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End of Year Wrap Up- 2021

December 21, 2021/0 Comments/in Green Product Placement blog /by Beth

The sun sets on 2021, another “train wreck’ of a year

As 2021 wraps up, GPP founder Beth looks back on a year that gave 2020 a run for its money as “worst year ever”. Well, at least “worst year ever in recent memory”.

As I write this, 5 days before Christmas, there have been a total of 275 Million worldwide cases of Covid-19 and 5.35 Million deaths worldwide from this modern day plague. Following last year’s end of year post, several companies emerged with additional vaccine options. Johnson and Johnson is off the market now, due to higher risks of dangerous side effects, but Pfizer and Moderna remain viable options for vaccination and booster shots. I’m fully vaccinated and boosted myself- “Team Pfizer”, but that still has not completely taken away any risk of me contracting coronavirus. You see, with so many people worldwide who remain unvaccinated- due to no, or limited, access to the vaccine OR a refusal to get vaccinated out of some selfish fear of public health initiatives, government and (not entirely without reason- see Hulu’s “Dopesick”), big pharma, the vaccine has mutated so many times that we’ve all been learning the Greek Alphabet. Currently, the Omicron variant (sounds like a Transformer, right?!), is spreading worldwide with exceptional speed. Supposedly the most contagious variant thus far (we all thought Delta was bad, but Omicron said, “Hold my beer!”), it is forcing countries to roll back more restrictive rules on gatherings and public spaces.

This time last year, everyone was hoping that with mass vaccinations, we’d start to see a real waning of concerns regarding the pandemic, but the pandemic had other plans. That said, production work resumed this year in a very ramped up fashion, with Covid protocols continuing in place. But still, from GPP’s perspective, there still weren’t quite as many appropriate productions for placement as a non-pandemic year. Our show count did climb- we’re over the 600 mark at around 610 placed-in productions since launching, going on 10 years ago.

2021- another “train wreck” of a year started with a full on insurrection at the Capitol building in DC by right-wing Donald Trump loyalists. The world watched in horror as this illegal, terrorist act was carried out. I think many of us knew then, as we watched a horror many of us had feared, be carried out, that maybe 2021 wasn’t going to be much of an improvement on the year before.

The tone changed slightly a few weeks later when we watched Joe Biden and Kamala Harris be sworn in on those same Capitol steps that weeks before was the scene of disturbing and fatal attack on US Democracy. There were bright spots that day- 22 year old Amanda Gorman’s amazing delivery of her even more amazing poem “The Hill We Climb”, along with Lady Gaga’s over the top dress, all the Bernie mitten memes and seeing the first female- a woman of color, be sworn in as VP. And we all said “don’t let the door hit ya’ on the way out” to our Climate Change denying, racist, inept former president, who shall not even be named.

Daffodils in spring

The year continued on to spring, which saw Megan and Harry’s tell all interview with Oprah, the death of British Royal Patriarch, The Duke of Edinburgh and the roll out of vaccinations for all adults in the US.

My spring? For me, personally- on the good side- getting fully vaccinated, but on the sad and heartbreaking side, losing my mother at age 91. If you had read last year’s post, you may remember that she had a stroke in 2020 at the start of initial lockdowns and had vascular dementia. This was a crushing loss- I was quite close to my mom and it was she that instilled in me a love for theatre, film, and the arts in general.

Beth was a featured guest on the Reducetarian Podcast

Business wise, I had the honor of being a guest on the Reducetarian Podcast. I spoke about what it’s like to get your eco friendly brand placed in tv shows, films and streaming media. I wrote about Brian Kateman, the host and founder of Reducetarian, several years ago for Triple Pundit.

The first quarter and the spring also saw me sign new clients Mented Cosmetics, Lettuce Grow, Outstanding Foods and Poppi Soda.

