Agora

AGORA is the industry branch of the Thessaloniki Film Festival. It operates during the Thessaloniki International Film Festival in November, the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival in March, and the Evia Film Project in June/July. AGORA’s mission is to foster a dynamic and sustainable environment for film industry professionals, promoting creativity, collaboration, and environmental responsibility.

 In an effort to become a more sustainable industry event, AGORA has taken the following steps:

• Established a Green Consultancy Award for a project in development participating in the Crossroads Co-production Forum in collaboration with Greener Screen.
• Organizes AGORA Talks on sustainable production and impact, as well as on how to highlight environmental issues in stories.
• Invites a sustainability expert to participate in the Doc Counseling or Ask Me Anything programs, offering one-on-one consultation sessions to participants on how to make their production/event greener.
• Collaborates and hosts relevant industry activities with MEDIA Desk Greece and the Hellenic Film Commission.
• Spotlights projects produced or intending to produce with green practices, with a special mention in our physical and digital catalogues.
• Incorporates green practices questions in its application materials.
• Highlights that sustainable practices in film production/events can often be cost-effective.
• Ended the operation of the physical video library (30 monitors/booths), making the transition to digital.
• Offers online participation, especially for guests traveling from overseas, giving access to the online video library, pre-recorded AGORA Talks and project presentations, while also hosting online meetings with project teams. 
• Communicates the sustainability protocol with all industry guests in festival invitations as well as in welcome newsletters.
• Established a Green Fee for all AGORA accredited guests towards offsetting each individual's carbon emission and supporting the festival's environmental practices.
• Encourages guests to travel to Thessaloniki by train or carpool.
• Reduced the number of industry catalogue copies by 30%, promoting the digital edition. Printing is done on FSC paper (responsibly sourced wood fiber).
• Ensures all invitations to industry events are digital.
• Encourages guests to use their own water bottles and reusable coffee cups.
• Offers water coolers for use by staff and guests.
• Provides bins for recycling, coffee and food waste, and cigarettes.
• Serves vegetarian lunch and coffee breaks without plastic containers, reducing food waste by distributing portions to staff and volunteers. 
• Partners with restaurants that cook with local and seasonal products. The Mediterranean diet offers plenty of options from local and seasonal products, contributing to the reduction of carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions.
• Aims to create common guidelines and a protocol with other markets and has already initiated a Green Lab with WEMW, Connecting Cottbus, Meeting Point Vilnius, and Sofia Meetings: a common space for shared consultancy and experience exchange regarding recommendations, implementation, and certification towards becoming more sustainable physical events.