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MillimeterDream Job: Eco Media
Dec 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Kristinha M. Anding
GreenTreks Network gets out the environmental word.
Maria Erades, CEO of GreenTreks Network and producer/director of their StormwaterPA project, conducts an interview while cameraman Matt Gray shoots with a Sony DVCAM DSR570.
Environmentalism has been receiving a lot of media attention recently, but Maria Erades is in it for the long haul. In the late '90s, Erades began working as a freelance producer on a show called GreenWorks, a budding television project with a focus on sustainability that was started by the Environmental Fund for Pennsylvania. Nine years later, GreenWorks has evolved into GreenTreks Network — a nonprofit that aims to communicate environmental messages through television documentaries, interactive websites, educational materials, and community outreach — and Erades has become the Philadelphia-based organization's executive director and chief executive officer.
One of GreenTreks' main productions is Natural Heroes, co-produced with PBS affiliate KCRB of California's Sonoma County. The Emmy Award-winning show, now in its third season, tells the stories of ordinary citizens who organize to clean up the land, air, and water of their local communities. Recognizing a need for such environmental programming, KCRB approached GreenTreks to help facilitate the project. GreenTreks now accepts submissions from individual producers and packages the content into the half-hour format necessary for the series.
“We're in a place of strength as a nonprofit,” Erades says. “We are not just a communications organization because we have this environmental focus, but then we're also not just an environmental organization. We are seeing more crossover as technology becomes more advanced and people have more access to the Web. But back when we started video streaming in 1998, it was quite early.”
Erades says GreenTreks' strong track record as an eco-aware media organization allows the nonprofit to help other environmental advocates develop a cohesive message. For example, GreenTreks is currently assisting organizations such as the Delaware Riverkeeper, the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation to definea common initiative regarding Pennsylvania's stormwater problem. The company will produce StormwaterPA.org, a consolidated website to be used as a tool by municipal officials.
Indeed, Erades says GreenTreks is increasingly focused on developing environmental communication tools. “Our outreach is based on creating the tools that the people on the ground can use,” she says.
For more information about GreenTreks, please visit www.greentreks.org.