The FSC prominently featured in Amazon’s “The Tomorrow War”

Later on in the summer, Amazon released entertaining sci-fi feature, “The Tomorrow War”. My clients The Forest Stewardship Council (The FSC) and I were very stoked to see their logo and slogan as part of the classroom décor of the lead character, played by Chris Pratt. Not to give away any spoilers, but climate change DOES play a part in the story.

Not a statement of fiction- but all of our futures are at risk by the effects of climate change, and we’re already seeing extreme weather and melting arctic to prove it. Droughts, flooding, heatwaves, extreme storms, unseasonal and catastrophic hurricanes, ramped up wildfires, it was all on display again this year.

Beth masked and vaxxed at Expo East

Beth with new client Outstanding Foods

September arrived and I attended my first in person Natural Products Expo in 2 years! Expo East was this year held at the Philadelphia Convention Center. Everyone was fully masked and vaccinated and booths were spread out to allow for social distancing. It was good to be back, but still not the same as it usually is.

The autumn also saw a strike authorization vote by IATSE, the entertainment technician union, although the new area standards agreement did get ratified by a very small margin, many members still have a number of issues regarding extended work hours, and inadequate weekend turnarounds. In 2020, when work first started back, many hours were reduced for COVID safety concerns, but that went out the window quite quickly. The Instagram account ia_stories gained a lot of attention as a voice for the voiceless- the below the line workers- who are the beating heart of film and tv production.

Following that, the fatal death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of a western shot in New Mexico brought forth even more the concerns of rushed film making, cutting corners, and inexperienced staff, both as armorer and as producers.

November saw COP26 happen in Glasgow. Progress was made, but not enough. I couldn’t help feeling a bit like Greta Thunberg and her “blah blah blah” statement.

By the time December rolled around- the virus had mutated even more- from the Delta Variant that caused concern earlier in the year, to Omicron, as I mention in my earlier paragraph. Nevertheless, having been boosted on Black Friday, my husband and I planned a trip to the UK to see his family for the holidays. I had fully planned to work remotely to craft this very end of year post, work with 3 shows coming up in January, and get the company e-card sent out.

Well, fate has plans of its own. The day we arrived, my other brother passed away back home. He was the last surviving member of the nuclear family that I grew up in. So, as I write this, I am still deep in the throes of 5 day old grief. Per my niece and sister-in-law, I am staying put here in the UK as planned until a few days after Christmas, my planned return home.

Where will the future take us? Sometimes you just have to ride the river to find out.

But what does all of this personal loss, added to Covid related business challenges, mean for my business? At this point in time, I can’t actually answer that question.

For the time being, I will keep on, keepin’ on with the business- I have 3 shows coming up in January already that will be sent out as opportunities to appropriate clients.

I think in time, the next steps will make themselves known. No matter what comes next, however, I will ALWAYS have a stake and be an advocate for more sustainable film making, for the elevation of “better” brands, and for the help and service of others.

This holiday season, and all year long- tell the people you love, that you love them. Show kindness to others. Find a way to help people in need. Push businesses and governments to operate more sustainably. Support the guardians of our natural environment. Do everything that’s in your own personal power to make a positive difference in this world. It’s the only one we’ve got.

Love is the most powerful thing we’ve got.

Check out GPP’s annual Holiday E-Card HERE.

Have a happy, healthy, peaceful holiday season and a hopeful and joy filled new year!

All my best,

Beth

Happy Holidays from Beth, Founder of GPP

Beth Bell

End of Year Blog Post- 2020- What a Year, Right!?

December 17, 2020/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Beth

The sun sets on 2020

I made the headline to this year’s end of year entry the same as what I wrote in the personal Holiday cards I sent out this year. Following “2020-What a year, right?!”, I wrote “Let’s hope 2021 is better…”.

