Conceived by Eco-Age and co-founded by Livia Firth in 2021, the awards involved young activists in the field of social and environmental innovation
Renaissance Awards, trusting future makers
Established in 2021 by Eco-Age and co-founded by Livia Firth, the Renaissance Awards return for a second edition. On this occasion, the location of Florence is chosen because of its historical connection to the Italian Renaissance. Although what is being aimed at is a global change in society and approach to the environment. «To choose Florence, the cradle of the early Renaissance, is of course heavy with symbolism. What our awards do is hand the microphone to young activists in a substantive and real way».
This is how Firth introduces the award. Her words highlight the urgency of support and amplification for those who, through innovative vision, promote a shift in the current catastrophic landscape. In addition to attention to the environment and the balance in the use of technology at an innovative level there is some attention to the themes of inclusion and social justice. Giving further resonance to these young leaders is the presence of notable faces and in particular during this edition: Rupert Everett, Minnie Mills, Doina Ciobanu, Sophia Li, and Itziar Ituno.
Eco-Age: ‘Possibilists’, the thematic representation
«This is the age of the purposeful, expert, global influencer. They are our ‘Possibilists’ and the driving force behind empowerment», asserts Livia Firth. This is the thematic thread driving the second edition of the Renaissance Awards. The expectations and possibilities for an ethical future put forward by the new generation of leaders in disparate fields. The term ‘Possibilists’ refers just to someone who discusses, conceives and then indeed acts.
That is why the honorees invited to participate in the Awards include organizers, inventors but also innovators. Instead, the areas covered range from environment restoration to advocacy in the disability field to innovations in legislation. Firth again reiterates the need to invest in those who will lead the planet in the future and will do so by placing at the core healthy values and ideals for the respect of the environment and society. To accelerate these mechanisms it is necessary, the creative director continues, to allow a meeting of these minds and to ensure there is no obstacle to the realization of the ideas presented at the Awards.
Lavinya Stennett and the NODO-Cultural Digital Center
Socially just is one of the pillars considered in selecting Renaissance Awards honorees. Among those chosen for this area is Lavinya Stennett, founder and CEO of The Black Curriculum. Her work as a writer and activist finds fulfillment in her project, which is a social enterprise founded in 2019. What Stennett proposes and implements is the teaching of Black History to bring within the community of students awareness and a sense of belonging. Juan Francisco Baron works in Argentina as a cultural entrepreneur but is also active in art and research.
NODO-Cultural Digital Center is the initiative of which he is creative director and with which he aims to address contemporary issues through art, culture, and politics. A space created for digital artists that fosters work including arts production, civic technology, and promoting human rights in digital environments, the organization explains. Sophia Kianni, the last honoree to operate in this area, is an environmentalist active in climate science research. Her project, Climate Cardinals, focuses on distributing climate information in more than one hundred languages and is active in more than forty countries around the world. Kianni represents the U.S as the youngest member of the inaugural United Nations Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change, Eco-Age specifies.
Alexis Grefa and Abigail Gualinga: Environmentally Restorative representatives
For this category both chosen honorees, Alexis Grefa and Abigail Gualinga, are representing Nina Gualinga, an environmental and indigenous rights activist. Both are committed to the same cause in Ecuador, but through different actions and with diverse goals. Grefa is a leader of the Kichwa people of the Amazon Rainforest and has worked to protect the Piatua River. Considered a sacred element for this indigenous people, it also marks the moments of their lives since ancient times.
A key to the population’s livelihood, the River has been safeguarded thanks to the efforts of Grefa, who together with the Kichwa prevented the construction of an illegal hydroelectric dam that would have led to land degradation. Crucial in this action was the unmasking of corruption of legal authorities. Gualinga, who belongs to the same indigenous population in the Sarayaku region, founded the SAMARUTA organization here. Together with other Kichwa young people she has been fighting against extractive industries on indigenous land.
Technologically Balance honourees: Lino Marrero and Fionn Ferreira
Featuring Lino Marrero and Fionn Ferreira. Considered to be among the youngest innovators, Lino Marrero, fifteen years old from the U.S. was presented for his concrete efforts in devising eco-friendly and sustainable solutions. His inventions for which he has also been mentioned several times by The Times include The String Ring, The Sole Solution, The Kinetic Kickz and The Kinetic Kickz 2.0! In addition to working on new inventions, Marrero aspires to create his own organization capable of promoting sustainable invention education.
Fionn Ferreira, Honouree in 2021 for the same category, is a student and scientist who has spent his life on the shores of Ireland. In his growing up, he noticed the intensive increase of microplastics within the waters and thus tried several times to limit the problem. Given the poor results, he decided to engineer a device that through magnet-based technology removes microplastics from the water in an efficient and not at all harmful way. He is now working on his project to expand it on a large scale, along with new inventions.
Inclusiveness also comes through the economy
Both innovators and their projects are based on helping others in terms of fostering inclusiveness. Vee Kativhu is an activist from Zimbabwe and the UK working to ensure education for girls. Her organization Empowered By Vee aims to help unsupported and underrepresented students fulfill their academic potential, Eco-Age points out. In addition to receiving several awards, she has written a book that can help in the same intent entitled EMPOWERED.
Her efforts as a volunteer and her visibility on social media see her as an ambassador for United World Schools, CAMFED and Girl Up Zimbabwe. Her long-term goal is to reduce the rising number of 130 million girls out of school. Dion Hazel Muchaka is based in Birmingham and helps her work community here. In particular she provides her concrete support to vulnerable people with learning disabilities.
Renaissance Changemaker Prize, Mary Lempres
The young innovators participating in this edition do not end with the honorees, but include a number of other Possibilists. The event promotes the meeting and exchange of ideas in the hybridization of different fields with an eye above all to the world of fashion, but not limited to it. An example of the latter is the Renaissance Changemaker Prize awarded in this edition to Mary Lempres. A design scholar and passionate about biology, nature and art, she has devised tools capable of bringing human beings closer to symbiosis with nature.
Through her interdisciplinary approach, Lempres has conceived systems that, thanks to natural processes, achieve near-perfect economies of energy and materials. Her latest projects include the creation of an infrastructure dedicated to mealworms capable of biodigesting plastics and water filters derived from food waste. «If societies were to invest fully into the people who are going to be driving this planet and to accelerate the scaling up of the mechanisms, products and policies that they have developed, we would begin hitting global SDGs and net zero targets rather than just talking about them», concludes Livia Firth.
Eco-Age
An agency that aims to promote positive change by dealing with sustainability and communication. The experience gathered over the years ranges from fabric study to supply chain and development of effective tailor-made strategies.
