Featherstone 
What screenwriters can teach authors about writing to inspire action on sustainability
Have you ever wondered how what you put to page, might positively alter the future?
As writers, we hold the power to shape perceptions, inspire action, and create change. And attending Sustainable Screens Australia’s Sustainability on Screen workshop, I learnt more about the many subtle and creative ways screenwriters do this. It got me thinking about how authors of books can make more efforts in this direction too.
Hosted by Tessa de Josselin, an environmental advocate, researcher, actress and voiceover artist, the workshop highlighted the profound impact storytelling can have on promoting sustainability and addressing climate change. Here are some of my takeaways from the preso:
The future is now: storytelling as a catalyst for change
Tessa began by referring to the quote: “the future isn’t this distant place; it’s a verb.”
i.e. the future doesn’t actually exist yet, the future is what we create.
This perspective urges us to portray sustainability not as a far-off goal but as an active, present-day endeavour. We can help it along through how we write our characters, settings and plot lines – and even by choosing what genre to write in.
Including climate themes in your book, even if only minor, will give it longevity
Tess quoted playwright and screenwriter Dorothy Fortenberry who said, “If climate is not in your script, it’s science-fiction.” i.e. climate change affects us all and will for a long time, so not writing it into your story in some way ignores its presence in readers’ lives.
Characters and Settings with a Climate Lens
Incorporating sustainable practices into our narratives can be both subtle and impactful:
- Narrative: screenwriters may use a climate related theme as the basis of their production, or just to drive a story arc or a particular episode. Likewise, we can do this with our books too, so that a scene, character arc or a chapter may be driven by a climate related theme–or the entire book.
- Setting: You can weave sustainability principles into the setting of your book, without directly addressing by including descriptive elements such as solar panels, community gardens, bike paths or electric vehicles to normalise sustainable living. Or perhaps your book is set in an environment directly/harshly affected by climate change, or the characters live up a hill as their other home was lost to flood etc.
- Characters: Characters could normalise planet positive actions in their everyday life e.g. show them engaging in eco-friendly actions, such as shopping at op-shops, mending things, catching public transport, bartering home grown veg, using reusable items, cycling etc.
- Professional Integration: Embed sustainability into characters’ professions—like a detective solving environmental crimes or a doctor addressing climate-related health issues, or a romance that brings a conservative farming family together with a regenerative farmer; or an athletic character who has potted herbs on his balcony he harvests for meals/smoothies etc.
Addressing Climate Themes Through Story Arcs
Sustainable Screens Australia is partnered with albert, a UK-based organisation promoting sustainability in the screen industry (you might have seen their logo recently in the credits for the latest Alone Australia production).
albert suggests strategies for writers including:
- Discussion between characters: Create dialogues that address unsustainable behaviours.
- Replacement: Swap out environmentally harmful activities with sustainable alternatives.
- Omission: If certain unsustainable actions aren’t crucial to the plot, consider removing them. E.g. does the character need to drive 1km down the road to get a coffee…or could they walk and take a Keep Cup with them?
Sustainability examples in screenwriting to fire up your imagination
Several TV productions have successfully integrated sustainability into their narratives:
- “Succession”: A plot twist involving Greg’s dad choosing to donate his wealth to Greenpeace rather than to his son, led to 22,000 calls to Greenpeace and a surge in real-life donations.
- “Bluey”: In Ep 29, Bluey gets out of his comfort zone and spends time in nature down at the creek.
- “Bump” Season 4: This Australian series weaves climate themes (passively and actively) throughout its storyline.
- “Love Island UK”: The show introduced reusable water bottles and sourced cast wardrobes from eBay, promoting sustainable practices.
Taking the ‘Climate Pass’
As authors we often run editing passes (or have an external editor/reader do it for us) to specifically look at character development, continuity and dialogue. There are also sensitivity readers who provide feedback. But Tess proposed the concept of a “Climate Pass” for screenwriters. So how about before finalising your manuscript, you conduct a ‘Climate Pass’ too. How this could look:
- Awareness: Do characters acknowledge climate change?
- Actions: Are their behaviours environmentally conscious? Or is tension shown due to their inaction or damaging behaviours?
- Plot Impact/tension: Does the narrative reflect the consequences of climate inaction or the benefits of sustainable choices?
Making sustainable living aspirational
Is there a way in your writing you can show the benefits of sustainable living and make it aspirational?
Isn’t it hard enough to write a book, without having to weave in sustainability too?
What the attendees and I learned from the preso included that weaving sustainability into our stories:
- doesn’t have to be complicated
- can be subtle and nuanced
- doesn’t have to be perfect
- is possible if you look for opportunities to do so
- can be fun to do using humour
- is up to us, proactivity matters.
Integrating sustainability into our writing doesn’t require grand gestures. Even subtle inclusions can influence readers’ perceptions and inspire real-world change. As storytellers, we have the opportunity to envision and promote a more sustainable future through our narratives, so why wouldn’t we?
If you’re interested in how the genre you choose to write in (or publish, or buy, or if you’re a bookseller/librarian-the books you choose to put on shelves) can also affect the future, this blog post about the research of a UTS student might be of interest!
For more resources and inspiration for screenwriters and the film industry regarding how to incorporate sustainability, visit Sustainable Screens Australia and albert.
Thanks for your time as always and happy creating!
Anna Featherstone