Intro
I’m Mariana Gatti, speaking as Conserva: a consultancy shaped as a network of collaborators working across ecological, cultural and material systems. We support companies, institutions and community-led organisations in understanding the impacts and dependencies within their supply systems, and in designing resilience-focused strategies that respond to environmental, social and regulatory pressures.
Our work includes research, strategy, systems mapping and project implementation. Our practice is grounded in presence and the respect for local intelligence and agency.
I’m a researcher and strategist with deep knowledge of regenerative systems, including field practice, and extensive experience in fashion and textiles. I regularly speak at global forums including the UN, Textile Exchange and the Regenerative Agriculture Summit. My thoughts and writing appear in Business of Fashion, Vogue Business, Harper’s Bazaar, Forbes and The Sourcing Journal.
Explore our services in the next sections. Projects are delivered through teams assembled for the context integrating design, science, research, and technical, social and field practice.
Research & Insight
Research is the foundation for good strategy. We work with companies, NGOs, producer organisations and cultural research teams to generate grounded insight that reflects the realities of land and culture.
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Offerings: • Supply-chain and material landscape studies • Qualitative field research and local insight generation • Stakeholder engagement: from farmers, community leaders and technical partners to the industry and NGOs • Ground truthing of sustainability claims and assumptions • Cultural and social movement research • Internal briefs and learning materials for teams
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This work reveals what is happening on the ground and what it means for strategy, investment and impact.
Previous research commissions include global tech platforms, major beverage groups, large consumer products and fashion brands. Our practice integrates scientific research methods that strengthen the rigor of how we approach socioenvironmental systems, qualitative insight and multi-stakeholder decision-making.
Strategy & System Design
We help organisations design pathways that connect sustainability goals with the actual realities — current and future — of material sources. Sometimes the work calls for simple, place-based solutions (which often hide the most beautiful stories); sometimes it calls for innovation (guided by real needs rather than assumptions or trends). We help teams understand which approach serves the system best.
Designers and companies learn to invest in the enabling conditions — capacity, resources, reciprocity and ecological coherence — that increase a system’s regenerative potential and allow partners to thrive.
The work can be as simple as advising on product and material strategies and sourcing, considering desire, durability, quality and impact (and through a systems perspective.)
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Offerings: • Regenerative materials sourcing and production pathways • Program design for nature-based systems • Community partnership structures • Governance models and decision flows • Risk and feasibility analysis grounded in local reality • Indicators and monitoring approaches suited to ecological and social contexts • Advisory for leadership teams and working groups
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This is where insight joins science and technical depth, becoming direction. And direction becomes a plan.
On the Field
Field Implementation & Local Coordination: for organisations that are ready to move beyond planning, we support the design and daily running of on-the-ground programs.
Our experience includes complex, multistakeholder projects commissioned by brands such as Veja and Lojas Renner S.A., and financed by sustainable development funds including KWF/DEG and UK Pact.
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Offerings: • Technical assistance and capacity-building program design and execution • Field presence planning and facilitation • Stakeholder alignment and communication — coordination with producer organisations, cooperatives, community groups and industrial partners • Participatory processes for shared decision-making • Definition of science-based KPI, metrics and measurement frameworks with the input of producers and in alignment with global standards. + Data collection, analysis and reporting • Local insight loops for adaptive learning • Documentation of practices, challenges and progress
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This work keeps strategy connected to real life and helps teams respond to what is actually unfolding.
Guiding Principles
We are grounded in ethics of presence, equity and local intelligence. We also know that research and strategy should be robust enough to inform global frameworks, standards and science-based targets. This balance matters: programs rooted in real conditions are the ones that endure and remain credible under scrutiny.
Our approach:
Presence
Projects succeed when teams spend time in the places where materials originate. Presence builds trust and reveals what metrics cannot capture. It grounds strategies so they are accountable to lived realities.
Grounded Intelligence
Systems understanding comes from people, land, seasons and memory. Integrating experiential insight with scientific and economic considerations leads to solutions that are honest, actionable, and lasting.
Shared Agency
Communities hold knowledge that cannot be replaced. We believe in shared decision-making, ensuring that action reflects the realities of producers. This leads to partnerships that strengthen over time, and strategies that hold up under regulatory, environmental and social pressures.