Text by Bärbel Unckrich Horizont

The Goodwins is sending another important signal on the topic of sustainability and has recruited Florian Zizmann for the newly created position of Head of Green Production. Together with Managing Director Consulting Bernd Meyer, he is to expand sustainability consulting and optimise future productions ecologically.

In this function, he not only works in-house, but also as an external consultant for agencies, companies and production houses. The latter in particular are also doing a lot in this field. According to the Advertising Section of the Producers' Alliance, about 30 per cent of the member companies already have a green consultant on board. The topic has been at the top of the agenda of the Association of Advertising Film Producers since this year.

The signs are also green at the German Association of Communication Agencies (GWA). Board member Ina von Holly is responsible for sustainability. She says the GWA wants to take concrete action in 2023 with various initiatives. The white paper "GWA Green Guide: In 4 steps to a sustainable agency" and the study and customer survey "Sustainability requirements for communication agencies" will be presented before the end of this quarter.
When it was founded at the end of 2018, The Goodwins set out to play a pioneering role in this area. With the newly created position of Head of Green Production, the Berlin agency is once again living up to its claim of creating communication for a better world. By hiring Zizmann, the team wants to help establish new standards in sustainability and transparency in the marketing supply chain as well.

As a senior creative producer, Zizmann has many years of experience in the realisation of moving image formats and projects. He has worked for various film productions and agencies, including Markenfilm Berlin and Chimney Deutschland. Most recently, he worked at Antoni for the client Mercedes-Benz. In 2022, he completed further training to become an IHK-certified Green Consultant as well as a Sustainability Manager Culture & Media (Institute for Future Culture) with the aim of supporting the change of the film and advertising industry towards more sustainability and environmental protection.

Managing Director Bernd Meyer says: "I am very pleased that Florian is now part of the team and that together we are consistently moving the topic of green production forward at The Goodwins. Last year, we started to check and measure all our productions and to accompany them with green consultants. Resource-conserving, sustainable and transparent should become the standard for all our productions in the future. In this way, we not only reduce the emissions of the respective productions, but of course also help to reduce the CO2 balances of our customers. That's why our offer is designed as an independent consultancy service and is also aimed at third-party agencies, productions or advertisers."

Tim Stübane, Managing Director Creative and co-founder of The Goodwins, adds: "As of 1 January 2023, the Supply Chain Act applies to larger companies in Germany. However, no one has yet placed the protection of the environment and human rights along global supply chains in the advertising industry. Yet we also create a big impact with our recommendations and decisions - both positive and negative. Advertising, in its leading role as a trendsetter, must take on more responsibility and set new standards. We at The Goodwins want to lead the way and are happy to support other initiatives with our know-how. Since our founding, we have dedicated ourselves to the good and fill this claim with life."

The Goodwins bases its efforts for more sustainable productions on the already existing Green Production Standards of the German feature film industry as well as on the Adgreen initiative driven by the Advertising Association in the UK. In addition, the agency has supported the non-profit organisation Green the Bid in the USA since the end of 2021, which advocates for new standards in the advertising film industry. Here in Germany, the agency is part of the AG Green Production of the Advertising Section of the Producers Alliance, with which a first association for the promotion of more sustainable and regenerative practices in the production of advertising campaigns has also existed in Germany for a few months. bu