What can be said about a year which brought the world a deadly pandemic, the likes of which have not been seen for 100 years? On top of that, we also had a long overdue reckoning with racial injustice, following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of the police force meant to protect them. And then you had 2020’s prolific hurricane season, which broke all previous records for named storms, so much so, the forecasters had to dip into the Greek alphabet to name them all. We had west coast wildfires which made San Francisco look like Blade Runner and made the sun look weird all the way on the east coast. On top of all of that, you have a US Government who did not do enough to ensure the safety, economic stability, and well-being of its citizens during this deadly pandemic. On the day I wrote the draft of this entry, the US has suffered just under 300,000 deaths and just under 16 million cases of COVID 19 since the start of the outbreak.

The economic fallout of the pandemic has been significant, and the production business and small green businesses have not escaped unscathed. Back in March, as states began reporting community transmission of the virus, Broadway went dark for one of the few times in history. At the same time, restaurants and bars closed, events, conventions, conferences, film festivals, all cancelled. On Friday, March 13, most productions, tv and film, shooting in North America and Europe, shut down. Vanity Fair ran a compelling account of what it was like to be on some of these productions as they shut down. I (Beth) was actually working on a pilot myself (as a set dresser). The day before, when I heard that Broadway went dark, I texted an old High School friend of mine who is in IATSE Local 1 and works on Broadway to say “Sorry to hear the news”. The very next day, I got word that our production was shutting down as well.

If you remember at the start of the pandemic, we didn’t know as much as we know now about transmission, how long the lockdowns would last, and when or if scientists would be able to come up with a viable treatment or vaccine.

Where 2020 would lead us was uncertain.

My world, as I know it, came to a complete standstill. Immediately, what would have been the start of GPP’s and productions’ “busy season”, ground to a complete halt.

Now, I have not been one to share personal events on my business pages, but this being the kind of year that it has been, I’m going to share a couple. My elderly mother had a severe stroke at the start of lockdown, and is still in residential care, as she has vascular dementia, and will not get any better. She is bedbound with severe aphasia. Imagine all of this happening during the early days of lockdown- when we were still wiping down all groceries and packages because we didn’t know what we know now about fomite spread of the virus.

Fairly early on, all of the productions, unions and guilds began meeting regularly, virtually, amongst themselves and with infectious disease specialists to come up with some safety return to work protocols. My entrepreneur brain began starting to think about what new opportunities I would have for work, once production resumed. I knew that it wouldn’t be as busy as a normal production season if the pandemic was still going on, even with the new safety protocols. Some shows were already getting cancelled. Meanwhile, people were watching content while they were locked down. So. Much. Content.

One of the spring binge watches was “Sweet Magnolias” on Netflix. I was so happy to see our client Gunas’ bags take the spotlight!

Gunas’ red Cottontail on Sweet Magnolias

Gunas’ Miley bag on Sweet Magnolias

I enrolled in a Contact Tracer course through the Bloomberg School of Public Health and took every short online production Covid safety course I could find. I met virtually regularly with other industry colleagues to discuss resources and what we thought the future of our industry would look like. I sent email updates out to clients to keep them abreast of what I knew- and didn’t know. I even launched this website CoronaSafeSets.com with the thought that I might build that into yet another side business (more on this later).

I connected with Filmmakers for Future, which is an international, grassroots effort among production personnel to make our industry more sustainable, based in Germany. The name is modeled after #FridaysForFuture, the movement started by Greta Thunberg.

I also connected with Green The Bid which aims to push for more sustainable commercial production here in North America, modeled in a similar way to the UK’s Ad Green APA.

Beth trained as a Climate Reality Leader in July

In July, I trained virtually with Al Gore to become a Climate Reality Leader. At the end of the week-long training, my friend and GPP Advisor Tim Guinee, a Climate Reality Leader for a few years now, was presented with an Award by Mr. Gore for his tireless efforts on behalf of the climate. I’m very proud of Tim! In early 2020, just before the year changed reality as we know it, Tim launched his non-profit, Climate Actors.

