Starting with sustainability champion, Livia Firth, MOJEH meets the eco-entrepreneurs changing their adopted city for the better, and gradually, the world
Livia Firth was one of the first – and by no means will she be the last. Almost 12 years after she co-founded Eco-Age, a sustainability solutions consultancy educating fashion brands on how to improve their practices and production with bespoke sustainability solutions; and subsequently the Green Carpet Challenge, an initiative created to elevate the status of ethically-created gowns on the red carpet, Livia’s trailblazing dedication to cleaning up the dirty business of fashion has been instrumental in changing the way the industry thinks.
Working with numerous fashion corporations including Gucci, Stella McCartney, Erdem and Net-A-Porter, Eco-Age partnered with Chopard to create its ‘Journey to Sustainable Luxury’ forging a philanthropic relationship with South America’s most influential mining NGO, the Alliance for Responsible Mining.
Becoming the world’s first watch and jewellery company to support and enable gold mining communities in achieving Fairmined certification as well as providing training, social welfare and environmental support, the maison committed to use 100 per cent ethical gold for the production of all its watch and jewellery creations as of July 2018.
“The Journey to Sustainable Luxury has allowed Chopard to directly impact the lives of the real people in artisanal mining communities across South America,” explains Livia. “Chopard’s partnership with Eco-Age and the Green Carpet Challenge shows that luxury brands can lead the way for others to follow, and that embracing a socially responsible and sustainable path can both enhance and add value.”
Aligning with the family-run watch and jewellery house over a shared set of ethical values back in 2013, Livia Firth cites Chopard as one of the first companies to really address the issue of sustainability when no-one else was talking about it.
“But at the same time, today there is significant urgency, because the climate crisis is not only real, it’s happening at a rate that no one really anticipated – it’s much, much faster than everyone thought. I mean apparently, we only have ten years to adapt and make it better – and not everyone still feels the urgency. So the more we talk about it, and the fact that this is something we simply cannot ignore, the better it is for all of us.”
Speaking to MOJEH following her appearance as moderator at Chopard’s Sustainability Panel discussion at Dubai Watch Week, where the maison revealed its latest sustainable timepiece, The Alpine Eagle, which is made from 70 per cent recycled European steel, Livia explained that while making small, eco-focused lifestyle changes is indeed commendable, bigger things need to be done by each of us in order to make enough of an impact upon the global eco-crisis we are facing.
“Historically, if you think about a moment like today, when we were facing an emergency of this magnitude, it was probably the days after the second World War. The American government devised this super- plan, called The Marshall Plan, to help Western Europe rebuild itself after the catastrophic consequences that the war had on the economy. Today, we almost need the equivalent of that. So there is a lot of talk about creating a new, green deal, and we need to start embracing it. Because realistically, we don’t have another few years to think about it.”
As an authority in sustainable practices, and an inspiration to countless sustainably-minded businesses across the world, while Livia says she doesn’t have enough knowledge of the UAE’s sustainability plan as a whole, the initiative of incubating disruptive technologies to progress the development of the Emirates in a more eco-conscious, ethically-focused and sustainable way does excite her.
“Dubai is a very new city – it didn’t exist until 48 years ago. But because all of this has been created so quickly, hopefully equally quickly Dubai can develop in the the most sustainable way, and show the rest of the world the path to a more sustainable future.”
So what advice would Livia give to those small, start-up businesses who want to be responsible in their entrepreneurship? “A sustainable business is, by definition, a business that will last in time. So if you want to keep growing as a small business and have that longevity, it’s actually much easier for a small business to be sustainable than it is for a big business,” explains Livia.
“In a small business, you have more control over your supply chain, you know the suppliers and their materials and you can control it much better, as well as being able to effect change much more rapidly. You can make decisions very fast and can act and react in a very agile way.”
Referring back to Chopard, Livia Firth credits their ability to implement rapid changes to their sustainability focus because the decisions are made by a small number of family members, who can action their choices quickly.
“Similarly, when we launched Ego-Age in 2008, we were a shop on the high street selling eco solutions for the home. After a couple of years we went into consultancy, and a couple of years after that we closed the shop, because we realised that to effect change, we had to operate in a completely different way, not selling cushions and rugs, but in fact instructing companies on how to run a successful, sustainable business properly.”
“So we adapted, and we keep adapting because you also have to always take the culture temperature and see where the times are going. Change is happening so fast today, you need to be agile in understanding how to move and operate. That’s how you remain truly sustainable.”
