Advocating for sustainability
by Vaila Erin Bhaumick
None of us know what’s coming. We can’t see exactly what the future holds, but we know it’ll be bad if we don’t change. Taking responsibility as a brand is not for the faint-hearted—but Eco-Age are willing to do some sleeve-rolling, getting stuck in for the sake of generations to come.
As co-founders of Eco-Age, Livia Firth and Nicola Giuggioli have created an end-to-end agency for sustainable business strategy. After 12 years of consulting in sustainability strategy with a huge portfolio of high profile clients including Diesel, UGG and Wembley Stadium, Eco-Age has launched the Eco-Verse: a division devoted to steering clients through the complexities of NFTs and the metaverse, whilst maintaining and developing their sustainability standards.
Instead of taking the view that we’re all doomed to a dystopian future, Eco-Age comprehends deeply that businesses need to understand the metaverse to help make sure it’s properly governed and kept accountable—and to be ethical and socially responsible within it. Livia says that “This epoch promises plenty of disruption. But whether or not this is welcome depends on how we steer a course through change. It is a question of making decisions predicated on social justice and ethics, and at Eco-Age we strongly believe we should be the designers, the architects and the instigators of this new technological revolution.”
Meanwhile, back in the physical world, Eco-Age has blazed the trail for better business. Sustainability is a word that’s thrown around a lot, but to Eco-Age it actually means a lot too; encompassing a broad spectrum of elements that any sustainable business should consider. From transparency through fairwork and human rights to paying close attention to product lifecycle whilst not forgetting heritage and tradition—their principles are a recipe not only for more responsible business, but for a brighter world. Strategising for businesses with the precursor of ‘do no harm’ is at the core of Eco-Age’s consultancy services, and it doesn’t stop there.
Eco-Age advocates. It supports and collaborates with organisations and initiatives that champion the desire for a fairer world such as The Circle, Fashion 4 Development and Couture Lab Coalition. On the ‘front line’, Livia Firth has produced a documentary series called Fashionscapes that highlights supply chains around the world, from diamond mining in Botswana to wool growing in Tasmania. The Green Carpet Fashion Awards is their baby, heralding sustainable practice across the fashion industry, whilst encouraging emerging talent and responsible disruption. 2020’s ceremony was fully digital and incorporated stunning augmented reality and visual FX designed by NorthHouse in a taste of the future of events.
None of us know what’s coming. But Eco-Age is doing the work to make it an age of sustainability, and are showing the way by helping responsible business owners preserve all our world’s beauty for future generations, online and offline.