and environmental destruction. By analysing artists’ widespread aesthetic and political engagement of environmental conditions around the globe—looking at cutting-edge theoretical, biopolitical, and cultural developments in the Global South and North—Decolonizing Nature offers a pioneering contribution to the emerging environmental arts and humanities.

Decolonizing Nature, Contemporary Art and the Politics of Ecology is published by Sternberg Press.
T.J. Demos is Professor in the Department of the History of Art and Visual Culture, University of California, Santa Cruz, and Founder and Director of its Center for Creative Ecologies.

 

*  *  *

“Decolonizing Nature presents a timely critical analysis of the parameters and limitations of philosophical, artistic, and curatorial models responding to anthropogenic climate change. Rich and informative, the book makes an impassioned argument for a post-anthropocentric political ecology, in which the aesthetic realm enjoins with Indigenous philosophies and environmental activism to challenge the neoliberal corporate-state complex. It invites us to confront tough questions on how we might collectively reimagine and realize environmental justice for humans and nonhumans alike.”
—Jean Fisher, Emeritus Professor in Fine Art and Transcultural Studies, Middlesex University

“Astute and ambitious. Essential reading for anyone interested in the arts, activism, and environmental change. Demos moves with impressive ease across national boundaries, cultural forms, social movements, and ecological theories.”
—Rob Nixon, Currie C. and Thomas A. Barron Family Professor in Humanities and the Environment, Princeton University

“Demos breaks new ground in art criticism. In an expansive analysis of polyvocal artist-activist practices in the Global South and the North, Demos eschews environmental catastrophism, scientific determinism, and techno-fixes to highlight collaborative resistance to neocolonial violence and neoliberal collusion-to-plunder. He is also searching for what the path forward might be. Rigorous, accessible, and rebellious, Decolonizing Nature is an inspiring and indispensible contemporary art manifesto.”
—Subhankar Banerjee, Lannan Chair of Land Arts of the American West and Professor of Art and Ecology, University of New Mexico

“With Decolonizing Nature, Demos extends his formidable intellectual project to a realm that has until recently often been characterized by varying degrees of naïveté, obscurantism, and indeed green-washing: the relationship between art and ecology. The first systematic study of its kind, Decolonizing Nature is an exemplary combination of militant research and contemporary art history that will resonate with activists on the front lines as much as those working in the art field, reframing the latter as a site of struggle in its own right as we come to terms with the so-called Anthropocene.”
—Yates McKee, author of Strike Art: Contemporary Art and the Post-Occupy Condition

“Demos’s ability to distill and interrelate heterogeneous discourses, practices, and eco-political contexts, without flattening them in the process, is a breathtaking and, moreover, rises to the demands of his complex and urgent subject. Clear in its argumentation and dense with information, the meat of this book lies in its detailed discussion of specific artworks and the environmental struggles from which they emerge and to which they ambitiously, and often brilliantly, respond. Decolonizing Nature makes a forceful case for why and how art matters, now more than ever.”
—Emily Eliza Scott, coeditor of Critical Landscapes: Art, Space, Politics

Voluntary Carbon Reporting for 2014-15

This post comes from Creative Carbon Scotland

Reporting back on the environmental information reported to Creative Scotland by arts organisations in Scotland

During our conversations with arts organisations, we have often been asked what are the best ways to reduce carbon footprints and how do we know whether we are doing well?

In this report, we’ve tried to answer some of those questions by analysing the environmental data provided last year as part of annual reports to Creative Scotland.

We were delighted to find that many more organisations had included information on environmental data as part of their annual reports with the number increasing from just over 50 last year to 90 this year. For many this was the first time they had attempted to collect the data and in a lot of cases the data were estimated but on the whole the Green Champions, who were largely responsible for the data collection and reporting, found the process much easier than expected. You can find out more about the process involved in our Carbon Reporting pages.

Although very few organisations were able to provide complete information as requested on water, fuel waste and travel we were able to see some trends emerging which will help us build up a picture of the carbon impact of the arts in Scotland. Find out more on what data should be recorded in ourGuidance for Carbon Reporting

Many organisations have requested information on how much fuel and water they should expect to use. To provide this and to allow a comparison with industry standards, rudimentary baselines and metrics have been calculated to provide an indication of the performance of the organisations which provided utilities data.

We found that although theatres and arts centres have a much larger carbon footprint overall, when looked at in terms of floor area, there was less of a difference. For each
utility, the values were broadly similar between all three groups:

  • electricity (100-120kWh/m2),
  • gas (120-260 kWh/m2),
  • water (0.8-2.6 m3/m2).

We compared these values with information contained in a recent report issued by Julie’s Bicycle. Although the sectors were defined differently, the calculated metrics for gas and electricity were roughly in line with the values reported by both CIBSE and Julie’s Bicycle for performing arts venues:

  • electricity (101-150 kWh/m2),
  • gas (139-420 kWh/m2).

