The Hollywood Reporter’s Sustainability Issue: The Time Is Now

The sustainability movement has made strides in Hollywood, amid warnings about our climate future that have grown more urgent by the day — the most recent coming Monday from U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which warned that there’s a “rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.”

In the entertainment industry, we’ve read about composting on sets, sustainable fashion, eschewing plastic like disposable water bottles, carbon offsets and more efforts being undertaken by individuals and organizations alike.

And yet, if we are being frank, there’s still not enough being done. For all the talk of eco-friendly sets and sustainable productions, Hollywood must still grapple with the enormous toll that’s incurred with the creation of projects worldwide that don’t adhere to benchmarks designed to improve our fragile environment.

The subject of our cover story for The Hollywood Reporter’s second annual Sustainability Issue, the Apple TV+ series Extrapolations, sounds the alarm about a potential dire future less than two decades away, but also used its production to show what a truly eco-friendly set should look like, a goal from its inception. The result is what seems to be a model for Hollywood productions — will others follow?

Of course, the need for an overhaul in sustainability practices goes far beyond productions. It’s required in our office buildings, our transportation services, our fashion choices and so much more — all of the things that are pushing the second hand of the doomsday clock ever closer to worldwide catastrophe.

The adjustments that are being made — as you will see in this compelling digital issue — put us on the path to change, but it may not be fast enough. Certainly, the movement needs more buy-in overall, not just from corporations but from individuals. I count myself as part of the problem, and pledge to do more. The IPCC’s report reminds us: “The choices and actions implemented in this decade will have impacts now and for thousands of years.”

As you scroll through our 2023 Sustainability Issue, we hope it inspires you to consider the environment in all your personal and professional decisions, because that’s the kind of thinking it will take to save it.