The Tie-In

This week on The Tie-In, Mark and Zena catch up with returning guest Kerri Coombs, former gaffer, longtime energy consultant, and now tool designer at the GreenShot, about GridPro, the free power-planning app she built to replace generator guesswork with real data.

Kerri breaks down why productions keep running massive diesel generators at a fraction of their actual load, how GridPro lets crews drag and drop their equipment onto a map to instantly see energy consumption, emissions, and fuel costs, and what happens when sustainability planning becomes a shared, real-time picture instead of an after-the-fact report card.

We get into the friction points that keep clean energy technology sitting on trucks unused, how data-sharing is finally breaking down old industry walls, and a live walkthrough of the app itself — including a real grid tie-in at Vancouver's Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

Perfect for gaffers, electricians, production coordinators, sustainability coordinators, UPMs, and anyone responsible for power planning on a film, TV, or live event production.

Topics: diesel generator alternatives, battery-powered film production, power planning software, energy consumption modeling, base camp power, clean-energy entertainment, sustainable film production, hybrid generator systems, solar trailer modeling, film crew tools.

🎙️ Connect with Kerri & GridPro:

🌐 gridpro.app

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerri-coombs/

🎙️ Connect with your hosts:

💼 Zena Harris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zenaharris/

💼 Mark Rabin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rabinmark/

👉 SUBSCRIBE for more sustainability and clean energy content from inside the entertainment industry.

What does sustainability actually look like backstage on Broadway? Molly Braverman, Executive Director of the Broadway Green Alliance, joins Zena and Mark to break down how theatre's culture of resourcefulness and reuse is shaping its approach to sustainability.

Molly traces her path from stage managing Wicked's national tour to leading the BGA, and walks through the organization's two-lane approach: greening the craft of theatre itself, and using storytelling to inspire audiences to take action. She covers the BGA Binder Project (10,000+ binders kept in circulation), a textile and prop reuse program that's diverted 31,000 pounds from landfills, the annual Earth Day concert in Times Square, and BGA's new "Climate Talk," a free, comedy-driven 30-minute presentation touring schools and theaters this fall.

She also previews the U.S. adaptation of the Theatre Green Book, an international sustainability standard already used in 17 countries, and shares why she sees theatre's budget constraints as a creative advantage rather than a limitation.

Perfect for theatre professionals, production managers, sustainability coordinators, and anyone curious how the performing arts are building climate action into the culture of live entertainment.

🔗 Connect With Our Guest:

🌐 Broadway Green Alliance: https://www.broadwaygreen.com

💼 Molly Braverman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/molly-braverman/

📸 Molly Braverman on Instagram: @molly.braverman

📸 Broadway Green Alliance on Instagram: @broadwaygreenalliance

🎙️ Connect with our hosts:

💼 Zena Harris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zenaharris/

💼 Mark Rabin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rabinmark/

👉 SUBSCRIBE for more sustainability and clean energy content from inside the entertainment industry.

#BroadwayGreenAlliance #Broadway #SustainableTheatre #GreenTheatre #TheatreGreenBook #Wicked #Hamilton #EarthDay #SustainableEntertainment #GreenProduction #TheTieIn #FilmIndustry #TVProduction #ClimateAction #CircularEconomy #ZeroWaste #SustainableProduction #EntertainmentSustainability

What if the most powerful tool for teaching regenerative agriculture wasn't a documentary, but a love triangle?

Kelsey Crane, debut author of The Vanishing (Book One of The Exiles series) and a certified permaculturist trained through the Rodale Institute, joins Zena and Mark to talk about how she turned years of soil science and permaculture study into climate fiction for teens. Kelsey walks through her path from studying regenerative gardening to writing a hopeful, solutions-forward YA novel and why she believes storytelling can carry practical sustainability lessons further than a lecture ever could.

🌱 WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:

— How a personal health journey led Kelsey into soil science and permaculture study

— Why she calls entertainment "a brilliant Trojan horse" for teaching regenerative practices

— The real-world permaculture concepts (composting, biochar, water systems) woven into her fiction

— Why she chose to write climate fiction as inherently hopeful rather than dystopian

— What it took to self-publish a debut novel and build a reader community from scratch

— How beta readers and advance reader copies shaped the final book

Perfect for entertainment industry professionals, sustainability-curious readers, YA fiction fans, and anyone interested in how storytelling can make regenerative practices approachable.

