How The Climate Pledge’s New ‘Future Forward’ Documentary Series Is Shining A Light On Corporate Climate Innovations

The Climate Pledge

Envision a net-zero carbon future: a future in which the package you’ve been awaiting gets delivered in a sleek emissions-free electric van, you go to work in an office building whose cement structure captures and stores carbon, you take a weekend flight that produces 80% less emissions—which leaves you with 80% less travel guilt— and before landing, you peer out the window to catch a glimpse of a previously depleted forest, farmland battered by harsh weather, and a trash-filled riverbed, that is now overflowing with lush green flora, thriving agriculture fields, and pristine water. Sound idealistic? Sure, but here come some fresh-from-the-field six films exemplifying how it’s not.

Today is the premiere of Future Forward, a documentary series directed by award-winning filmmakers and featuring people and businesses pioneering industry innovation on the front lines of climate change. Each of the six films highlights Climate Pledge signatories—across industries from transportation and construction to agriculture and water—trailblazing paths to a cleaner future, demonstrating to other companies that a net-zero journey is possible and crucial, and inspiring businesses from all sectors and regions to make their own climate commitments and join the Climate Pledge to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.

I caught up with Sally Fouts, the Global Leader for The Climate Pledge at Amazon, one of the co-founders of The Climate Pledge, to reflect on the origins of The Climate Pledge and the Future Forward Docuseries that premiered today. The Climate Pledge was born out of the necessity to demystify climate action in the corporate sector and bring companies together to work toward a common goal: to be net-zero carbon by 2040. 

“We co-founded The Pledge with global optimism back in 2019, and it was somewhat of a leap of faith to see whether others would join us in committing not only to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement – but to do it 10 years faster. Fast forward to 2023, we now have over 400 organizations across 35 countries and 55 industries that have signed up to join us,” Fouts shared. 

Through the Pledge community, each one of these organizations can collaborate on industry-wide action, and together, they’re sending an important demand signal for products and solutions that help reduce carbon emissions.

I asked her about the original idea and trigger that launched the content series. Fouts explained, “As the global lead for The Climate Pledge, I’ve had the privilege to see first-hand how our hundreds of signatories are innovating within their industries to combat the climate crisis. The amount of ingenuity and innovation among the 400 companies that we collaborate with is truly remarkable and we wanted to share their work with the world. We produced a documentary film series to pull the curtain back on the important strides companies are making in their journey to net-zero carbon.” 

The goal was twofold: to inspire other companies to set net-zero carbon goals and sign the Pledge, second, to inspire the public and show that we can solve this crisis through corporate work at scale. 

“We engaged documentary filmmakers to tell the story because we wanted the honest, raw, unfiltered perspective on the impactful work happening within companies. We didn’t want marketing materials; we wanted inspiring, accurate narratives,” Fouts further added.

We talked more about the selection of the topics and the individual films. Arguably the hardest part of the film-making process was narrowing down the list to the final six. They could have produced hundreds of shorts spotlighting different climate solutions. In the end, they ended up with six films that showcase the work of a diverse mix of companies both large and small, representative of the major sectors, and geographic regions. “To me, the magic behind the stories we featured is that every single solution is so vastly different from the rest and yet equally as essential when it comes to decarbonizing across industries. We need to decarbonize planes, trucks, agriculture, buildings, and everything in between, and these videos showcase the breadth and variety of the work that’s underway, “ Fouts elaborated on the final selection.

Sally Fouts, the Global Leader for The Climate Pledge at Amazon | AMAZON

She shared more on how they matched the different filmmakers to the topics. The climate crisis often feels overwhelming and it’s hard to know how to make a difference. “Like so many of us, documentary filmmakers feel this acutely, and they are eager to lend their expertise (storytelling) to help fight the climate crisis. The directors we chose deeply believe in the importance of storytelling and the impact it can have on people. When we approached them with the project and shared how it aligns with their values and vision, they were excited to be a part of it.”

Here are a few tidbits on each one: 

• For Future of Flight, director Ondi Timoner was perfect because her father was CEO of an airline and she grew up in the aviation world. Timoner’s last film, “Last Flight Home,” is about her father premiered at Sundance and Telluride. Timoner is steeped in aviation culture and was eager to share good climate news out of the aviation industry. 

• Academy-award nominee Laura Checkoway was asked to direct “Future of Farming” because she has this incredible ability to relate with everyone and draw out deep, emotional stories from her characters – and that storytelling strength comes through in Future of Farming. 

• Emmy-award winner Cynthia Hill directs Future of Transportation – and brings her extraordinary ability to synthesize complicated topics into compelling narratives.

• Oscar-nominated director David Darg stepped in to direct Future of Forests. Darg shoots as well as directs and the visual imagery of the film is stunningly cinematic.

• Last but not least, Samia Khan-Bambrah directs both Future of Water and Future of Building. Both of Khan-Bambrah’s films showcase her ability to build emotional connections with her characters. 

I asked Sally Fouts which one was her favourite film. “That’s a tough choice! Perhaps it’s because I’m a world traveler at heart, but I love Future of Flight. This one tells an inspiring story of two companies working together through the Climate Pledge to decarbonize the aviation industry. It’s also representative of how far we’ve come since launching the Climate Pledge and the impact it’s had for the better. Our hope is that with every new company that joins us, we have a renewed opportunity to spark new ideas and solutions that help move the needle toward net-zero carbon faster, and that’s exactly what we see in Future of Flight,” she explained.

All films are live now, and the goal is to make them viewed as widely available as possible. You can watch them on The Climate Pledge website, stream them on Prime Video, Freevee, and Documentary +.