The Power and Responsibility of Creative Industries on Environmental Consciousness

Yeap, you've guessed right! I'll talk about the environmental impact and the influential power of the creative industry!?

I have worked as an art director and set designer in the film and advertising industry for over a decade. I can say that I have mastered all the dynamics behind the 60-second commercials and hours-long series you watch on the screens. Each production works like a massive organism between the brands and agencies, production companies and creative teams, and hundreds of sub-industry professionals and enthusiasts accompanying the entire creation process.?

Creative industries are a very influential area of expertise. You can explain the value proposition of a brand that has developed in months, or you can ensure that Sustainable Development Goals are internalized by a 9-year-old child by just a one-minute video. Through creative productions, you can manipulate people and make brands recognized as good or bad. This major power comes with substantial responsibilities as well. The companies that finance all those campaigns (also the greenwashing and social washing ones) and the creative professionals who come up with those ideas, bring them to life, and make those brands take place in users' hearts, are also responsible for it. We can frame the lack of awareness and interest of creative parties for this responsibility as one of this industry's faltering and bleeding sides.

On the other hand, creative industries are essential as enablers, facilitators, activators, and accelerators of desired social, ecological, and cultural transformations and systemic changes. That is not just my opinion. For example, 2021 was announced as the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development by UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development). However, for many years, creative industries have not been able to go beyond being the workers of the financial growth targets of the corporates and brands. In the past years, independent broadcasting platforms such as TikTok, Youtube, and Twitter have unexpectedly changed the dynamics of the relationship between decision-makers and creators by the new features they developed that enable content producers to gain their financial independence from the content they produce. For instance, the next ten years as of 2021 are called the Creator Economy.

As Cross Change, we know that change is a journey, not a result. We understand our role as a design studio in the crisis of climate, economy, human rights, and many others better with each passing day. We decided to use our great power not as workers for temporary trends but as a tool for holistic improvement and transformation for a better planet and society.?

Our first eco-conscious creative project (conscious in production and content), Circumcenter, is coming soon. It is a series of stimulating dialogues on the circular economy that we are creating in collaboration with the Business Council for Sustainable Development Turkey (BCSDT) and sensemaking agency pakt. We strategize, design, and produce with a mission to act as a decoder and enabler between fundamental global challenges and society by our creations. So stay tuned!

MEET WEBSITE CARBON CALCULATOR by Whole Grain Digital

Website Carbon Calculator is a platform owned by Whole Grain Digital Agency where you can measure your website's carbon footprint. Here, the ecological impact you create is calculated by examining the sources of electricity consumed by your website to be active. Whole Grain Digital is also a B-Corp. They build websites with low carbon footprints for eco-conscious brands by collaborating with sustainable energy providers and reducing their ecological footprint.

MEET CREATIVES FOR CLIMATE

They are a global network of change agents and leaders using their power, platform, and influence to drive meaningful climate action forward. They empower creatives with the skills, knowledge, and connections they need to tackle the climate emergency! They organize live events, workshops, open discussion forums, provide learning resources, and trigger collaborations between the parties that they bring together to support, trigger and boost creatives to take action for the planet.

MEET MEMO AKTEN

Memo Akten is an artist, researcher, and creative technologist based in London, originally from Istanbul, Turkey. He works with emerging technologies, but mostly he is known as an environmentally conscious digital artist. Sometimes our technology-based creations seem like the root of our problems. However, as in all our creations, they are mostly the manifestation or result of a root intention and cause. Memo Akten brings a new and humane approach to this web of relationships that we are prone to denigrate quickly.

As he stated about his All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace experimental project; “As the boundaries between ‘nature’ and ‘artificial’, between ‘human’ and ‘technology’, are imaginary, non-existent, our efforts to tame nature and subdue her to our will, are in fact an endeavor to tame and imprison ourselves. There is no either/or, as there is no divide between humanity and technology; technology is human and thus natural. Rejection of technology is a rejection of humanity. To break out of this false dichotomy, we must adapt a holistic approach – to embrace not only technology but all of humanity, all of nature – including technology.”

For deeper conversations and impactful collaborations let’s meet!

?? Edited by Deniz Diniz Ozan