🔗 Connect with Kelsey:

🌐 theexilesseries.com

📸 Instagram: @artforartssake

🎵 TikTok: @thewildwriter

📝 Substack: @plantarevolution

🎙️ Connect with your hosts:

💼 Zena Harris on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/zenaharris

💼 Mark Rabin on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rabinmark

👉 SUBSCRIBE for more sustainability and clean energy content from inside the entertainment industry.

#KelseyCrane #TheExiles #TheVanishing #ClimateFiction #YAFiction #Permaculture #RegenerativeAgriculture #RodaleInstitute #SustainableStorytelling #TheTieIn #HopefulStorytelling #DebutAuthor #ClimateStorytelling #SustainableEntertainment #IndieAuthor

🎙️ Zena Harris and Mark Rabin are back! Catching up on what's been on their minds, from AI's growing role in daily work to wildfire season out West.

🌱 WHAT'S IN THIS EPISODE:

— Mark's summer in British Columbia, powering Friends Club, a 350-person mountain arts gathering, with solar and batteries

— Why everyone now effectively has a handful of AI "employees and assistants" working alongside them

— Mark's Mount Rainier backpacking trip, and the wildfire that closed the area days later

— On-the-ground conversations with production teams across middle America for Greensburg Group's industry insights

— Highlights from Pacific Northwest Climate Week

— What's coming up this fall, including more Burning Man interviews

Perfect for anyone in film and TV production, clean energy, sustainability, or entertainment who wants a quick read on where the industry is headed.

🎙️ Connect with our hosts:

Zena Harris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zenaharris/

Mark Rabin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rabinmark/

👉 SUBSCRIBE for more sustainability and clean energy content from inside the entertainment industry.

#TheTieIn #Sustainability #CleanEnergy #AI #WildfireSeason #PNWClimateWeek #FilmIndustry #TVProduction #EntertainmentIndustry #GreenProduction #RenewableEnergy #BurningMan #ClimateAction #SustainableEntertainment #ClimateTech #SolarPower #BatteryStorage"

This week on The Tie-In, we're here with Brandon Geller, Director of Sustainability for Quixote and Sunset Studios (part of Hudson Pacific Properties' portfolio), where he oversees sustainability across facilities, fleet, trailers, and mobile power.

Brandon walks through how legacy Star Wagons trailers are being converted into solar-electric power sources, how trailers now "daisy chain" to share power with each other, and how camp plugs let productions power craft services or EV chargers straight off a trailer battery. He also breaks down the bespoke dashboard his team built so transport coordinators can monitor battery life in real time, and so studios like Netflix and Disney can pull sustainability reporting data on demand, plus the carbon-neutral letters Sunset Studios now issues to productions that shoot on their soundstages.

We also get into where the real friction is: not the technology, but asking people to work differently, and why base camp, not set, is where the biggest energy footprint on a production actually lives.

Perfect for production sustainability coordinators, transport coordinators, UPMs, studio facilities teams, and anyone curious how clean energy is actually getting deployed on working film lots.

Topics: base camp decarbonization, solar trailers, battery power film production, studio sustainability reporting, clean mobile power, Sunset Studios, Quixote, carbon neutral productions, food donation programs, film industry sustainability data, EV charging on set.

🎙️ Learn more about Sunset Studios, Quixote Trailers and Hudson Pacific Properties:

💼 LinkedIn: hudson-pacific-properties-inc

💼 LInkedIn: sunset-studios-global

💼 LInkedIn : quixote-studios

🌐 Sunset Studios: SunsetStudios.com

🌐 Husdon Pacific Properties: hudsonpacificproperties.com

📸 Instagram: @Quixotestudios, @sunsetstudios.global, hudsonppi

🎙️ Connect with your hosts:

💼 Zena Harris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zenaharris/

💼 Mark Rabin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rabinmark/

Recorded live at Pacific Northwest Climate Week, Zena Harris is joined by climate influence strategist Andrea Learned, host of Name & Fame, for a conversation on where film and TV production and city government actually overlap, and where they're missing each other entirely.