Beth’s Climate Reality Leader Pin

Then, the very next week, the second personal event happened that made this year one of the worst years ever, for me, personally. My brother- 3-1/2 years older than me, passed away from congestive heart failure. The circumstances surrounding his demise contributed to the emotions related to his loss, and because of the pandemic, his memorial consisted of 8 immediate family members socially distant in my backyard and about 40 other family members and friends attending via Zoom.

If you imagine what that phrase “and to add insult to injury…” means- well, it’s been this year. One thing after another. Things started looking up slightly toward the end of the summer, as far as productions resuming, once the industry unions and guilds published a white paper, studios set up their own safety protocols and productions started to gradually resume. The first two productions I was contacted about were both very female centric, for Netflix and HBO.

Production work slowly picked up steam early autumn, and in October, I placed our brands in as many shows as any past (normal) busy October! I also went and wrapped that pilot, which sadly was cancelled altogether because of the pandemic. But I also met a public health background Covid officer who would have been a great partner for the CoronaSafe Sets business, should there be no indication of the situation ending anytime soon. By this time, after dealing with my deceased brother, I had no desire to deal with any of the healthcare related parts of this business, but that’s what this possible new partner would be for. However, with the announcement of several viable vaccines at the end of November, this would be a business with a short lifeline. After the busy October, I decided to put a pin in CoronaSafe Sets and concentrate on injecting (pardon the term 😉 ) GPP with some new energy and new enthusiasm. I signed 3 new clients, Gibson Guitars, PRS, Guitars, and Doizpe Handbags. Good Clean Love and Repurpose Compostables signed back up with us after a few and a couple year breaks, respectively.

Although some clients said they needed to put a pin in all or most marketing in the immediate, it was encouraging to actually have some clients renew through all of this, and to sign some new clients as well.

This autumn, I also had my first “act of leadership” as a Climate Reality Leader, result in a 1/3 page commentary in the newspaper. My piece was about how Climate should be high on any presidential agenda.

In November, Joe Biden won the US Presidential election and has promised to put the US back into the Paris Agreement on Day 1. His Vice President, Kamala Harris, a very competent woman of color (of Indian-American and Jamaican-American background), is also the first GenXer in the White House. I can’t help but relate to her just a little bit. She’s only a year older than me, we were in college/university at the same time, and she still wears Chuck Taylor Converse sneakers- which well… is something I still do, too.

John Kerry at #EarthtoParis during COP21 in 2015

The Biden-Harris transition team has even created a brand-new cabinet position for Climate- Climate Envoy- and has named John Kerry to this position. My friend and former business partner Lisa and I were in Paris 5 years ago during COP 21, and saw Kerry speak at the #EarthtoParis event. He had just come from the north side of the city, Le Bourget, where the official negotiations were taking place. We saw that the threat from Climate Change was something that Kerry took very seriously, and also that he was committed that the US should be a world leader in transitioning to a more sustainable world. I look forward to the United States joining the rest of the world again in prioritizing this most important of issues- one that will determine what the future here on earth will be like.

So, while looking back at this “train wreck/dumpster fire” of a year, we all have to realize that just making through it, intact, is a commendable feat in itself. This year was the year I had originally planned on beginning to orchestrate some growth for my company, in the end, to have actually made it through the year, still have clients, and still be placing them onscreen ie. to still be a working, operating business, is something many others do not have the privilege to be able to do.

As I write this draft, the first people in the US have begun receiving the first one of the Covid vaccines to become available. Experts are saying that life could return to almost normal by around late summer or autumn of 2021. (It will take many months to be able to manufacture and distribute these vaccines to the general population).

There is an inevitable regime change on the horizon for the US, in January. The new leadership respects science, understands Climate Change and has a desire to see the rampant spread of Coronavirus reigned in and people vaccinated here in the US.

