2020 |
This year, we are launching a new event in Los Angeles to celebrate global solutions in sustainable fashion, beauty and beyond. The Green Carpet Fashion Awards will sit above all global fashion weeks and fashion councils and highlight – in the same style as the Oscars – brands from all over the world which are working on true sustainable solutions.
Livia Firth, Creative Director and founder of Eco-Age, says, “This is a not a celebration of an industry with the power to distract. Rather it’s the recognition of an industry that needs to leverage its power for people and planet. Fashion can and should be a lifeline. We need to come together and forge strong paths with human and ecological justice centre stage. All those awarded here today look crisis and conflict in the eye. By doing that and actively creating our future we embrace active hope. The GCFAs champion active hope and deep, truthful work for transformation.”
About the Green Carpet Challenge and the history behind the GCFA
The Green Carpet Challenge (GCC) was born in January 2010 when Livia Firth stepped on the Golden Globes red carpet, next to her then husband Colin Firth, wearing a repurposed wedding dress. Since then, the GCC has involved some of the biggest names in Hollywood and has been credited as having changed the conversation around sustainable fashion forever.
Since The Green Carpet Challenge launching at the Golden Globes in 2010 – we have involved some of the biggest names in Hollywood including Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, Lupita Nyong’o, Cate Blanchett, Viola Davis, Emma Watson, Thandie Newton, Olivia Coleman, Zendaya and many more.
The Green Carpet Fashion Awards 2022
After four successful years in Italy with Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, Eco-Age is bringing the GCFA back “home” to where it all started. The significance and reach of the LA community will power the sustainable narrative across the world – demonstrating the commitment that this community has on making the world a better place.
Our events success through the years
Throughout the event’s tenure, we have shone a spotlight on sustainability within the fashion industry and generated global attention, garnering wide-spread media coverage from pre-event conferences and announcements, as well as the event itself.
This very special prelude to the Los Angeles based Green Carpet Fashion Awards 2023 highlighted the work of four honourees making global change happen.
A world in which businesses operate within the boundaries of our planet, ensuring a flourishing, bio-diverse future and ultimately become restorative by giving back more than they take.
Tom Ford for the Tom Ford Plastic Innovation Prize
The Tom Ford Plastic Innovation Prize (TFPIP) is a pioneering and transformative competition focused on discovering and bringing to market some of the best plastic sustainability innovators on the planet to drive urgently needed change. The widespread impact of plastic pollution is firmly on society’s radar, and so is the desire to reduce humanity’s dependence on oil-based plastics. Some forms of plastic are harder to process and recycle than others, leading to finite, useable, and valuable raw material waste. A key TFPIP goal is to find a solution for thin plastic film (B2B packaging, sandwich packaging film, etc) which is both ubiquitous and problematic in the fashion industry and beyond. Lack of investment and visibility are key barriers to innovation scaling, but through the TFPIP, innovators are given the opportunity to research and directly address some of the biggest plastic challenges of our time. Tom demonstrates the power of collaboration and using one’s platform to spearhead the development of sustainability solutions that can benefit people, planet, and product.
Tom Ford said; “I am deeply honoured to receive the award for Environmentally Restorative. I am continually amazed by Livia and her hard-working team and their steadfast dedication to healing and preserving the environment.”
An inclusive market economy ensures that anyone regardless of their gender, place of birth, family background, age or other circumstances, over which they have no control, has full and fair access to labour markets, finance and entrepreneurship and, more generally, economic opportunity.
Bethany Yellowtail’s eponymous brand is a fashion label and retailer with a difference. Its core values centre on championing Indigenous craft and preserving heritage culture and community. Bethany Yellowtail is seen as a blueprint for working with Indigenous communities that can be adapted / adopted by other fashion brands. In a world where the industrialisation of textile and garment production becomes the norm, much of the world’s precious heritage handicraft is at risk of being forgotten, and culturally appropriative trends are further impacting Indigenous craft. B.YELLOWTAIL is a Native American owned company on a mission to celebrate the craft of its culture and support craftspeople in bringing their creations to the market, fairly and freely. It has set a new standard that prioritizes Indigenous creators. Its curated assortment of traditionally handmade goods is primarily sold on a consignment basis. Consignment Artists receive 70% of the profit from all retail sales.
B.YELLOWTAIL has been selected for its exemplary ethics and a business model that preserves artisanal integrity, whilst adhering to best practice surrounding selling cultural craft and forming and maintaining lasting and just relationships with suppliers.
Bethany Yellowtail said; “Indigenous peoples are on the front lines of climate change and environmental injustice, but our communities are also leading creative solutions too. I’m proof that even in the world of fashion you can create beauty, empower communities, and contribute to the future & wellbeing of our beloved Mother Earth. It’s truly a high honor to be recognized by the GCFA and stand with leaders in the sustainability movement.”
Aurora James for Brother Vellies and The Fifteen Percent Pledge
Aurora James’ career is a fusion of her passion for artisanal design and economic equality. In 2013, she founded Brother Vellies to keep traditional African design practices and techniques alive, whilst creating and sustaining artisanal jobs. Over the last two years, and as an industry that touches the lives of so many, fashion has shown its potential as a platform to promote and progress equality and social justice in a world where it is systematically lacking. Black people in the U.S. make up nearly 15% of the population. So, in June 2020, she founded The Fifteen Percent Pledge, an initiative that urges retail giants to commit 15% of their shelf space to Black-owned businesses by creating clear business strategies and attainable goals. Aurora James showcases progressive thinking to balance tradition and craftsmanship, whilst creating forward-looking initiatives to bring economic inclusivity to the market and secure financial equality for Black people in America.
