Explore Climate in Any Story

Good Energy started with a question: Why is the climate crisis largely absent from our screens?

In 2018, Good Energy founder Anna Jane Joyner was engaged as a consultant on Madam Secretary, which featured a character inspired by her life’s work as a climate leader and communications strategist. This led to more consulting on scripted film and TV with screenwriters and producers who wanted to integrate climate into their stories. Through this work, Anna Jane saw how Hollywood has previously driven change—from normalizing LGBTQ+ characters, to popularizing the term “designated driver,” to powerful movements for BIPOC representation. She also saw a glaring absence: climate change is practically nonexistent in scripted entertainment.

So she embarked on a period of deep listening in Hollywood. Through interviews with writers, directors, producers, and executives, Anna Jane found that Hollywood was eager to grapple with the climate crisis, but fearful about alienating or boring audiences. After all, the rare times climate change did show up on-screen, it was typically in the form of nature documentaries, lectures, or apocalypse stories. It wasn’t yet clear to creators and audiences that the climate crisis could be portrayed on-screen in more nuanced and entertaining ways.

Good Energy was founded in 2019 to support writers in taking this creative leap. The nonprofit brings together professional screenwriters, climate communications experts who understand storytelling, climate scientists, everyday people from the hardest-hit communities around the globe, and an extensive network of industry, nonprofit, and philanthropic partners. What they all share is a deep love of TV and film as a storytelling medium, a fervent respect for the creative process, and a belief that Hollywood is uniquely positioned to shift the conversation on climate change. Good Energy is committed to a future where storytelling—and all of humanity—can flourish.

Comprehensive Climate Lens™ Analysis

Our keystone service explores the potential for climate representation in your existing project—even (or especially) if it’s not about climate—including:

• psychological impacts of climate change on your unique characters
• physical, social, and economic impacts on your setting and characters
• climate solutions that could be depicted in your story world
• community impacts and responses
• intersections with other key issues like racial justice, mental health, disability, and economic disparity

A Climate Lens™ Analysis can be delivered via briefs, brainstorming sessions, and/or ongoing consulting.