Here’s hoping for a brighter, greener future in 2021 and beyond

So, while we’re not “out of the woods” yet, I can’t help but feel a bit more that there’s more of a light at the end of the tunnel now. And although this holiday season will look so very different from any that came before, there is still reason to be thankful for the things we do have in life, and to maintain a hope in our future.

Season’s Greetings

Check out GPP’s Seasonal Holiday E-Card by clicking HERE.

Here’s wishing you and yours a safe, healthy and joyous Holiday Season.

May 2021 be way, way better than 2020!

Cheers,

Beth

Beth Bell

Founder, Green Product Placement

End of Year Blog Post- 2019- Looking Back and Looking Ahead

December 18, 2019/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Beth

It’s December, which means it’s time for me, Beth, to look back on the past year and write up our end of year blog post. This year has been a very bittersweet year. Much like current events- there is hope and there are losses- for the world, the environment and business.

I’ll start by mentioning that my friend and business partner, Lisa, will be leaving GPP at the end of January 2020.

She has gradually been reducing her work and duties with GPP this year, and I have been transitioning to sole leader of the company, which I founded in 2011, and we officially launched in 2012.

Lisa is moving on to pursue other interests and we remain the best of friends- sisters almost- and that will never change.

When I was inspired back in 2011, by an online conversation with Morgan Spurlock, to start my company, Lisa was one of the initial people I reached out to partner with me to create and grow Green Product Placement. When she said yes, I knew that I had found an industry powerhouse to be by my side.

Her steadfast contribution to the company has been invaluable to not only its longevity, but its standing in the industry today.

I will miss Lisa as a go-to person and trusted, supportive colleague within the company, as I already have, at certain events the latter part of this year, as she has begun her withdrawal.

There are no hard feelings and she is still keenly interested in seeing GPP succeed and continue its mission.

And although her time with Green Product Placement is drawing to a close, she is still very much a cheerleader for the environment, responsible and sustainable advertising and consumption and seeing the Film and TV production business become a model for transitioning the business to a sustainable future.

We’ve done a lot of good together, these last 7 years, and her presence at GPP will be missed.

Beth and Lisa goofing around in 2011

Beth and Lisa at the Petit Palais in Paris 2015

Beth and Lisa at Expo West 2019

This year was also the year that we officially launched our Advisory Board. We also updated our website, to a more modern, user friendly design. The advisory board launch created a lot of buzz, including features in The Hollywood Reporter, Forbes, a live Interview on Cheddar, Clean Technica and others. Check out our PRESS PAGE for links to all of the great press we’ve gotten this year and since we launched.

Beth on Cheddar during Climate Week Sept 2019

Beth was in front of the camera for a change!

A whole article about GPP in the Hollywood Reporter!

Beth in THR

Production placement has been steady throughout the year, placing in around 55+ productions. We added new clients Quorn, Social Sparkling Wine, Elmhurst, Slrrrp and Van Leeuwen Ice Cream, among others. Our brands continued to capture onscreen exposure in shows like SMILF, Orange is the New Black, Easy, and Big Little Lies.

Full Circle Home’s water bottle on Big Little Lies

Wedderspoon lozenges on Orange is the New Black

We attended Natural Products Expo West and Summer Fancy Foods together, and I (Beth) attended Expo East, Reducetarian, and was a panel member and presenter at Sustainatopia

Lisa and Beth enroute to Fancy Foods

Beth at the Reducetarian Summit

I was accepted into the Female Founder Collective and was featured in Champagne Hippies.

For all the triumphs, however, the current environment, for well, the environment- and small sustainably focused brands is having a tough time these days. With the leading political party here in States being one that denies climate change and values profit over planet, people are struggling. Tariffs have taken a toll. Although employment numbers are up, this is only because people are juggling two or more jobs because wages have stagnated.