They dig into why sustainability has to start in development, not production the "tacking it on" problem most productions still default to and lay out the specific ways cities can become better partners to film crews: sharing power infrastructure data, coordinating on parking and base camp electrification, and building financial incentives like Seattle's film-permit discount for productions that ditch a diesel generator. Real numbers included: a 150-person, 15-week production crew saved over $10,000 just by switching from plastic water bottles to reusable ones, and thousands more by cutting beef at catering.

The conversation closes with a practical call to action for film students, city staff, and anyone in production — on where to start small and how public praise (cheerleading productions that get it right, on social media) becomes its own form of climate influence.

Topics: sustainable film production, entertainment industry sustainability, city-film partnerships, film permits, base camp electrification, production carbon footprint, climate influence, plant-based catering, Green Spark Group, Sustainable Production Forum, Seattle sustainability, PNW Climate Week.

🔗 Learn more about Andrea Learned:

🌐 andrealearned.com

🌳https://linktr.ee/AndreaLearned

📸 Instagram @Andrea_ClimateInfluence

💼 linkedin.com/in/andrealearned/

🎙️ Name & Fame with Andrea Learned: https://open.spotify.com/show/3YkKdutaROrB5hSehWVaDo

🎙️ Connect with our hosts:

Zena Harris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zenaharris/ Mark Rabin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rabinmark/

👉 SUBSCRIBE for more sustainability and clean energy content from inside the entertainment industry!

#SustainableProduction #FilmIndustry #ClimateWeek #PNWClimateWeek #CityPlanning #FilmPermits #GreenProduction #ClimateAction #Sustainability #ClimateInfluence #SeattleSustainability #FilmProduction #TVProduction #EntertainmentIndustry #GreenFilm #CarbonFootprint #SustainableCities #ClimateSolutions #BaseCampPower #TheTieIn

What does climate storytelling actually look like when it's done right? Not a green campaign or a lecture, but a reusable water bottle sitting on a table in a Scandinavian film. A farmer's daughter in a Hindi love story casually explaining why pesticides ruin the soil.

In this Best Of excerpt, sustainable design strategist Simran Monga breaks down the difference between climate storytelling and climate communication, why implicit moments beat explicit "message" scenes, and why doomsday narratives are losing ground to solution-based ones. She also walks through the Climate Action Toolkit for Change. The tool she built from a year of interviews with writers, directors, and producers across India, Hollywood, and the UK, plus 210 survey responses from Indian audiences, is designed to help writers' rooms fold climate action into scripts without ever rewriting their process.

Perfect for writers, producers, and anyone curious how entertainment can shift climate behavior without saying the word "sustainability" out loud.

🌱 WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:

— The difference between climate storytelling and climate communication

— How to show renewable energy on screen without turning it into a PSA

— Why ""The Ladies,"" a Hindi love story, is a masterclass in implicit climate narrative

— Why doomsday storytelling is losing to solution-based storytelling

— How the Climate Action Toolkit for Change works — 5 issue cards, 100 action cards

— What Simran learned interviewing 14 writers/directors across India, Hollywood & the UK, plus 210 Indian audience members

This is an abridged excerpt of a previously released episode. Listen/watch the full episode!

🎥 YouTube: https://youtu.be/-2fH-CtnzzY?si=O2LWRyACeBxWw6Nk

🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s1-e14-enabling-sustainable-stories-with-designer/id1753867919?i=1000670512604

🟢 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5Gb5uXs9z0G2Vfn5WUw7VN?si=xdi9we2KT3Ky_kj4Pcm1Ew

🌱 Connect with Simran:

🌐:http://hiecodesignlab.com

📸: @thehiecolady @reelin_change @hiecoliving

💼: www.linkedin.com/in/simran-monga-70025890

🎬: @hiecoliving8679

🎙️ Connect with your hosts:

Zena Harris on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/zenaharris

Mark Rabin on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rabinmark

👉 SUBSCRIBE for more sustainability and clean energy content from inside the entertainment industry.

