Prada boosts commitment to ocean protection

Prada wants to do more to safeguard the oceans. The Italian luxury label has significantly stepped up its financial support for the Sea Beyond project, aimed at broadening our knowledge of the oceans, which Prada launched in 2019 in partnership with Unesco’s Inter-governmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC). For the next two years, Prada will donate to the project 1% of the revenue from the sales of its Re-Nylon collection.
 

Re-Nylon features Prada’s iconic black nylon products, the label’s best-sellers. Since 2021, they have been produced using recycled yarn derived from plastic waste, including carpet scraps and fishing nets salvaged from the sea. The Re-Nylon collection, which comprises ready-to-wear, handbags and footwear made with 100% recycled nylon, accounts for a sizeable part of the Prada group’s revenue. The announcement was made during a conference at Unesco’s Paris headquarters, held on Tuesday in conjunction with the IOC’s general assembly, by Lorenzo Bertelli, the Prada group’s head of CSR.
 
Prada’s goal with Sea Beyond is to promote learning about the preservation of the sea and its resources, making students and schoolchildren from all over the world aware of the importance of protecting the planet’s waters. The programme will encourage students to develop an ecological conscience by becoming aware of the issues threatening the oceans, especially plastic pollution.

Sea Beyond’s first two editions have involved 600 students and 120 children in 15 countries, with both classroom sessions and workshops for the younger kids. “With [the project’s] third edition, we’d like to reach more people and countries,” said Francesca Santoro, who oversees the Unesco’s Ocean Education programme. “We also want to make ourselves heard by governments. Our aim is to ensure that these educational programmes will become part of the school curricula,” she added.
 
Prada is keen to go even further, boosting the programme’s educational dimension and extending its support to scientific research and humanitarian projects. Education-wise, and in order to make the general public more aware of ocean issues, Prada will continue with its initiatives focused on younger children, launching the third edition of Sea Beyond. The group will also contribute to setting up a centre in Venice that will publicise these topics, involving people from all age groups, adults included.
 
Ahead of the next UN Ocean Conference, that will be held in 2025 under the stewardship of France and Costa Rica, the Prada group and IOC will stage a preparatory forum in Venice in 2024. Prada will be active in other related initiatives too, including supporting the educational structures already operating in this field, and acquiring a methodology aimed at understanding the progress made in raising awareness among younger children and the general public.
 
In terms of scientific research and humanitarian projects, Prada will start by funding the final phase of a project led by Italian biologist Giovanni Chimienti, who studies deep-sea marine organisms. In Italy’s Tremiti islands, Chimienti has discovered one of the Mediterranean’s largest black coral forests, and is keen to protect it. Another project is set to be carried out in partnership with French charity Bibliothèques Sans Frontières (Libraries without borders), creating ocean-focused content for the benefit of underprivileged children.