Livia Firth brings her Green Carpet Awards to Los Angeles from Milan ahead of the 2023 Academy Awards.
Actors Cate Blanchett, Viola Davis, and Simu Liu, designer and director Tom Ford, and model and activist Quannah Chasinghorse will chair the 2023 Green Carpet Awards’ first Los Angeles event in March. The pre-Oscars event honors environmental and social achievements in the fashion and entertainment industries.
“Fashion can and should be a lifeline,” Livia Firth, founder of the Green Carpet Awards and eco consultancy Eco-Age, said in a statement. “Sustainability solutions are intersectional solutions, and we all need to come together and forge strong paths with human and ecological justice center stage. The GCFA will showcase just that — the level of commitment and focus we all need to mirror, pulling together two powerful, interconnected industries to step up for collective transformation.”
Stefan Beckman serves as Creative Director; the GCFA Board includes Bethann Hardison, Amber Valletta, Christopher Bevan,s and Tonne Goodman. Partners include L’Oréal, Farfetch, Candiani Denim and the 1 Hotel West Hollywood.
Firth first launched the Green Carpet Challenge in 2010, encouraging celebrities to wear sustainable designs on the red carpet; the Green Carpet Awards launched in 2017. This year’s chairs have been supporters of the movement for some time; Ford has used sustainable materials including his Ocean Plastic Watch. Davis embraced the Challenge in 2012, wearing a Giorgio Armani gown that was made from recycled soda cans. Blanchett frequently re-wears outfits on the red carpet rather than opting for new items.
“This is not a celebration of an industry with the power to distract. Rather, it’s the recognition of an industry that needs to leverage its power for people and planet,” Firth said.
The Green Carpet Awards’ move to Los Angeles follows last month’s Sustainability Evenings announcement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — part of its effort to promote sustainability with its members.
The Academy is also working with Suzy Amis Cameron’s Red Carpet Green Dress initiative (RCGD Global) to encourage sustainable fashion on the red carpet. Ahead of the March 12th Oscars ceremony, the Academy says it will distribute the RCGD Global style guide to all attendees for the first time.
“It’s a true honor for us at RCGD Global to partner with the Academy and to be surrounded by change-makers at all stages of their journey,” said RCGD Global founder Suzy Amis Cameron. “CEO Samata Pattinson and I recognize the influential role the entertainment industry can play in bringing topics related to sustainability to the front of people’s minds. Partnerships like these help us all to move forward by presenting solutions and, ultimately, to drive change.”
“While the Academy remains consistent in our commitment to operating as a socially responsible organization with sustainability at our core, we acknowledge that there is always more we can do. We are proud to partner with RCGD Global,” Academy executive vice president of impact and inclusion, Jeanell English said of the event. “Its thought leadership and expertise, along with the active engagement of Academy members, will continue to support our forward and necessary momentum.”
Firth’s Green Carpet Fashion Awards aims to recognize the industry changemakers “who look crisis and conflict in the eye to champion active hope and deep, truthful work for transformation,” reads the event website. It says the 2023 event will leverage the symbiotic relationship of film and fashion against a powerful Hollywood backdrop to inspire change.
“Fashion is a full spectrum industry, touching billions of lives across the globe and reliant on a healthy biosphere,” Firth says. “We must use that reach and power to bring purposeful change.”
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