I was disappointed to find out at Expo East a few months ago, that venerable natural brand, Kiss My Face had gone out of business. They were one of the first natural brands that I had placed in a show, in a manner of speaking. Way back in 1998, when I was assistant set decorator on “Runaway Bride”, my boss, the set decorator, requested we place some natural brands. We had to dress the “Curl Up and Dye” salon, and she hated the smell of conventional products. So we reached out directly and placed Kiss My Face, and Aveda, along with some conventional brands. There weren’t as many natural brands to choose from back then.

We’re both pleased and proud that we’ve been able to get great natural beauty brands like 100% Pure, Blum, Suki, Wedderspoon and so many others, on to sets and into those Hair and Makeup trailers.

Beth and Lisa paid a visit to 100% Pure Headquarters back in March

Beth with the CEO of Wedderspoon

As I write this, Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish Climate Activist has been named “Person of the Year” by Time Magazine. Her amazing story of protesting, alone, in front of Swedish Parliament, just a year and a half ago, to mobilizing the world’s youth (and adults, too), to demand action on climate has been truly remarkable. She’s spoken at Davos and COP 25, met and been admired by the Pope, world leaders, Jane Goodall, Leonardo DiCarprio and so many others.

But we need people like Greta because Climate Change is accelerating at an unprecedented pace, and not enough is being done by government, businesses or consumers. The bushfires in Sydney , the Amazon rainforest (aka “the lungs of the world”) and California this year killed people and wildlife and destroyed homes and habitat. The Amazon and Australia fires, especially, released record amounts of C02 into the atmosphere. The smoke became such a danger in Sydney that schools and business had to close.

In September, just ahead of the UN Climate Summit, leading scientists warned climate change was hitting harder and sooner than what was expected. In just the 7 years that we’ve been in business, climate change and mass extinction have become foremost on the minds of many.

But it’s still not enough. As the largest existential crisis facing humankind and the planet today, action on climate, transitioning energy sources to more sustainable ones, curbing consumption and transitioning our consumption to greener choices must become everyday behavior for everyone.

Imagine a future where humans live in harmony with nature. Where transportation options are run on renewable energy and public transportation options are many.

This GREAT VIDEO, narrated by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, imagines a Greener future made possible by the proposed Green New Deal.

As I look ahead to the year 2020, I remain hopeful that small actions will multiply and change the culture and that common sense and empathy will win out over doubt and hopelessness. The 2020 US elections have more at stake than almost any other election in US history. With the current president vowing to withdraw from The Paris Agreement, many other political leaders- senators, congresspeople, governors, mayors and business leaders are determined to hold government and industry to standards in keeping with the agreement’s goals, which many feel aren’t even ambitious enough, to mitigate serious climate catastrophe.

As I write this, an impeachment trial for this climate and science denying president is imminent, and the Democratic field of presidential nominees running against him is still quite large.

There is no telling what the next 12 months will bring, but here at Green Product Placement, I- and currently still “we” will continue to strive for our own little victories for sustainable behavior and green and better brands- by getting them onscreen. This is by normalizing plant based and organic food and health and beauty products, sustainably distilled liquor brands, eco-fashion, re-useable water bottles instead of bottled water, and causes like Human Rights, sustainable forestry, and conservation.

All you can do is what you can do….and as Greta illustrates, even the smallest gesture can ripple and grow around the world. For 2020, we’re going to imagine the state of the world getting better. We’re going to imagine common sense, scientific consensus, compassion and ingenuity being the driving forces to a better future.

And with that, we’re wishing you- our friends, colleagues, studio contacts, clients, and industry contacts our best wishes to for a happy, healthy holiday season and prosperous and sustainable new year!

Check out our HOLIDAY E- CARD HERE.

All my best,

Beth

GPP’s End of Year Wrap Up 2016

December 20, 2016/in Green Product Placement blog /by Beth

As 2016 comes to a close, we both struggled as to how to craft our end of year post. As I, Beth, tend to be the writer on our team, it is tasked to me at each year’s close to write our end of year summary in the form of a blog post.

