First Entertainment Sustainability Certification for Workers Launches from USGBC-CA
The entertainment industry is about to receive a first-of-its-kind environmental certification for professionals. The U.S. Green Building Council California (USGBC-CA) – along with the film and TV, music, and live sports segments of entertainment – is excited to announce the Sustainable Production for Entertainment Certification (SPEC), a workforce-centered certification uplifting individuals through cutting-edge professional development, with application across the industry – from executives to operations crew, tentpole producers to music engineers and art directors to live event personnel.
Widely regarded for high impact professional development training, USGBC-CA, in partnership with industry and technical experts Green Spark Group and Ereth Environmental, spent the past ten months leveraging their collective regional and national reach across the entertainment industry through the development of this professional certification. The training – which will pilot late this Summer and launch in the Fall – will apply crossfunctionally as an industry standard, allowing learners to recognize the sustainable opportunities in their job function and in connection with other roles and responsibilities.
The SPEC applies to all major segments of the entertainment industry, emphasizing key areas for learners, including: waste reduction/circularity, value/supply chain, risk management, climate storytelling, budgeting, carbon calculation, communications, energy management and sustainable production definition. The certification will begin with a foundational track and follow with additional specific, functionally focused tracks.
“The entertainment industry has a huge impact on our environment and much of that happens through the built environment, especially here in California. We felt like there was a bigger opportunity for us to meet industry demand for standardized training, so we engaged with stakeholders in the entertainment industry to develop training that fits with the goals of a range of organizations and provides a pathway for upward mobility around sustainability that appears absent in the industry,” says USGBC-CA Executive Director Ben Stapleton. “It’s clear the entertainment industry is keen on accelerating action to address climate change, and our industry survey has overwhelmingly shown that the industry wants sustainability training that leverages successful best practices. We want entertainment workers along all points of the value chain, across multiple environments, to be empowered with training, well-equipped with the information and practical knowledge to take broad action.”
Green Spark Group President Zena Harris and Ereth Environmental owner Adam Ereth teamed up with USGBC-CA at the start given their professional backgrounds and technical knowledge of the industry. Both stated, “As we have engaged with the entertainment industry – film/tv, sports and music – we have learned there are similar challenges with integrating sustainability. The SPEC has been developed with significant input from the industry workforce. We wanted to build a certification where everyone was speaking the same language and applying a sustainability lens to their work, pre- to post-production and at all places in between. We produced this certification to connect the dots and not just teach people prescriptively what to think, but how to think and solve problems that often arise in this work.”
To understand all the issues and help refine the curriculum, USGBC-CA is collaborating with a range of stakeholders through a multi-disciplinary Advisory Group consisting of entertainment industry studios, executives, trade unions, venues, vendors/businesses, producers, non-profits and academia. For more information or to support the Sustainable Production for Entertainment Certification as a sponsor or advisor, please visit USGBC-CA or contact Ben Stapleton at ben@usgbc-ca.org.