Advisor Studio: Climate Storytelling: How to promote sustainability from script to screen with Daniel Hinerfeld, Kat Coiro, Kimberly Burnick, Sam Enoch, and Sheila Morovati

Kimberly is the Director of Sustainable Production & Content at NBCUniversal. She began her career in production before transitioning to sustainability at NBCUniversal in 2016. Through the Sustainable Production Program, Kimberly oversees the implementation of sustainable practices on film and TV sets, in addition to partnering with creative departments on incorporating on-screen sustainability storylines and behaviors to help educate and inspire audiences. She develops and spearheads unique sustainability initiatives across the company’s production studios, including the newly announced GreenerLight Program under the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, which is an initiative focused on embedding sustainability across the entire filmmaking process through development, production and distribution

Director and producer, Kat Coiro, continues to be at the forefront of the industry with her unique and thoughtful filmmaking style. 2022 was a big year with Coiro’s studio directorial debut MARRY ME dominating the Valentine’s Day Box office and SHE-HULK, which she directed and executive produced for Marvel Studios, smashing the summer streaming records.

Coiro gained much of her experience writing, producing and directing shorts and indie features including “AND WHILE WE WERE HERE which received glowing reviews and was nominated for ‘Best Feature’ at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival.

On the television side, Coiro directed and co-executive produced the pilot episode of Tina Fey’s GIRLS 5EVA for Peacock. Additional television directorial credits include the pilot episode of FLORIDA GIRLS on Roku, Netflix's DEAD TO ME, ShowTime's SHAMELESS" and FX's: IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILIDELPHIA, as well as THE MICK, MODERN FAMILY, BROOKLYN 99, MOZART IN THE JUNGLE and more. She is currently in post production as director/executive producer on CBS’ reboot of MATLOCK starring Kathy Bates, slated for a 2023 release and on The SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES for Disney+, which is set to come out in 2024.

As an activist Kat is passionate about denormalizing the use of single-use plastic and waste on screen through her fast-growing initiative #LightsCameraPlastic. MARRY ME, SHE HULK, SPIDERWICK, and MATLOCK all boast substantial reusables and very little unnecessary waste on camera, with the aim of influencing audiences to make more ecological choices. She is on the board of Habits Of Waste (responsible for CutOutCutlery). She recently met with multiple studios and the DGA to try to bring other creators into the fold. Her colleague Mark Ruffalo has joined the cause as well and brought enormous visibility to #LightsCameraPlastic. Additionally, Coiro has also been working closely with the Wet’Suwet’En indigenous land and water protectors in Northern BC in their fight against the illegal CGL gas pipeline, that threatens the sacred Wedzin Kwa River. She recently secured a donation of winter gear from Patagonia to outfit these modern day warriors.

Coiro studied theatre and film at Carnegie Mellon, AFI and the Moscow Art Theater in Russia where she also studied Russian History and Literature, and she currently teaches at Interlochen Center for the Arts.

Daniel Hinerfeld is an Emmy-winning filmmaker and award-winning journalist. He co-founded and directs NRDC’s Rewrite the Future, an initiative to help Hollywood tell stories about the climate crisis. Daniel also founded NRDC's documentary film unit and directed films including Sonic Sea, narrated by Rachel McAdams; Acid Test, narrated by Sigourney Weaver; Stories from the Gulf, narrated by Robert Redford; and Wild Things. Hinerfeld previously worked at NPR as the senior editor of the Tavis Smiley Show. At KCRW, he produced Warren Olney's daily news discussion program, Which Way, L.A.?, and co-created the nationally syndicated political analysis show, Left, Right, and Center.

Sam is the Vice President of Film Strategy at Universal Pictures, where he manages the strategic analysis to plan and optimize the performance of the studio’s film slate. He partnered with the NBCUniversal Sustainability Team to develop and launch Universal’s GreenerLight Program, an industry-first initiative that embeds sustainability considerations into the studio’s script-to-screen creative, production and greenlight processes for the full Universal film slate. Originally from the UK, Sam also serves on the Board of the Los Angeles Zoo and BAFTA’s Learning, Inclusion & Talent Committee.

Sheila Morovati is the President and Founder of the Los Angeles based non-profit organization HabitsofWaste.org. Habits of Waste focuses on finding solutions to shift habits of waste among mass society. Today, Sheila is known for many innovative campaigns but her work began by spearheading the world’s first ban of plastic straws and cutlery in the City of Malibu. Next, she created #CutOutCutlery which convinced all major food delivery applications (globally) to change their default setting so that users no longer receive plastic cutlery unless requested. This led to the passing of California State Bill AB 1276, which has saved billions of pieces of plastic cutlery from entering the waste stream. In an effort to denormalize plastic consumption, Sheila created #LightsCameraPlastic? and is working with the entertainment industry to stop from showing single-use plastic on screen wherever possible. Habits of Waste is running numerous other campaigns to drive change that are focused on protecting the planet through a collective societal effort of individuals making slight changes to their lifestyles. Sheila is also the founder of another non-profit called CrayonCollection.org, which has already expanded to 50 states and 9 countries since its launch in 2013. She is also a part of several climate action groups within the World Economic Forum.