#ClimateStorytelling #SustainableDesign #Bollywood #IndianCinema #SustainableEntertainment #GreenFilmmaking #ClimateAction #ScreenwritingTips #WritersRoom #FilmIndustry #TheTieIn #BestOf #HopefulStorytelling #EntertainmentSustainability

🎬 TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Welcome to the Best Of

00:06 Climate storytelling vs. climate communication

01:34 How writers can imbibe sustainable behaviors into characters

02:14 Showing renewable energy on screen — solar panel examples

03:26 ""The Ladies"" — implicit climate narrative in a Hindi love story

04:46 The Tom Cruise wind turbine bit & the Scandinavian water bottle scene

05:34 Reflecting real lifestyles on screen

06:09 Why doomsday narratives are losing to solution-based storytelling

06:59 Building the Climate Action Toolkit for Change

08:21 What's inside the toolkit — issue cards & action cards

09:39 How writers actually use it in the room

11:15 The research — interviews across India, Hollywood & the UK

11:45 The survey stat: 70% worried, 14% know what to do

12:19 Outro & credits

In this Best Of excerpt, Alex and Allison, co-chairs of IATSE Local 600's Sustainability Committee, break down how the camera department is tackling waste before it becomes waste — from a year-round e-waste drop-off in Chicago to a free camera-expendables exchange with EcoSet in Los Angeles. They also share the story behind One Tree Planted, the committee's tradition of planting a tree for every year of life of union members who've passed away — roughly 3,000 trees a year. This is an abridged excerpt of a previously released episode.

🌱 WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:

— How a volunteer committee grew into a five-city national network

— Why the committee's focus shifted from recycling to reduction

— How EcoSet keeps camera expendables out of the landfill and gets them free to film students and indie filmmakers

— What it took to turn a union office into a year-round e-waste drop-off

— The story behind One Tree Planted and why the committee plants in honor of members who've passed

— How partnerships with Everyday Action LA and the Labor Network for Sustainability connect camera work to climate action

This is an abridged excerpt of a previously released episode. Listen/watch the full episode!

YouTube: https://youtu.be/qajDOOxNtQQ

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3T3ssRqVK8KiuicbftOSHC?si=NSw7nK1IQuGpvcONrZmdXg

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s2-e3-focusing-all-film-departments-on-waste-reduction/id1753867919?i=1000684829515

🌱 Connect with Alex & Allison and the Local 600 Sustainability Committee:

📸 @life_according_to_allison

📸 @accoyle

📸 @600sustainability

🎙️ Connect with your hosts:

Zena Harris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zenaharris/

Mark Rabin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rabinmark/

👉 SUBSCRIBE for more sustainability and clean energy content from inside the entertainment industry.

#Local600 #IATSE #Sustainability #EWaste #CircularEconomy #FilmProduction #GreenProduction #CameraDepartment #OneTreePlanted #SustainableEntertainment #TheTieIn

🎬 TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro & welcome

1:10 How the Local 600 Sustainability Committee started

2:06 Going regional — five cities, one mission

2:57 Building a year-round e-waste program

3:54 The EcoSet partnership — free camera expendables for film students

5:25 Why "reduce" beats "recycle"

6:32 Trade show panels & tailoring the message city by city

7:43 Earth Day: tree planting, river cleanups & an adopted highway

9:07 Connecting camera work to climate change

9:54 Partnering with Everyday Action LA

10:51 One Tree Planted: honoring members who've passed

12:17 Credits

Tanner Watt, Director of Partnerships at Reverb, breaks down the Music Decarbonization Project — the campaign that took Luck Reunion from diesel generators to full battery power in three years, and the model Reverb now uses to green tours across the industry.

We get into how Reverb builds sustainability into a show without ever asking an artist to say a word from stage: backstage food donation and hotel toiletry recycling programs, front-of-house causes matched to each artist (Tyler Childers and Appalachian addiction recovery, Billie Eilish and plant-based meal pledges through Support + Feed), and why keeping it positive and solutions-focused — not preachy — is what actually moves fans to act.

Perfect for touring professionals, festival organizers, sustainability coordinators, artist managers, and anyone curious how the live music industry is quietly cutting its carbon footprint one show at a time.

