Flowerpots made from recycled fishing nets pop up in Milan

The first day of the Milano Ocean Week, which took place last year at the same time as Design Week, saw Deputy Mayor Anna Scavuzzo officially inaugurate Via Gesù, across from Via Della Spiga and in the very heart of Milan’s fashion district, as Street For the Sea – OneOceanStreetMilano. As a key part of the initiative, the historic street replaced its street furniture with 80 flowerpots made by recycling 2 tons of fishing nets abandoned in the sea, an initiative of the Via Gesù Association and the London start-up Supernovas.

The typical ribbon-cut ceremony saw the participation of One Ocean Foundation (OOF) President Riccardo Bonadeo and his wife Sciakè. The One Ocean Foundation is an Italian initiative of international relevance established by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda which, in 2017, the year of its 50th anniversary, wanted to launch an environmental sustainability project. The Foundation was officially established in 2018, following the success of the One Ocean Forum, the first forum organized in Italy on the topic of ocean protection, created in collaboration with important universities, institutions and companies.

The Milano Ocean Week agenda involved the Ocean Talks, curated by the journalist Fabio Pozzo, hosted at the Centrale dell’Acqua in Milan: the meeting with Hugo Vau, the Portuguese surfer who surfed the world’s tallest wave, talked about his relationship with the sea, such as did freediver Chiara Obino the next day, one of only 5 women in the world to have descended below 100 meters deep. The evening talk events concluded with the dialogue, moderated by Pietro Raitano, director of the Centrale dell’Acqua, between Sandro Carniel, member of the scientific committee of One Ocean Foundation and Ambrogio Beccaria, solo sailor, and ambassador of One Ocean.

Among others, Giorgio Armani supported the Milan Ocean Week by organizing a talk at Armani/Silos space in which Professor Pogutz of SDA Bocconi Sustainability Lab presented the research carried out with One Ocean Foundation to better understand the direct and indirect impact that the various industrial sectors, including fashion, have on the seas of the planet, materializing in the ODI – Ocean Disclosure Initiative, which will allow the business world and investors to assess the impact of business activities on the marine ecosystem. The debate was moderated by Stefano Galassi, Innovation Advisor and One Ocean Foundation’s Ambassador.

One Ocean has taken the Fashion Industry’s impact on the environment to heart, pushing to increase sustainable practices and publishing a report titled “Report 2021: Focus on the Fashion Industry” which deep-dives into the fashion industry. As one of the world’s biggest manufacturing industries, fashion generates more than US $2.5 trillion in global annual revenues, employing more than 300 million people along its value chain. Besides its relevance in the global economy, the industry plays a fundamental role in social and cultural life.

From an environmental point of view, the industry presents numerous critical issues which are still not fully known. According to several studies, fashion is considered one of the most polluting industries in the world. The report uses an in-depth analysis of the sustainability reports of 28 major fashion companies and multiple sources: academic publications, statistical data, government reports and practitioner-based literature.

The insights offer a snapshot of the fashion industry’s main pressures on the environment and, more specifically, on marine ecosystems, and provide a clear view of sustainable best practices along the value chain. The use of 3D printing to produce the flowerpots is not casual. As a key enabling technology for circular and sustainable economies and practices, 3D printing can help the fashion industry meet its sustainability requirements. This is already taking place in the eyewear industry but could increasingly become a standard practice for textiles, footwear, window dressing and one-off or custom-made wearable products.