Simply Abu Dhabi XXXVI

9 1 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I In 2017, British fashion designer Stella McCartney announced her second project with Parley called Ocean Legends, which sees her label use upcycled marine plastic instead of woven or recycled polyester for existing products, such as the Falabella Go backpack. And Parley supplies numerous other fashion brands, including brewer Corona for both its beverages and a range of limited edition sunglasses exclusive to designer retailer Net-A-Porter. But it’s no longer just about raising awareness, says Gutsch. It’s about taking action and implementing strategies that can end the cycle of plastic pollution for good. And in 2019, Parley partnered with Italian shipyard Rossinavi and sculptor Doug Aitken to create underwater installations that will pull focus on the beauty and fragility of the ocean, using only materials that are recycled and recyclable. “The idea is to make installation artwork that is living and growing and changing continuously, and that exists underneath the ocean,” says Aitken. “This has been a very interesting dialogue because the artwork has to withstand the brutality of the ocean. We’re not making images that are designed to exist within a gallery or museum space.” Q&A with Cyrill Gutsch Is eco-innovation an achievable goal? Eco-innovation is an open playing field,” he says. “We signed a 10-year contract with Adidas five years ago. They decided to become the first sports brand on the planet to go anti-plastic. They didn’t say that out loud, but I know it because I signed the contract. And then we agreed a strategy with them, ‘Parley AIR’ – Avoid. Intercept. Redesign. Avoid toxins, intercept them from nature, and redesign materials and products. The stock value of Adidas went up, they already have a $2 billion product with a Parley logo on it, and by 2024 they will have switched to purely recycled material. Parley for the Oceans first began with raising awareness, and now it has multi-faceted collaborations around the world. What’s next? Every partnership, every collaboration is a key to a very specific network. Working with Adidas was like going into the middle of a crossroads, tapping into youth culture, sports and fashion, even music. So, it allowed us to grow a very diverse network. But then working with the UN is a different network, as is NASA. Every partner that comes to you gives you a different golden key to be in their community. More recently, working with Rossinavi shipyard on our underwater art installations has given us a key into a highly traditional yet very wealthy layer in society. People who can afford to spend millions on a superyacht; an unnecessary vessel, and one that they don’t need. So, showing such a brand in the context of an environmental revolution bears a risk, because Parley is a promise. It’s not a guarantee, it’s a promise that this brand, this company is changing. And wants to be a leader in the next eco-innovation. What is the takeaway for ultra-high-net-worth individuals? A trainer is tangible, whereas sculpture is more objective… The thing is we are catering to a different audience here. We are catering to people who you normally can’t reach. You can’t preach to or teach UHNWIs. By putting art out there and creating a beacon, they come to you. They want to be part of that conversation. So, for us art is a very important door into a layer of society that you otherwise can’t convince to change their ways. Together with Rossinavi, we are going to reinvent the way yachts are being made – the idea of luxury on and under water. And it starts small, with the abstract. It starts with art. We have been working since 2016 on a new programme with Parley called Parley Deep Space. We are working with scientists, marine explorers and the space industry. The project that we are presenting now is the first opportunity to start the conversation and learn how we can apply this to vessels. Is it even right to have a vessel in the future? Do we want villas underwater? This project is an invitation to rethink everything we are doing today in a very specific segment of our society – luxury. Parley as an entity is constantly evolving, how would you define it today? It is a collaboration network. It’s a new form of environmental organisation, in which we don’t believe in blame and shame, but instead in eco-innovation and creativity and collaboration. It works by raising awareness, yes, but you want to do that by doing things. You don’t want to go out and preach – you just create something, and what you create becomes a symbol of change. And if other people get inspired and want to work with you or copy you, it doesn’t matter, it’s this series of little catalytic moments that you’re creating. So, if you’re making a shoe it allows you to communicate in a totally different way about what environmentalism is. And people who buy into that are flying a flag. Suddenly they see reactions from those around them, they’re like, “Oh wow, you’re wearing the shoe. You’re driving a Kia. You’re probably a better person, even a better date. There must be something in you that I can trust.” So suddenly it becomes this ‘trust seal’ for a different way of looking at things, and for a different way of leading. Because taking care and being responsible is suddenly a strength, not a weakness. And every item that you create, everything you do, is like that. The message as a function is again a key, and that’s how we see product design. It feels like there has never been a better time to fly the eco-innovation flag – the zeitgeist is right. Do you agree? I have just returned from the UN where a lot of action has been created – Greta stirred it all up! We are in a time now where everything is up for redesign. It’s the most important time in the industrialised part of human existence on this planet. Because everything will be redefined. Does it matter how much money you have? Does it matter what we considered in the past to be luxury? What is the next luxury, economy or business? Because we’re living in a time where we are all under serious attack. Our own survival is at risk. I’m a designer originally and a strategist. In 2012 I decided to leave that path behind and start an environmental organisation – Parley for the Oceans. We’re not protestors, we are futurists. We can’t answer the massive threats that we are facing by shaming and blaming. In the last 50 years mankind has pretty much successfully destroyed planet Earth. That’s not a long time, and it was all driven by curiosity and this lust to create. We want to invent and innovate, we’re so excited about making things. And now we’re waking up from this dream of survival. We even had this wild idea that we can improve nature, because mankind is so smart. And here we are. Climate change. The planet is burning up. The oceans are dying. Coral reefs are down to 50% of what they were. Underneath the surface of the water war is raging. We’re killing life at a rapid speed, throwing in nuclear waste, plastic waste – and we’re not even seeing it because we’re dust walkers. We call it planet Earth; if we were fish, we’d call it planet Ocean. So why do we care? Because 80% of the oxygen that we take – the air that we breathe – is generated by creatures in the ocean. We can’t live on the planet without sea. And it took billions of years to allow us to be here. So what’s the answer?What now? For Parley, the big task is to question materials, question design, question economy. I’m pro-business, and we’ve seen before with the introduction of the internet how we can transform society. And we saw how the businesses that couldn’t understand that analogue was the past and digital was the future died off. The digital revolution changed the way in which we communicate and share knowledge. Everything has been redesigned. Now we are at the edge of a material revolution. And in a few years from now, consumers won’t buy anything anymore if they don’t know who made it, why it’s made, what it’s made from, and what it contributes. They will not support brands that ‘take’ and don’t do it in a smart way. We began at Parley with ocean plastic because we felt it’s such a visual cause – it’s so simple to communicate that this material is wrong. So, plastic became a flag for us, a can opener. But the true challenge is fossil fuel burning, our whole chemistry – colours, paints, adhesives, fertilisers, pesticides, nano-particles that we’re ingesting. There are so many people on the planet today. And I think it’s the most amazing time to be living, because this is a huge design challenge. I believe the product sector has the skill to change the world.