⚡ WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:

— Why Luck Reunion became Reverb's model for how the campaign is supposed to work

— How that model scales into a "replicable blueprint" for events of any size

— Why visible signage and fan education matter as much as the tech itself

— The backstage programs most fans never see — food donation, hotel toiletry recycling

— How Reverb tailors front-of-house causes to each artist (Tyler Childers/Appalachia, Billie Eilish/plant-based pledges)

— Why keeping the message positive and nonpartisan is the strategy, not an accident

This is an abridged excerpt of a previously released episode. Listen/watch the full episode!

🎥 YouTube - https://youtu.be/7ddN4R-pu1w

🎧 Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s2-e26-vibing-with-tanner-watt-director-of/id1753867919?i=1000714332881

🟢 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/episode/4UJLON6wsYlwq2M07QzGLA?si=iolon-diQfKf1K7YwSKAgQ

🔗 Learn more: reverb.org

🎙️ Connect with your hosts:

💼 Zena Harris on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/zenaharris

💼 Mark Rabin on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rabinmark

👉 SUBSCRIBE for more sustainability and clean energy content from inside the entertainment industry.

#Reverb #MusicDecarbonization #SustainableTouring #CleanEnergy #BatteryPower #LuckReunion #WillieNelson #FestivalSustainability #LiveMusic #GreenTouring #TheTieIn #DieselFree #MusicIndustry #SustainableEntertainment #ClimateAction #TylerChilders #BillieEilish #ConcertSustainability #FanEngagement

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

00:34 Music Decarbonization Project & the Luck Reunion origin story

01:55 Scaling clean power year over year

02:47 Signage, community support & festival banquets

03:36 Live music's carbon slice — and its outsized reach

03:57 The emotional power of live music

04:52 Shifting culture at festivals

05:19 "It's a replicable blueprint"

05:40 Industry momentum — clean power showing up on other tours

06:28 Why visibility matters even when it's seamless

07:15 Backstage: food donation & hotel toiletry recycling

08:02 Front of house: letting the artist choose the cause

08:23 Tyler Childers & Appalachian recovery

08:43 Billie Eilish & Support + Feed's plant-based pledge

09:45 Keeping it positive, not preachy

10:35 Solutions over blame

10:53 Why it has to stay nonpolitical

In this Best Of excerpt, Neel Vasavada, founder and CEO of Overdrive Energy Solutions, gets honest about the one real failure in 50+ events, the 99.9% uptime record that followed it, and why he thinks backing up a battery system with a diesel generator is already outdated thinking. He also breaks down why power budgets almost never predict what actually happens on site — from an electric kettle taking down a DJ booth at Burning Man to a lighting designer flipping an LED wall to full white without warning — and walks through how Overdrive builds its power plan backward from the event layout instead. This is an abridged excerpt of a previously released episode.

⚡ WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:

— The one failure in 50+ events, and the 99.9% uptime record that came out of it

— Why "always carry a backup generator" is a diesel-era habit, not a battery-era necessity

— The Burning Man kettle story that's stuck with Neel since before Overdrive existed

— Why load prediction fails — LED walls, subs, and the "electric outlets as faucets" mindset

— How Overdrive builds power plans backward from site layout instead of guessing loads upfront

— Why the goal isn't to be the biggest live-events power provider — it's to become a portable power utility

This is an abridged excerpt of a previously released episode. Listen/watch the full episode!

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dQijxj2GZ0

Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/episode/1pN6CL8de3sOKMaY4LGKzX?si=jimgAQigTbuWl9RQKidikw

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s1-e6-switching-to-sustainability-overdrive-with/id1753867919?i=1000664465199

🎙️ Connect with Neel Vasavada & Overdrive:

🌐 www.overdrive.rocks

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/overdrive_energy_solutions/

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/overdrive-energy-solutions/

🎙️ Connect with your hosts:

💼 LiinkedIn: Zena Harris: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zenaharris/

💼 LinkedIn: Mark Rabin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rabinmark/

👉 SUBSCRIBE for more sustainability and clean energy content from inside the entertainment industry.

#OverdriveEnergy #BatteryPower #DieselGeneratorAlternative #SustainableEvents #TheTieIn