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Venice, 13 June 2019 - Kids Creative Lab, the educational project devised and created by OVS in 2012 and dedicated to primary school children in Italy, renews the brand’s commitment to the environment. In fact, the 7th edition, organised in conjunction with WWF Italia, aims to raise awareness among children, teaching them to fight the impact of plastic on the environment with imagination and creativity, thanks to the “C’è di mezzo il mare” initiative.
After involving 1,800,000 children, 66,000 classes and 8,000 schools throughout Italy last year and dealing with subjects such as art, fashion, ecology, food and biodiversity, OVS is launching a new edition of its Kids Creative Lab. The project is just one of the solid actions for sustainable innovation put in place by OVS since 2015, with its #wecare programme of initiatives to promote the development of circular fashion and increasing research into more virtuous materials and production processes. For summer 2019, OVS has created a capsule collection of swimwear using materials made from PET bottles and ECONYL yarnÒ, a regenerated nylon made out from discarded materials such as fishing nets and equipment thrown into the sea. From the coming autumn/winter season, OVS’ denim products will be undergoing zero PP treatments which replace potassium permanganate with other, biodegradable substances or using laser for almost completely waterless processing. OVS has reduced CO2 emissions by nearly 90% at their headquarters and in all their shops, as well as introducing staff training aimed at making the company plastic-free.
The WWF has been working for years with schools, to raise awareness about the culture of sustainability and encourage a change in behaviour and lifestyle choices, capable of creating a better future, richer, healthier and fairer for all Teachers and students are therefore privileged stakeholders for the Association, which has a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Education to spread the culture of sustainability within schools and it is also a Training Body for Teachers accredited by the Ministry of Education.
With this new Kids Creative Lab, OVS and WWF Italia intend to promote greater awareness of the environment, among children and adults, inviting them to rethink the way in which plastics are used, to learn about alternatives and the consequences of plastics finding their way into the sea and the environment. This is the spirit with which primary school children are involved in the “C’è di mezzo il mare” workshop, which is implemented through creative teaching activities. Teachers are provided with free materials to teach pupils about the topic through participation in educational workshops, which will culminate in May 2020 with the children’s involvement in a day cleaning up beaches and river banks throughout Italy.
Kids Creative Lab is a special educational project through which OVS can support the WWF, which is committed in the development of a #plasticfree community that brings young people together, creating an ever increasing SeaActionGeneration. In fact, this is one of the objectives of the WWF's global initiative against plastic in the environment- #StopPlasticPollution. That is, to promote the birth of increasingly extensive and far-reaching contexts capable of turning lifestyles towards a society in which plastic is used in a conscious and sustainable way, by eliminating disposable waste.
Every year, around 100 million tonnes of plastic are dispersed in nature, of which 8 million tonnes of plastic waste end up in the oceans, endangering human health and the lives of marine animals. The Mediterranean, in particular, collects all of Europe’s plastic, the equivalent of 66,000 trucks of rubbish a year, 4 times more than the Pacific Ocean’s “islands of plastic”.
“We see attention to sustainability and the future of the planet as key issues in OVS’ strategy and a duty to future generations," says Ismail Seys, General Manager for the OVS Brand. “With the Kids Creative Lab, which this year is taking place in conjunction with such a high-profile partner as the WWF, we aim to play our part in raising awareness among children about protecting our natural resources and about pollution from using plastics. We believe that OVS, which has always worked closely with the world of children, can play a significant role in reaching and raising awareness among a wider public about the important challenges of our time thanks to its widespread presence in the country and to this important educational project, now in its seventh year”.
"Educating the new generations about the values of sustainability and ecology is not only a duty but it is an essential way forward for building a sustainable society", says Gaetano Benedetto, WWF Italy’s Director General. "The connection between school and nature is fundamental to build a new attitude towards the environment of living species. Young people are a reservoir of vital energy, essential to deal with the great environmental emergencies of the Planet ranging from plastic pollution to climate change. An energy that we can see in the Fridays For Future events, in the young or very young volunteers who spend whole nights watching the nests so that the little turtles can find their way to the sea, in the many young people who take turns in cleaning the beaches of the Plasticfree Tour. It is an energy that the WWF, with the contribution of partners like OVS, with the Kids Creative Lab “C’è di mezzo il mare” project, wants to grow and become more and more successful”.
“C’è di mezzo il mare” will get under way this coming autumn, when OVS will be launching its special initiative in support of the WWF conservation projects: from November 2019, in OVS stores and in the online store at ovs.it, a special capsule collection of OVS per WWF kids’ T-shirts and hoodies in biocotton.