Aurora James said; “I am incredibly honored to be receiving the Economically Inclusive honor. Fashion designers must financially empower all those included in the supply chain, which is why Brother Vellies is dedicated to keeping traditional African design techniques alive while also creating and sustaining artisanal jobs and paying a fair living wage.
It is so important for the fashion industry to move forward in a financially inclusive way. Black people in the U.S. make up nearly 15% of the population, which is why last year I founded an initiative to reflects this. The Fifteen Percent Pledge urges retail giants to commit 15% of their shelf space to Black-owned businesses by creating clear business strategies and attainable goals.
We must keep investing in forward-looking initiatives for a more sustainable future. I admire the work that Eco-Age is doing and I am grateful for this acknowledgement.”
Social justice depends on four essential goals: human rights, access, participation, and equity. Social justice can’t be achieved without these four principles. A world without discrimination.
Rashad Robinson for Color Of Change
Color Of Change is the USA’s largest online racial justice organization, helping people respond effectively to injustice in the world around us. As a national online force driven by seven million members, it moves decision-makers in corporations and government to create a more human and less hostile world for black people in America. Over recent years, fashion has shown itself to be an industry with huge gaps in social justice, as well as a powerhouse of potential in this space. Color Of Change leads campaigns that build real power for Black communities.
Color Of Change has been selected for its tireless work to challenge injustice, hold corporate and political leaders accountable, and to commission game-changing research on systems of inequality, and advance solutions for racial justice that can transform our world.
Rashad Robinson said; “Color Of Change is deeply honored to receive this Green Carpet Fashion Award. We are not going to see real solutions to anti-Black discrimination and exclusion if we do not first see recognition of the problem. Seeing GCFA take this issue head on is a positive step for advancing racial justice in the fashion industry, but we are far from done. Accountability cannot be voluntary, it must become policy — corporations who shape the fashion industry must adopt the inclusion rider that Color Of Change and others have developed, as well as other concrete policies we have outlined to ensure equity, safety and opportunity for Black people in every role and at every level of the industry.”
Meet the strategic partners for the Green Carpet Fashion Awards 2022 and learn why they joined our mission for a more just fashion industry.
Signum is a completely new, luxury experience brand that links physical and digital diamond ownership. It is reforming the diamond industry by embracing entire supply chain tracing – from sourcing ethical diamonds from Lucara in Botswana, all the way to Antwerp and beyond – and through community investment, and incorporated sustainability.
Rafael Papismedov, Co-Founder, Signum:
“We are honoured to partner with the Green Carpet Fashion Awards 2022 to celebrate those making global change happen. Signum is applying an innovative methodology designed to simplify the complexities and challenges of the global diamond supply chain and enhance transparency. We are inspired by the honourees and their sustainability efforts and proud to align ourselves with their impactful work.”
For over 100 years, L’Oréal has devoted itself to fulfilling the beauty aspirations of consumers around the world. With a broad portfolio of 35 international brands and ambitious sustainability commitments in the L’Oréal For The Future programme, it offers each and every person around the world the best in terms of quality, efficacy, safety, sincerity and responsibility, while celebrating beauty in its infinite plurality.
Alexandra Palt, Chief Corporate Responsibility Officer & CEO of Fondation L’Oréal:
“We are proud to be the global beauty partner of the Green Carpet Fashion Awards. L’Oréal is working to define the future of responsible beauty with sustainability at the center of our business operations. Our collaboration with Eco-Age will help us accelerate together the ongoing transformation of the fashion and beauty industry.”
Farfetch is the leading global platform for the luxury fashion industry. The Farfetch Marketplace connects customers in over 190 countries and territories with items from more than 50 countries and more than 1,400 of the world’s best brands, boutiques and department stores, delivering a truly unique shopping experience and access to the most extensive selection of luxury on a single platform. Its power to affect change for a more sustainable fashion landscape is unprecedented.
Holli Rogers, Chief Brand Officer of Farfetch
“Farfetch is aiming to be the premier platform for good in the luxury industry, empowering everyone we work with to think, act and choose positively through our range of products and services. We are excited to partner with the Green Carpet Fashion Awards to further help people make positively conscious choices within the fashion community.”
A special thank you goes to the wonderful 1 Hotel West Hollywood for being Eco-Age’s sustainable office during our stay in Los Angeles. This is a true testament to how luxury and sustainability marry – from the native greenery, the vegetable garden, the healthy meals and the reclaimed materials, to the fact that this hotel is LEED certified SILVER and achieved an Energy Star score of 95, making it one of the most energy efficient hotels in Los Angeles. We could have not have had a better hotel partner.
Each Green Carpet Fashion Awards honouree received a Baobab Tree from Treedom. The Baobab Tree is a majestic, native tree of Africa, known as the Tree of Life for its longevity and many uses. Thanks to its magnificent presence, the tree is also a social hub for villages, hosting markets, meetings, dances and games.
Treedom is the first platform in the world that allows you to plant a tree from a distance and follow the story of the project online. Since its foundation in 2010, more than 3 million trees have been planted across the globe by local farmers, bringing environmental, social and financial benefits to their communities.