“Once you can be who you are, you’re able to actually be the most effective and the most serving to our planet and everybody on it.”

Petrice Jones, The One Movement
Season One, 52 Hertz

While filming virtually, amidst a global pandemic, our host Petrice Jones and our creative producer, Mindy Ramaker, sat down for a conversation about the planet, plastic, and how we can all make a difference today.

How do you use your platform as an actor to inform your style of advocacy?

My experience as an actor has both given me the impetus to become environmentally active, whilst also enabling me with a platform to spread the message of encouraging others to become more active themselves. The waste  I was seeing on set inspired me to establish The One Movement to help spread awareness about what everyone can do in their daily lives to help. Through this platform I empower my friends who are actors and influencers to do something and leverage  the incentives and connections that my industry offers.  Together we can create real, meaningful change.

I feel like I now have a real purpose in my life and can use my position to bring people together and create awareness of issues that affect us all. This journey has given me my guiding Northstar and I couldn’t be more grateful.

When did you first realize that the ocean’s health was at risk?

After booking my first major role on Step Up: Highwater Season One, I suddenly became aware of two things: 

1. The production was going through an exceptional amount of plastic waste for a very small number of people in cast and crew and I couldn’t help but feel this was a bigger problem than I had previously realized. And no one else seemed to notice!

2. I was a big part of this problem: One, because my chair pocket was full of plastic bottles, some drunk and some half drunk, but all belonged to me.  Two, because I wasn’t doing or saying anything about it.

From there I went home, started some real research into the issue and hey ‘Bobs your uncle’, I was on my journey to help stop single-use plastic use. 

Why do the stories behind people matter in the movement to beat plastic pollution?

If we knew the direct relationship between our consumer goods and the havoc it wreaks on a particular individual in the world, I think a few more people would think twice before they bought that plastic bottle of water. If you saw clearly on its label that, “this plastic bottle has a very good chance of ending up being dumped on someone’s front doorstep”” then you’d think about the impact behind your purchase. 

We met this amazing person called Jayakar who is the focus of our first project with The One Movement - he’s a role model for his community in India and he has been a waste-collector his entire life. It’s the stories of people like Jayakar that we need to share to get people aware of what we’re trying to change with The One Movement.

Why are you passionate about social enterprise? What makes it a different model of business that CAN benefit the planet?

The way I see it, for every dollar that we have going towards helping the planet, there's $1 million that contributes to hurting it. The goal is to reverse this inequality and create a healthy balance between people, planet and profit.

I believe social enterprises like The One Movement offer a way to create more consistent, scalable change without the handcuffs of a lack of income. I love the fact that we can create all the impact of a non-profit, whilst having the consistent revenue stream and financial freedom of a business. Meaning we can go out in the world and create the impact where we want it and when we want it.

How can people get involved with The One Movement? 

We’d love your support! Here are two ways to join the One Movement: 

1. Quite simply, when you buy a bottle you help build a home. By switching to a One Bottle, you will prevent the equivalent of 2,000 plastic bottles from entering our oceans. And, we'll take that plastic and recycle it into homes for waste pickers. We’re now live on Indiegogo and we need your help in reaching our goal.

2. Help us by spreading the word! Head to our website and share our competition links for the chance to win a luxury trip to a Californian eco-retreat. We'll remove 1 plastic bottle from our waterways for every person that signs up. 

Our first goal is to build 100 homes and remove the equivalent of 200,000,000 single-use plastic bottles. Together we can make a difference and put a stop to ocean bound plastic.