Beth and Lisa at the International Home and Housewares Show, Chicago, March 2016

At this writing, because of the outcome of the US election, the sustainability movement in the US (and the world now, with the US being one of the world’s leading economies), faces overwhelming challenges in the next 4 years. Just when we should be making huge strides toward alternative energy, President Elect Trump, a climate change denier, is set to name another climate change denier to his cabinet as Chief of Staff. He has said that he would pull the US out of the COP 21 agreement. He has investments in all sorts of dirty energy, including The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) (more on that bellow).

Just as last year seemed to end on a high note, with the signing of the COP 21 agreement, and us in Paris during the talks, upon re-reading last year’s post, I realized that there were both ups and downs in our world and the greater world at large last year as well. COP 21 happened very shortly after the terrorist acts in Paris at Le Bataclan (in the neighborhood where we stayed), a café, and outside a stadium. Our dear friends and colleagues at Film Biz Recycling had to close up shop. Our friend Emellie at Earth Angel held her first annual NYC Earth Hour event, and we began working with accessory companies to place them in TV shows and feature films and to continue growing the scope of sustainable products available to props masters, set decorators and costume designers.

Beth and Lisa meet Rohan Marley. Bob’s son and founder of Marley Coffee, one of our clients

Beth and Lisa take a well deserved day on the beach after back to back expos and studio meetings, March 2016

This year, the same is true of it being a year filled with challenges, set backs, but also of growth and hope. We actually grew our brand family even more, to include apparel (Afterlife and Wallis Evera), and more accessories, including jewelry (Landfill Dzine, Starling and Ivy, Shana Kroiz Jewelry) along with more home products (pots and pans from sustainable cookware pioneers Green Pan, along with reusable vessels from Reduce), and also bamboo bicycles (GreenStar Cycles) in addition to a handcrafted guitar made of repurposed bicycles, Prisma Guitars). Our show count is well over 225. Beth began writing for venerable sustainability press, Triple Pundit. Our friends from Film Biz Recycling continue to grow their online platform Art Cube, and it was just announced that Film Biz Recycling is moving to Savannah, Georgia at the helm of a new leader, Samita Wolfe. Emellie became a Tory Birch fellow and continues to grow her business. And this- the pushing forward of the movement is exactly how we need to react to this new regime change in Washington.

Just as the “Water Protectors” – native peoples, environmental activists, veterans and other cause supporters stayed steadfast in the face of militarized force used by local law enforcement and DAPL hired security forces by using prayer, ceremony and peaceful protest to fight back against seemingly insurmountable odds and centuries of mistreatment to protect the earth and its resources, so must business stay steadfast in our efforts to grow the sustainability sector even when faced with forces which may push back against forward progress.

Numerous business leaders have pledged to forge ahead with sustainable growth because it’s just good business. Climate change denial is clearly a falsified theory created by big oil and coal as explained in this excellent short documentary by The Real News Network, The Doubt Machine. It is a great companion piece to Leonardo Di Caprio’s documentary that also came out this autumn, Before the Flood. We were fortunate enough to meet the creator of The Doubt Machine at a Maryland Film Industry event in October.

Beth and Lisa at the MFIC Fundraiser, November 2016

2016 saw us grow our scope of representation and also grow our relationships with sustainable people of influence in entertainment, media and business. To revisit our metaphor of a new business being like a child, our “baby” has gone from infancy, to toddlerhood, preschool, and soon, kindergarten.

GPP gets a nice public personal thank you from Eco Friendly star, Alicia Silverstone

As we find ourselves facing numerous obstacles as we “escort our ‘child’ off to school”, we must look to the example of the people of Standing Rock and never waver in our vision of a better future for our planet and the people of our planet.

(You can check our holiday greeting HERE. )

We must never lose hope and remember no amount of significant progress ever happened without setbacks and resistance.

We wish all of our colleagues, clients, production contacts and friends all the best for 2017.

All our best,

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Beth and Lisa

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