Celebrating Green Crew Heroes! Hugo Barbera, Founder of In Crime Content in Spain
Green The Bid Crew Heroes is a series that highlights individuals who bring sustainable practices to any area of the production process, and seek to inspire others to do the same. Production can’t happen without all crew-members (both on set and off), and the same is true of their support of Green The Bid.
Green The Bid’s Jessie Nagel spoke with Hugo Barbera co-founder of Spain's In Crime Content, for this week's Green Crew Hero. Read about how his new company is taking steps to intensify its commitment to sustainable practices and encourage others to do the same.
J.N. When you launched In Crime, it was with the goal of producing more sustainably. What prompted you to make this choice?
H.B. Actually it wasn’t. Or it wasn’t intentionally. We founded In Crime during the lockdown and we knew a lot of small or local brands, many of them friends, who were frightened about what Covid-19 could be for their survival. Our goal was to help them by making co-productions. One clothing brand working together with a bag’s brand. This way they could have the same quality in productions with lower investment.
Our focus was to help the community in the way we could. This being said, sustainability was part of how we live and think things should be done, so instinctively we were doing some things.
We recycle at home, so why not do it at work? We already use green energy, green mobility as much as possible, decrease the amount of meat we eat, plastic bottles, not printing unnecessary documents…
Also, we were knowing more and more sustainable clothing brands who were inspiring us to take some other small steps or just to think if we could apply it to our work.
J.N. What does that mean in practice?
H.B. At the beginning it was easy as we were just doing things how we thought they should be done. Trying to move green or having eco catering options it’s really easy.
When we started considering this as a really important part of our job, it was a bit overwhelming. A lot of things to consider, to improve, people to talk about… With the small fluid team we are, it was more difficult. We still had to get the work done and keep looking for clients. Then we realized we just had to go step by step while trying not to increase the budget too much for our clients.
The last (very) important thing for us was to communicate this to everyone who works with us, this way we could learn from their ideas, suggestions or practical problems they could find.
J.N. We’ve heard that vegetarian catering on set is impossible in Spain, but you’ve done it. Tell us how you presented it and what the response has been.
H.B. The first time we just served it. There are a lot of really good Mediterranean veggie food options both from Spain and other countries. No one even asked why there wasn’t typical production food on the table.
Why we did it? Because we like this food (we got our veggie food blog during the quarantine..). But also, it makes you feel lighter, we know how much people eat sometimes during a production, much more than they do on a regular basis, and then they feel bad :)
And the response was amazing, everyone loved the food and finished almost everything. We were not throwing food away and had eco packaging. It just seemed right to keep on with this.
J.N. What made you decide to join Green The Bid?
H.B. We knew about GTB thanks to a Linkedin contact and after learning more about you, all the people involved, resources and experience you have… We felt this was the place to be.
Some people from the team were amazed when we shared with them the documents relative to their positions. So many things can be done with the knowledge and will to do them.
J.N. Spain is a place that’s really examining business as usual and wanting to change things to be environmentally friendly. What would you like to see happen across the industry in Spain?
H.B. There are a lot of companies in every field working towards a better environment (clothing, energy, mobility, food…) but at the same time a lot of greenwashing. The problem with the last one is that it makes part of the society skeptical, and we need the society to reallydemand green work in everything.
When it comes to our industry it's the same, all the people who work on a production should be thinking about this. The small gestures of everyone will make a big difference. Therefore, we cannot afford greenwashing in the industry either.
J.N. If you didn’t do what you do now, is there another job in the industry or otherwise that you’d do? Why?
H.B. I would like to be a game designer. I love the way stories can be told with interactivity. I think it really is a next step in listening to the audience and having people involved. Do you know how many hours people spend trying to solve mysteries on Rockstar games?
J.N. Who is a hero to you?
H.B. My partner Maria. Wife and first founder of In Crime.
First of all because she had the courage to leave her life, job and country to come to Barcelona, study what she always wanted to do and establish on her own. These creative industries are pretty closed circles and she wasn’t a “child” to follow all the usual steps.
Then, it was her talent and way of working, her beliefs on local brands, that made me think I could leave my 12 years career in advertising and join her.
Now, for the first time and thanks to her, I feel like my decisions at work can have some impact on society.
I know it’s not too much, but it’s a nice path to follow.
----- Are you a crew hero or do you know one? We want to hear from you!
