“This planet and the oceans are the natural resource bank account. We should be living off the interest that it bears, rather than eating away the capital. Right now, we’re eating, eating, and eating away as much of the capital as possible. There are many countries that are living off credit in that scenario rather than on interest.”
Fabien Cousteau
During Berlin Fashion Week, a three-day event series brought together 24 speakers for ‘Parley Talks’, featuring keynote presentations from a diverse group of speakers on the growing threat of plastic pollution in the oceans. Collaboration sessions and a Blue Carpet Party were held to form alliances for The Vortex Project: an initiative started by eco-material innovator Bionic Yarn, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, and Parley to cleanup beaches and shorelines, boost new technologies, and turn ocean plastic into smart consumer products to create funding and awareness to address plastic pollution.
The Vortex Project is based on the belief that we must harmonize the human economy with the ecosystem of nature in order to make a serious impact. Speakers for Parley Talks in Berlin included, Captain Paul Watson, Pharrell Williams and his partners in Bionic Yarn, Tyson Toussant and Tim Coombs, Fabien Cousteau, Fisher Stevens, David de Rothschild, David LaChapelle, Graham Hawkes, Tom Sachs, Dianna Cohen, Roy Vercoulen, Graham Hill, Margareta van den Bosch, Zem Joaquin, Jurgen Mayer H., Felix Hallwachs, Wolfram Putz, Thomas Wellemeit, Anders Lendager, Tobias Nolte, Lukas Kronawitter and Tomas Saraceno.
CAPTAIN PAUL WATSON
Paul co-founded Greenpeace with Robert Hunter, founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation society in 1977, and has been an activist for over 40 years. His work is recognized and supported by the best minds and feared by his opponents. He joined the conference live via Skype from aboard one of his ships on the sea.
PHARRELL WILLIAMS
Music artist, producer, serial collaborator, and entrepreneur. At Parley, Pharrell represented his company Bionic Yarn, the first high-performance ecoyarn. Its patented spinning process is capable of incorporating fibers from recycled plastic bottles into durable and refined quality textiles.
TYSON TOUSSANT & TIM COOMBS
Bionic's Co-founders Tyson Toussant and Tim Coombs presented The Vortex Project: a Bionic x Parley collaboration to take plastic waste out of the oceans and to turn it into bionic yarn & fabric, and other material for use in products.
FABIEN COUSTEAU
Fabien Cousteau is a third-generation explorer, documentary filmmaker and environmental activist. He is founder and CEO of plant a fish, a nonprofit dedicated to marine restoration through active community engagement. On his Mission 31 - he lived and conducted scientific experiments 20 meters under the ocean for 31 days.
FISHER STEVENS
Fisher Stevens is an american actor, director, and the 2010 Academy Award winning producer for the best documentary “The Cove”. His dedication to ocean conservation continues as director of his latest yet to be released documentary, Mission Blue. He presented his project about ‘Her Deepness’ Dr. Sylvia Earle.
DAVID DE ROTHSCHILD
British adventurer, ecologist, author, documentarian and environmentalist, David de Rothschild, may be best known for launching Plastiki, a boat made from 12,000 reclaimed plastic bottles, sailing from San Francisco, CA to Sydney, Australia, in order to raise awareness for the the effects of global warming and plastic pollution in our ocean.
DAVID LACHAPELLE
As a commercial photographer David molded the fashion world and turned heirs, actors, musicians, and models into celebrities. Working as a fine art photographer he reflects his career in a humorous and social critical way. Living in Maui on a farm, nature became a big subject of his art.
GRAHAM HAWKES
A world-renowned engineer and inventor, Graham Hawkes wants to revolutionize the way we experience the oceans. He created the deep flight series of winged manned underwater vehicles, which “fly” to the depths of the oceans with the power and elegance of an airplane.
TOM SACHS
Always provocative and daring, Tom Sachs is a world renowned artist and sculptor, probably best known for his elaborate recreations of brands, icons, all of them masterpieces of engineering and design of one kind or another. He believes in ’re-use’.
DIANNA COHEN
TED speaker, multi-media artist, painter and curator Dianna Cohen is best known for her works using recycled plastic bags. She is Creative Advocacy Director and the Co-founder of the Plastic Pollution Coalition, a global alliance of individuals working to stop plastic pollution and its toxic impacts on humans, animals and the environment.
ROY VERCOULEN
Eco-economist, Roy Vercoulen is Vice president of the Cradle to Cradle institute, an international non-profit organization co-founded by William McDonough and Michael Braungart to bring about a large-scale transformation in the way we make things.
GRAHAM HILL
Innovator and designer, Graham Hill founded the eco-blog treehugger.com, “the green CNN” and his newest endeavor LifeEdited: How to design your life to include more money, health and happiness with less stuff, space and energy. It’s life. Edited.
MARGARETA VAN DEN BOSCH
Margareta was Head of Design at H&M for over 20 years and made a disruptive impact on the fashion world by establishing the idea of accessible designer couture. Her success formula of celebrity collaborations with famous creators, like Maison Martin Margiela, Beyoncé, Stella McCartney made H&M a credible superbrand.
SAFIA MINNEY
Eco-business pioneer, Safia Minney, founded and is CEO of fair trade and sustainable fashion label People Tree. Safia has turned a lifelong interest in environment, trade and social justice issues into an award winning social business. 2010 People Tree was awarded best ethical brand at the global fashion awards in new york.
JUERGEN MAYER H.
’J. Mayer H.’ studio focuses on works at the intersection of architecture, communication and new technology. Juergen Mayer H. has taught at Princeton University, University of the Arts Berlin, Harvard University, The Architectural Association in London, Columbia University New York and University of Toronto, Canada.
FELIX HALLWACHS
Felix Hallwachs is an architect who has worked with Olafur Eliasson since 2005, as studio director from 2006. Since January 2012 Felix is Managing Director of Little Sun.
WOLFRAM PUTZ
Wolfram Putz & Thomas Willemeit established GRAFT in LA together with Lars Krückeberg. GRAFT has won numerous national and international awards and garnered international fame with a wide-spread following throughout its 10 year existence.
ANDERS LENDAGER
In 2011 he has become one of the most prominent sustainability experts on the danish architectural scene - acting as consultant to government departments, as well as municipalities and private developers. Upcycling has become one of Anders lendager’s specialties.
TOBIAS NOLTE
Tobias Nolte is a designer based in Berlin and New York. He is currently director at Gehry Technologies in NY where he leads a team of architects, engineers and builders in the implementation of parametric and computation methods to improve design, engineering and construction performance.
LUKAS KRONAWITTER
Lukas Kronawitter is an architect and planner with a specialized focus on resource management and urban ecology. He has researched a range of projects including reusable and organic building material at Munich University, sustainable water and waste management at the HafenCity University of Hamburg and Terreform One in Brooklyn.
TOMAS SARACENO
Visionary artist Tomás Saraceno creates inflatable and airborne biospheres with the morphology of soap bubbles, spider webs, neural networks, or cloud formations, which are speculative models for alternate ways of living. Tomás Saraceno, born in 1973 in Argentina, studied art and architecture.