POST RELEASE

Milan and Paris, 26^th March, 2021 – Today, along the Sea Beyond digital award ceremony, Prada and UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission announced the winning awareness campaign developed by international secondary school students and dedicated to ocean preservation.

The contest winner is the Portuguese school Agrupamento de Escolas de Vialonga in Vialonga (Lisbon), with the short cartoon “Redes circulares: Cerco ao plástico no mar” (“Circular nets: a sea of plastic”), showing the catastrophic plastic pollution that endangers the ocean ecosystems and how to recollect plastic waste for upcycling opportunities.

Among the top three campaigns, the second-place winning has been attributed to the Shanghai High School International Division in Shanghai, with the board game “Environopoly” that aims to provide both entertainment and environmental knowledge to students, followed by Colegio Latino, Villahermosa, Tabasco (Mexico), with the awareness campaign titled “Sea Beyond”, dedicated to the microplastics’ impact on the ocean.

Prada will honor the winning school with a donation of € 5,000 to be invested in educational materials. The top three campaigns will be disseminated on Prada and UNESCO social channels as well as on www.pradagroup.com and www.ioc.unesco.org.

More than 300 students of the schools participating in the educational programme attended the event, hosted by Lorenzo Bertelli, Prada Group Head of CSR, and Vladimir Ryabinin, UNESCO-IOC Executive Secretary.

Lorenzo Bertelli declared: “Along the project these incredible students learned ocean literacy and were invited to be part of an international ocean movement, committed to advocate its value. It has been very hard for both the teachers and the students to stay on board during these difficult months, experiencing home schooling and all the pandemic challenges. Their enthusiastic participation is really touching”.

Patricia Furtado de Mendonça, marine activist and artist, moderated the discussion enhanced by the contributions of the jury members, our “SEA BEYONDERS”: Italian writer Alessandro Baricco; aquanaut, oceanographic explorer and environmental advocate Fabien Cousteau; environmental artist Anne de Carbuccia; marine scientist and social entrepreneur Kerstin Forsberg and Italian gold-medalist free diver Alessia Zecchini.

All jurors share a profound dedication to the ocean and the urgency to protect it.

“My heart aches when I see our Ocean suffering, and by that I mean the Greater Ocean, not just the water part, but all the beings that call it home. (…) We need to stop saying things are impossible and use that as an excuse not to do something”.
Fabien Cousteau

“I have experienced the Ocean during all my childhood. I really started to see the changes, because he big changes had really started in the Ocean. (…) And so I try, as much as I can, through my work, to show you, to share with you that underworld, and that love”.
Anne de Carbuccia

“You must take the children to sail. This should be part of education. It is not enough to go to the sea or to know how to swim. If you live in the mountains and you cannot go to the sea with your own body, there are incredible novels that can drive you into the Ocean as if you were inside a legend, a fairy tale. Then your instinct will be to defend it, to ensure, with your daily gestures, that the Ocean will not die”.
Alessandro Baricco

“There’s a world dying slowly, so it’s very important to do something, and the time is now.
We need the Ocean”.
Alessia Zecchini

“We all have a role to play. You don’t need to be a huge PHD to contribute.
Kids can start doing changes now, in the present, they don’t have to wait until the future”.
Kerstin Forsberg

PRADA GROUP

Pioneer of a dialogue with contemporary society across diverse cultural spheres and an influential leader in luxury fashion, Prada Group founds its identity on essential values such creative independence, transformation and sustainable development, offering its brands a shared vision to interpret and express their spirit. The Group owns some of the world’s most prestigious luxury brands, Prada, Miu Miu, Church’s, Car Shoe and the historic Pasticceria Marchesi, and works constantly to enhance their value by increasing their visibility and appeal.
The Group designs, manufactures and distributes ready-to-wear collections, leather goods and footwear in more than 70 countries through a network of 633 stores as well as e-commerce channels, selected e-tailers and department stores around the world. The Group, which also operates in the eyewear and fragrances sector through licensing agreements, has 23 owned factories and approximately thirteen thousand employees.

UNESCO’S INTERGOVERNMENTAL OCEANOGRAPHIC COMMISSION

The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC-UNESCO) promotes international cooperation in marine sciences to improve management of the ocean, coasts and marine resources. The IOC enables its 150 Member States to work together by coordinating programmes in capacity development, ocean observations and services, ocean science and tsunami warning. The work of the IOC contributes to the mission of UNESCO to promote the advancement of science and its applications to develop knowledge and capacity, key to economic and social progress, the basis of peace and sustainable development.