Sustainability Series
A streaming series created with BuzzFeed to change what people believe is possible
Cultured Matter is developing a multi-episode series with BuzzFeed that follows a bold, limited-edition sustainability collaboration from concept through launch, impact, and replication. A brand, cultural figure, and environmental innovator make the concept real, then we open-source the model so the entire sector can adopt and scale it.
The show is about changing behavior and culture, while at the same time changing the underlying systems and markets.
The premise
Climate change has a branding problem
Most climate change and sustainability messaging induces overwhelm, guilt, fear, apathy, and an association with additional costs. This prevents engagement and adoption.
Culture is the lever
Move behavior at scale through culture: celebrity, art, fashion, film, TV, entertainment, music, beauty, money.
Markets follow culture
Shift perception first and the market follows.
Influence is innovation
Like a sustainability marketing campaign with real climate and environmental impact, designed to spread far and wide.
The project
A limited-edition drop creates aspiration through scarcity
Emerging climate innovation is integrated into a controlled pilot that is produced, launched, and experienced by consumers. It is small-scale, tightly controlled, and intentionally limited-edition.
The shape
- Unexpected at first, but it’s real, executed, and highly visible
- Public innovation without disrupting the brand’s existing supply chains or systems
- Amplification through media, culture, celebrity, artist partnerships, and the full ecosystem
The tone
- No negative messaging anywhere. No shaming, badmouthing, or calling out environmental baddies
- Innovation and positive aspiration only
- The crises are reframed as opportunities for growth and change
The model
Build the ecosystem
Create the pilot project
Make it culturally contagious
Translate it into a new system with full transparency
Let it scale through visibility and imitation
Two layers
What people see on the outside,
and what is actually happening underneath
The project moves through consumerism, media, and the channels usually reserved to sell something.
Outer layer
- Making sustainability and climate change cool and sexy
- Interesting and culturally relevant content
- Innovative, design-forward
Inner layer
- Systems and markets redesign
- New supply chains
- Capital reallocation toward startups and innovation
The project itself isn’t the end goal
The real product is a repeatable way to shift an entire industry by showing what is possible, and publishing the playbook on exactly how to do it.
Partner value
Visibility and association with the entire ecosystem of influence drives value for everyone involved
Success is measured through cultural reach, brand amplification, capital unlocked for climate and environmental tech, and systemic narrative shifts
- Short
termMake possibility visible
- Medium
termTurn attention into adoption
- Long
termShift culture, markets, and systems
Nobody wants all this trash or climate change, but we still want our stuff and all our comforts. This is the tension the show lives in.
Mission
Our mission is to rewrite the narrative around climate change by making sustainability visible, aspirational, and culturally contagious. The Cultured Matter ecosystem connects culture, brands, media, and environmental innovation to turn influence into measurable impact that shifts behavior, markets, systems, and industries.
Cultured Matter
About Simone
Founder and Creative Director Simone Paz has spent nearly a decade in sustainability across corporate and cultural sectors including beauty, the arts, the built environment, and education. She led the sustainability program within facilities for the Americas region of the global engineering firm Arup, and built the first sustainability program at a major U.S. contemporary art museum for The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA). Her work sits at the intersection of culture and systems by joining technical sustainability with a clear understanding of how cultural influence drives behavior change at scale.
Simone is an accredited LEED Green Associate through the U.S. Green Building Council, a TRUE Zero Waste Advisor, a Climate Reality Leader trained by Al Gore, a Global Green Eco-Ambassador, a UC Certified Victory Gardener, and holds a California state certification in Recycling and Resource Management. She received a Master of Science degree in Environmental Studies and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History.