For the last five years, they’ve worked with UNESCO to cultivate marine stewardship.
In the last 45 days, if you lived in the tri-state area, you saw historic drought, wildfires, and record temperatures. That same level of instability wasn’t just limited to the East Coast. Across the world, similar patterns have been playing out, and they have become more frequent over the years. It’s for this reason that Prada Group has been focusing its efforts on mitigating the climate crisis in whatever ways they’re able to. Partnering with UNESCO, the two formed Sea Beyond in 2019 as an initiative that’s dedicated to raising awareness on ocean stewardship. In the past year they’ve held conferences across the world, with the most recent being Ocean & Climate Village in Barcelona in October. This past week, they continued their efforts with a Tokyo event.
On December 11, Prada Aoyama Epicenter organized a Prada Possible Conversation with Emmy-nominated environmental photographer and artist Enzo Baracco alongside UNESCO-IOC’s Senior Program Officer, Francesca Santoro. The pair were accompanied by Meghan Marrero and Joanna Philippoff, both spokespeople for the National Marine Educators Association (NMEA), an organization that advocates for the preservation of marine ecosystems. To round it out, Japanese illustrator, ichthyologist and television personality Sakana-Kun also appeared courtesy of a video message.
The group discussed the critical importance of finding ways to help preserve the ocean and how art and culture can play a role to empower individuals to take action. Besides covering ways to mitigate the climate crisis, it also served as an opportunity for Barracco to exhibit his images from his new book The Blue on Fire, Hawai’i. With a foreword by Lorenzo Bertelli, the Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at Prada Group, the stunning photographs are another way to inspire those to invest in ocean stewardship and will be on display at the store through December 29. Also to note was the announcement of new additions to Prada Group’ and NMEA’s blue schools, an initiative that offers educational programs to a new generation. With 16 in the tri-state area and another ten in Hawaii, Japan has joined with their own version courtesy of Sakana-Kun. Working with SD Blue Earth, an association led by Sakana-Kun that focuses on raising awareness of the ocean for future generations, a donation by the ichthyologist will fund lessons and workshops for children to learn more about marine life in Tokyo Bay.
