The first edition of the Milano Ocean Week terminated successfully on June 12, after 5 days of events, meetings, workshops and activities on the sea involving more than 1,500 people on site and more than 300,000 on social media.

The initiative started on 8 June, on the occasion of the World Oceans Day, when more than 250 students from high schools have come together in Milan at BAM-Biblioteca degli Alberi Milano, and continued with exhibitions and educational workshops, while on the evening of 10 June the concert of “Onde Sonore” gathered hundreds of people in the park.

The first day of the Milano Ocean Week, which took place in coincidence with the Design Week, concluded in the heart of the Milan’s fashion district, where Deputy Mayor Anna Scavuzzo officially inaugurated Via Gesù as Street For the Sea - OneOceanStreetMilano, with the typical ribbon-cut together with the Foundation’s President Riccardo Bonadeo and his wife Sciakè. The historic street has replaced its street furniture with 80 flowerpots made by recycling 2 tons of fishing nets abandoned in the sea, an initiative of the Via Gesù Association and the London start-up Supernovas.

The Milano Ocean Week agenda involved the Ocean Talks, curated by the journalist Fabio Pozzo, hosted at the Centrale dell'Acqua in Milan: the meeting with Hugo Vau, the Portuguese surfer who surfed the world’s tallest wave, talked about his relationship with the sea, such as did freediver Chiara Obino the next day, one of only 5 women in the world to have descended below 100 meters deep. The evening talk events concluded with the dialogue, moderated by Pietro Raitano, director of the Centrale dell'Acqua, between Sandro Carniel, member of the scientific committee of One Ocean Foundation and Ambrogio Beccaria, solo sailor, ambassador of One Ocean.

Giorgio Armani supported the Milan Ocean Week by organizing a talk at Armani/Silos space in which Professor Pogutz of SDA Bocconi Sustainability Lab presented the research carried out with One Ocean Foundation to better understand the direct and indirect impact that the various industrial sectors, including fashion, have on the seas of the planet, materializing in the ODI - Ocean Disclosure Initiative, which will allow the business world and investors to assess the impact of business activities on the marine ecosystem. The debate was moderated by Stefano Galassi, Innovation Advisor and One Ocean Foundation’s Ambassador.

On Sunday 12th ofJune, the Fanfare of the Italian Navy performed in three different points in Milan. In the morning at BAM - Biblioteca degli Alberi Milano, in the early afternoon between Piazza della Scala and Piazza Duomo, crossing for the first time the historic Galleria Vittorio Emanuele and, finally, in the Darsena of Navigli. The Milan Ocean Week ended at the headquarters of the Associazione Nazionale Marinai d’Italia (Italian Navy Sailors' Association) with the signing of the etic code Charta Smeralda by the present institutions.

The Foundation has chosen to make the Milano Ocean Week event Carbon Neutral. Thanks to our partner @ Up2You, we calculated the non-reducible CO2 emissions produced by the event and neutralized them with projects certified according to the highest international standards, Verified Carbon Standard and Gold Standard. This means that for every kilogram of CO2 produced by the event, the same amount of CO2 will be captured, thus eliminating the impact of the event.

Following the great interest awakened by this first edition, the Milano Ocean Week will become a recurring appointment starting from June 2023!

Milan Ocean Week is a One Ocean Foundation initiative, held under the patronage of the Municipality of Milan, with the support of the Prefecture of Milan and the Italian Navy, carried out in collaboration with the Cultural partner Fondazione Riccardo Catella through initiatives within the cultural program of BAM - Biblioteca degli Alberi Milan, with the Natural History Museum, the Civic Aquarium, the Centrale dell'Acqua di Milano and the Associazione Nazionale Marinai d’Italia (Italian Navy Sailors' Association).

In addition to the partners of the One Ocean Foundation, the event also received the support of Giorgio Armani. The first edition of the Milan Ocean Week was also supported by Pirelli that considers sustainability a central element of every company activity. The company is also the main and lead sponsor of the “Alla Grande” ocean sailing project by Ambrogio Beccaria, who became OOF Ambassador, thanks to Pirelli, to develop specific projects on the theme of sea protection.

Partners supporting One Ocean Foundation in all its many activities: Rolex, Allianz, Wolf, Land Rover, Intesa Sanpaolo, Pirelli, Esselunga, Rockwool, Yamamay, La Roche-Posay, Vichy, OMR, Pantecnica, Fotoedizioni, Soha

Milan Ocean Week Participating partners: Supernovas, Aurora, Isola Design District, Brera Design District

Milano Ocean Week Media partners: Skytg24, Fuorisalone.it, Le Grand Mag, IGP Decaux, AWorld, Studio Borlenghi

Milan Ocean Week Charity partner: Laureus Italia - Sport for good

Technical partner: Slam

Special thanks to Kurt Arrigo, photographer and One Ocean Foundation Ambassador, for the kind concession of the rights to use his images.