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For Earth Day, we've put together a panel to discuss environmentally friendly and sustainable practices within the film industry. Food for thought for everyone – whether you're a filmmaker hoping to green your set or you're just curious to learn more about the topic!

PANELISTS

Lydia Dean Pilcher

Lydia Dean Pilcher is founder of the New York based production company Cine Mosaic. She is a two-time Emmy Award winner and Oscar nominated producer of over 40 feature films. Pilcher has worked extensively in the international realm and is inspired by themes of cultural perception, climate change activism, and social justice. She began her career directing documentaries and she co-directed the dramatic feature, Radium Girls (on Netflix), starring Joey King and Abby Quinn, accompanied by a social impact campaign in 2021 with The Sierra Club to ban “forever” toxic chemicals, past and present. Pilcher co-authored, “The Ms. Factor: The Power of Female Driven Content,” and is an adjunct faculty in the NYU Graduate Film program. She is Co-Founder of PGA Green and GreenProductionGuide.com, a collaboration of ten studio partners – Netflix, Disney, NBC-Universal, Sony, Warner Media, Fox, Amazon, Paramount, ViacomCBS, and Participant Media – seeking to reduce the environmental impact of film/tv productions through carbon calculation, best practices, and climate messaging through storytelling.

Janet Han Vissering

As Senior Vice President of Development and Production at National Geographic, Janet Han Vissering oversees the entire natural history slate and animal content across the channel, Nat Geo WILD and Disney+. She is responsible for more than 200 hours of programming commissioned each year for broadcast in 166 countries, 330 million homes and 34 languages worldwide. In her role overseeing these genres across three platforms, Vissering manages the development teams, working with the world’s leading independent producers, distributors, creative agencies and strategic broadcast partners to create signature series, specials and events. She also provides daily oversight of production to ensure creative continuity and that all network programming objectives are being met — from project conception through delivery.

Emellie O’Brien

Emellie O’Brien (EOB) is the Founder & CEO of Earth Angel. A pioneer of the sustainable filmmaking movement, she has worked with over 50 major motion pictures and television series to reduce their environmental impact as well as their budget since 2011. Recent clients include the Emmy and Golden Globe winning series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Spielberg’s Oscar nominated film The Post. Her sustainability leadership on The Amazing Spider-Man 2 contributed to it being acclaimed as “the most eco-friendly blockbuster in Sony Pictures’ history.” EOB holds a BFA in Film & Television from NYU, is a Climate Reality Corps Leader, an inaugural Tory Burch Foundation Fellow, Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses alum, and 2018 Inc. Magazine 30 Under 30 Rising Star. She also sits on the board of Young Entertainment Activists and the Production Initiatives Association.

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