In 2016, filmmaker Mark Downes was in
the South of France for the annual Cannes Lions Festival. As a seasoned
ad-video producer, he had been to the event many times before — but that year,
something happened that changed his life.
“I had my ‘purpose turn,’” he tells Sustainable Brands®. “I happened to be
in the room when Ban Ki-moon came on stage to deliver a keynote about
something called the Sustainable Development
Goals — and my mind was just blown,
totally blown.”
Downes’ chance encounter with the South Korean diplomat, who was the UN
Secretary-General at the time, encouraged him to quit his job and pursue a
career dedicated to using brand communications to turn the dial on
sustainability. Since then, he has graduated from the Cambridge Institute for
Sustainability Leadership, conceived an animated
series
to help teach children about sustainability, and picked up a regular gig
tutoring for AdGreen — helping his peers understand
climate science and what it takes to create commercial films in a
low-carbon-impact
way.
Then, 18 months ago, he joined the team at Ecoflix — a
nonprofit streaming platform on a mission to be the Netflix for nature-,
wildlife- and environment-themed movies and documentaries. Backed by
philanthropist and retired litigator David B.
Casselman, it was borne
out of his frustration at the difficulty in distributing documentaries about
nature — a subject close to his heart; Casselman has dedicated much of his life
to animal-welfare causes, with pro bono legal work to help protect wildlife.
With Ecoflix, he has created a subscription platform giving people access to
“science-based, positive storytelling to try and inspire people,” as Downes puts
it.
“The main mission is saving animals and the planet,” he explains. “We have
around 70 NGOs on board as our partners. While they are amazing, they’re also
underfunded and understaffed. But they have great access to incredible content.
They’ve got hard drives of great stuff, but they don’t know how to craft a film.
So, we’re using our skillset to help craft their stories.”
On sign-up, subscribers can choose which NGOs or
charities to support: “If you’re crazy about
elephants, you can support Tusk. And we will make sure
they get your subscription money each month.”
The content featured on the self-described “Netflix for nature” is not intended
to be binged as with most streaming services. And the films are not designed to
highlight environmental doom and gloom — there are no shots of animals in
distress, for example. And the filmmakers ask themselves whether a five-year-old
would be frightened if they saw their film: “If the answer is yes, we edit it
accordingly.”
But Ecoflix is keen to tell stories beyond its own online platform. It’s new
‘thing’ is Ecoflix Media — a new commercial arm to the organisation that is
designed to make films for brands that will not only realise the benefits of
working with great filmmakers, but also be encouraged knowing their investment
is flowing back into nature and wildlife conservation.
“We want to work with sustainable brands, but we don’t want to sell their
products,” Downes asserts. “We’re not interested in creating adverts; we want to
tell the story about who they are, what they do, their essence, their
positivity, and how they celebrate that internally or externally. Ultimately, we
want to tell inspiring stories. And the brands can choose which NGOs they want
to support. Most already have charities they work with, anyway.”
In the face of threatening
greenwash
(“we need to be careful we’re not a magnet for people who want to use us to
greenwash their claims, because we’re squeaky clean”), Downes is keen to tell
the stories of not only the leaders, but also the companies who might be at the
very start of their sustainability journey to “turn the ocean liner around.”
“A lot of people are afraid to start talking about
[sustainability]
out loud until they’ve figured it all out. They’ve locked in how they’re going
to do it, and then they will shout about it. But, actually, the initial stage of
that journey is really fascinating and inspiring — because nobody’s doing it
perfectly. You’re more likely to inspire other people to start that journey by
watching a film like that, rather than somebody who’s doing it perfectly and
winning awards. You know what I mean?”
Right now, there are more than 16,000 production companies in the UK alone.
It is a crowded market, but Downes — Ecoflix’s Head of Sustainability — is
confident the organisation can stand out. Alongside him is COO Aimée
Anderson (“a powerhouse of
ideas and energy”), Head of Content Peter von
Puttkamer (“a
three-time Emmy judge”) and Head of Conservation Ian Redmond
OBE (“an amazing character
who’s currently in Kazakhstan at an animal migratory conference”).
Downes is infinitely inspired to keep things positive in his storytelling
because of his young children. Whenever he takes them to the supermarket, they
always pick up products to check the labels for things such as palm
oil,
he says. It’s not something he’s ever mentioned to them; they’ve just picked it
up from school.
“They’re militant. We’re doing this for the right reasons — not for my kids or
their kids. It’s for seven generations down the line.”
It is this ethos that drives the filmmaker’s passion to find new narratives and
cinematic techniques to drive awareness and education.
“That’s the thing that really bugs me about sustainability. If we didn’t have
solutions, we’d be in a right pickle. But the fact that there are solutions,
means it’s just an awareness and education thing. That’s where my positivity
comes from.”
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Content creator extraordinaire.
Tom is founder of storytelling strategy firm Narrative Matters — which helps organizations develop content that truly engages audiences around issues of global social, environmental and economic importance. He also provides strategic editorial insight and support to help organisations – from large corporates, to NGOs – build content strategies that focus on editorial that is accessible, shareable, intelligent and conversation-driving.
Published Mar 15, 2024 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 12pm GMT / 1pm CET