Find out more on this report from our Resource page on Voluntary Carbon Reporting

The post Voluntary Carbon Reporting for 2014-15 appeared first on Creative Carbon Scotland.

———-

Creative Carbon Scotland is a partnership of arts organisations working to put culture at the heart of a sustainable Scotland. We believe cultural and creative organisations have a significant influencing power to help shape a sustainable Scotland for the 21st century.

In 2011 we worked with partners Festivals Edinburgh, the Federation of Scottish Threatre and Scottish Contemporary Art Network to support over thirty arts organisations to operate more sustainably.

We are now building on these achievements and working with over 70 cultural organisations across Scotland in various key areas including carbon management, behavioural change and advocacy for sustainable practice in the arts.

Our work with cultural organisations is the first step towards a wider change. Cultural organisations can influence public behaviour and attitudes about climate change through:

Changing their own behaviour;
Communicating with their audiences;
Engaging the public’s emotions, values and ideas.

Go to Creative Carbon Scotland

Powered by WPeMatico

Open Call: Film4Climate Global Video Competition Opens

Winners to be honored at official awards ceremony at COP22 climate summit in Marrakech, Morocco in November 2016

WASHINGTON, June 20, 2016 – The Film4Climate Global Video Competition formally opens today as the centerpiece of the Connect4Climate initiative to promote sustainability in the creative industries through active engagement with young people in finding solutions to climate change.

Announced at the Cannes Film Festival by the World Bank Group’s Connect4Climateglobal partnership program, the competition will be open for submissions through September 15, with the winners to be announced at a high-profile awards ceremony at the United Nations COP22 Climate Summit in Marrakesh, Morocco in November.

The winning entries will receive cash prizes of $8,000, $5,000, and $2,000 for first, second and third place in each of two categories: an under one-minute Public Service Advertisement (PSA) or a Short Film up to five minutes.

The competition offers filmmakers a chance to have their work reviewed by a jury chaired by Bernardo Bertolucci, and including other preeminent directors, producers, writers and political leaders.

At the competition’s announcement in Cannes, producer and jury member Lawrence Bender said, “In every country, every city, people have different stories on climate change…there are many stories that can be told. If this worldwide film competition creates a critical mass of ideas and energy, it could help tip the balance in terms of focusing people’s attention.”

As the next five years will be critical to advancing and scaling up climate action around the world as part of the SDGs, the COP22 climate summit aims to encourage countries to implement ambitious climate actions, with youth playing a vital role in the agenda.

“It is not our role to inspire youth, it is they who inspire us every single day. Our mission is to provide them with a platform, and COP22 will be the opportunity to show the world the creativity of young filmmakers and how they are taking action on climate change,” statedDr. Hakima El Haite, Delegate Minister in Charge of Environment, Morocco, Special Envoy for Mobilization of COP22, and High-Level Champion of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Nick Nuttall, Spokesperson/Head of Communications, UNFCCC, adds, “In order to unleash the full potential of the Paris Climate Change Agreement towards a better, more climate-safe world, all sectors of society and all walks of life need to be on board, including the creative industries. We are therefore delighted to be working with Connect4Climate to raise awareness on how the film industry can fast forward its contribution, and to showcase these achievements in Morocco in November at the next UN climate change conference.”

Sheila Redzepi, Vice President of External and Corporate Relations, World Bank Group, says: “Climate change is a real and global threat affecting people’s wellbeing, livelihoods, the environment and economies. Communication is a powerful tool in furthering understanding of its impact and inspiring action to tackle it. That’s why I welcome this initiative and the support it has received from partners who, in their own fields, are leading the way in finding solutions.”

In addition to the main cash prizes a number of special prizes will be awarded to outstanding entries. These include a People’s Choice award, a MENA-Award for the best entry from the Middle East and North Africa region, and a “Price on Carbon Pollution” award. Other prizes, including worldwide distribution by Vulcan Productions, will be awarded as determined by presenting partners. Vulcanpreviously partnered with the World Bank Group’s Connect4Climate program to produce the spectacular large-scale architectural projection and public art display of images of climate change on St. Peter’s Basilica in December 2015, as a gift to Pope Francis, which was seen by an audience of several billion people.

Carole Tomko, General Manager and Creative Director of Vulcan Productions, states, “We know the immense power of storytelling to change the way people view an issue, to raise awareness and inspire progress. We are looking for submissions that energize and communicate in a fresh manner, and demonstrate innovative storytelling of key issues of our time.”

