Carolina Sevilla is a Costa Rican lawyer and attorney, Human Rights specialist and former diplomat serving at the United Nations during Costa Rica’s tenure on the Security Council and as a Costa Rican consul in New York City for 6 years. In 2016, she returned to Costa Rica where her focus shifted to our oceans and their preservation. Firstly, working with BIONIC®️ recovering marine plastic and transforming it into textiles and other high performance products.
5 Minute Beach Cleanup started as a social media educational interactive campaign that ended up inspiring more than 35K individual cleanups. Accounts have more than 90K followers altogether and videos have been watched by 20 million people globally. 5 Minute Foundation, the non-profit extension of the movement, has implemented successful projects in Costa Rica and in Los Angeles, California.
Carolina had spoken alongside Paul Hawken, Gisele Bündchen, Oskar Metsavaht and Livia Firth and has participated in round tables for The Clinton Foundation Global Initiative. She has reported for The Economist at the World Oceans Summit in 2019.
Carolina was part of the inspiration for the spring campaign for the 2019 GAP sports brand ATHLETA and they featured a video of the movement.
On Oceans Day 2021, Carolina spoke with two members of the European Commission about the upcoming plastic ban in Europe.
In September 2021, she was featured in Conde Nast Traveler, “The World Made Local” on an article issued in all seven international editions; 100 people in 100 countries and Carolina told why her home turf should be the next destination.
In February 2022, Carolina took part of the Catalog for Summer Collection that will be out in June 2022 for Faherty Brand
In March 2022, she was part of a panel called Visions of Sustainable Tourism organized by the Costarrican government’s at South Bysouth West in Austin, Texas
On April 2022, she was be the Woman On the Month on Diane Von Fustenberg monthly initiative that highlights women from all over the world
On April 22nd 2022, OCB released a short documentary based on Carolina’s story, lifestyle, her mission and vision, why it is urgent to act and how we can do it.
In June 2022, he attended the United Nations Convention on the Oceans in Lisbon, Portugal to be part of a panel with sustainability experts to discuss the possible options and solutions for a road map to be followed for the oceans.
The own non-profit organization in Costa Rica under the same name “5 Minute Foundation” has already created and implemented a national curriculum and educational program about the oceans and plastic called “Ocean Heroes” that has been adopted by the Ministry of Education in Costa Rica and the Clinton Foundation in New York has adopted their educational program to implement it in Puerto Rico.
In 2021, they launched an iconic and successful partnership: a local campaign to collect and raise awareness about the use of cigarette butts with Philip Morris International, the local government – Municipality of Belen, the private sector with the company, and the University of Costa Rica, as the academia. They have also started a sustainable tourism project called “Friends of the Ocean” and now, they are developing a unique and replicable product line made with plastic recovered from the ocean.
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SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS
https://www.instagram.com/5minutebeachcleanup
https://www.facebook.com/5minutebeachcleanup/