LifestyleGarden® celebrates finalist status at the 2022 Brand & Lifestyle Licensing Awards

Apr 5, 2022

Made from 3.5kgs of recycled ropes and nets from the maritime industry, fully recyclable, and having helped to recycle 240,000kgs (240 tonnes) of ocean plastic to-date, it may come as no surprise that the ground-breaking DuraOcean® from LifestyleGarden®, and created in partnership with the Eden Project, has scooped a coveted finalist status at the forthcoming Brand & Lifestyle Licensing Awards (B&LLA) on 24th April.

These awards celebrate excellence in product innovation, brand licensing management as well as retail execution within the ever-evolving brand and lifestyle licensing arena. The awards roster focuses on everything from fashion and beverages, to apparel, gifts and everything in between. This year LifestyleGarden® entered the Sustainability Brand Licensed Range Award, for which it has been shortlisted. The judges have been impressed with DuraOcean®’s incredible commitment to playing a part in helping to reduce the ocean pollution crisis, which is currently seeing over eight million pieces of extremely harmful plastic reach our oceans every single day, killing huge swathes of the fish and creatures that call the ocean home.

Paul Cohen, Commercial Director at LifestyleGarden® said; “It’s an honour to be featured on this year’s B&LLA finalist list, alongside a wide range of other incredible suppliers. Being recognised for our unrelenting stance on sustainability and the celebration of bringing our vision to fruition with the DuraOcean® collection is an important milestone for us, especially when you consider the calibre of the judging panel. We look forward to seeing who wins on April 24th and would like to thank the whole team at the Brand & Lifestyle Licensing Awards for including us this year.”

The DuraOcean® story

First launched to the retail market at the trade exhibition, SOLEX, in 2019, DuraOcean® was met with critical acclaim and named winner of the Best New Product Award at the outdoor living show. It also scooped Bronze in the Gardiente Outdoor Living Awards the same year and was shortlisted for the Recycled Product of the Year at the 2020 MRW National Recycling Awards.

The reason for this flurry of excited attention was DuraOcean®’s status as the world’s first commercially viable outdoor chair made from recycled ocean plastics, which heralded a new shift towards sustainable outdoor living that is also financially accessible for the mass consumer market. The chair was greeted with immense enthusiasm by retailers and consumers alike and soon became a hero product of the flagship Eden Project in Cornwall, which utilises DuraOcean® furniture in its own catering areas and retails the same chairs through its shop and website, and with whom LifestyleGarden® has an incredibly close working partnership.

DuraOcean® represents the culmination of a global ocean plastic recovery project and the first mass-market piece of furniture crafted from recycled marine waste, boasting a sophisticated design and enviable eco-friendly credentials. Design-led and manufactured to the highest possible specifications, these state-of-the-art chairs soon became sought after contemporary classics which are proving they will stand the test of time.

The DuraOcean® collection is available in dark green, black and the new-for-2022 mint green colour. Configurations include bistro and two-seater sets, plus four- and six-seater dining tables.