“This competition is a chance for young people to tell a story that may change the world,”said Lucia Grenna, Program Manager of Connect4Climate, the global partnership program behind the competition. “The science of climate change is beyond debate. Politicians are moving in the direction of a solution. What we need now is the creative push that the passion and imagination of young people can provide. We need their images and words to tell a story that inspires individual responsibility and collective action on a global scale.”

The competition is the outcome of a partnership between the World Bank Group’s Connect4Climate program, the United Nations, Vulcan Productions, and the Italian energy company Enel, which has endorsed the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and targeted carbon neutrality for its operations by 2050. Other presenting partners include the UNFCCC, UN Sustainable Development, UNEP, The Global Brain, and the Government of the Kingdom of Morocco. In addition, more than 50 collaborating partners are supporting the competition.

Connect4Climate receives support from the Italian and German governments, as well as from the private and public sectors, and academia.

 

About the Competition

The Film4Climate Global Video Competition invites aspiring filmmakers from around the world to express their vision for a sustainable future by creating a short film or video about climate action. The competition calls on filmmakers to explore Climate Action, the 13th goal under the UN Sustainable Development Goals, emphasizing what individuals and communities around the world are doing to promote action, offer solutions and inspire positive change to combat climate change and its impacts. Filmmakers are encouraged to deploy personal narratives that explore fundamental questions such as: What does climate change mean to me? What actions am I taking to mitigate the advance of global warming? What is my Climate Action message to the world?

Videos must be submitted as Public Service Announcements that are less than one minute, or as a Short Film, between one and five minutes.

Bernardo Bertolucci (The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris) will serve as the jury president of the competition. Bertolucci is joined on the jury by Oscar-winning Directors and Producers as well as luminaries of cinema, communications and the environment, including Mohamed Nasheed, climate champion and former president of the Maldives, producer Lawrence Bender (An Inconvenient Truth, Pulp Fiction), director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (Saving Face, A Girl in the River), director Louie Psihoyos (The Cove, Racing Extinction), director Fernando Meirelles (City of God, The Constant Gardener), director Robert Stone (Radio Bikini, Pandora’s Promise), directorMika Kaurismaki (Zombie and the Ghost Train), director Pablo Trapero (Carancho, El Clan), producer Martin Katz (Hotel Rwanda), Ann Hornaday, Chief Film Critic of The Washington Post, Sheila Redzepi, Vice President for External and Corporate Relations, World Bank Group, Moroccan director Farida Benlyazid (Frontieras, Keïd Ensa), Carole Tomko, General Manager and Creative Director of Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Productions, Maria Wilhelm, Executive Director of the Avatar Alliance Foundation, Pat Mitchell, President and CEO of the Paley Center for Media,Rose Kuo, CEO and Artistic Director of the Qingdao International Film Festival, andMark Lynas, author and environmentalist (The God Species, Six Degrees).

The competition is open to filmmakers between 14 and 35 years old. Submissions will be open through September 15, 2016. For full competition rules and eligibility requirements, please visit: film4climate.net or connect4climate.org.

About Connect4Climate

Connect4Climate, also known as the Communication for Climate Change Multi Donor Trust Fund (MDTF), is a global partnership program based at the World Bank Group, dedicated to climate change communication. It is supported by the Italian Ministry of Environment, Land and Sea, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the World Bank Group, along with more than 400 partners including civil society, media networks, international organizations, academic institutions, youth groups and the private sector. Film4Climate is the official Connect4Climate initiative dedicated to greening the silver screen, with more than 160 partners from the global film industry. For more information, and to download the Connect4Climate overview report, please visit: connect4climate.org

About Vulcan Productions

Vulcan Productions is dedicated to the power of storytelling. The division produces content and large-scale campaigns that entertain, electrify and change the way people understand the world’s toughest challenges. Vulcan Productions’ films, television series and digital content spark ideas and turn action into measurable impact.  Founded by Paul G. Allen and his sister Jody Allen in 1997, Vulcan Productions creates content across all platforms, extending the wide-ranging work of Vulcan Inc. in wildlife, science, climate, oceans, education, technology, current social issues, history and the arts. Award-winning projects include Racing Extinction, Academy Award®-nominated Body Team 12, We The Economy, #ISurvivedEbola, Girl Rising, and The Blues. Upcoming projects include Ivory, Naledi: A Baby Elephant’s Tale,Mind of a Giant and Unseen Enemy.

About Enel

Enel is a multinational power company and a leading integrated player in the world’s power and gas markets. Enel Group operates in Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa, and Asia, producing energy through a net installed capacity of around 89 GW and distributes electricity and gas through a network of approximately 1.9 million kilometers. With over 61 million business and household customers worldwide, Enel has the largest customer base among European competitors. Enel is the largest integrated utility in Europe in terms of market capitalization and figures among Europe’s leading power companies in terms of installed capacity and reported EBITDA.