How Debbie Levin Turned The Environmental Media Association Into Hollywood’s Sustainability Engine
EMA CEO Debbie Levin and Billie Eilish, 2022 EMA Missions in Music Honoree at the 2022 EMA Awards
Getty Images for the Environmental Media Association
The event was small. The room was unremarkable. But for Debbie Levin, attending the Environmental Media Awards in 1999 changed the course of her life.
At the time, sustainability was not yet central to how she saw the world. She recycled, cared deeply about her children and their future, and was active in their school community. But she had not grown up immersed in environmental issues, nor had she connected them to the power of storytelling.
Then something clicked.
“This is something that is so important,” she recalled thinking. “And it makes so much sense to do it with storytelling.”
That moment became the beginning of a 26-year journey leading the Environmental Media Association, the nonprofit behind the Environmental Media Awards.