3 women involved in preventing ocean plastic pollution

by Marie Le Texier | Jun 10, 2019 | Events, News, Partnerships

3 women involved in preventing ocean plastic pollution

Saturday, June 8^th 2019 was World Oceans Day. This year’s theme, Gender and the Ocean, is an opportunity to explore the gender dimension of humankind’s relationship with the ocean.

That is why we have chosen to showcase the profiles of 3 women involved in preventing ocean plastic pollution, and with whom we collaborate @ConsultantSeas over our various assignments.

Each one of them is representing a different organization, and as such brings a different angle to the table of discussions: international sport event organization, NGO, and multinational company, all actors are engaged in the development of meaningful solutions to solve the issue.

Interviews will be released one at a time this week. We keep the names of our candidates a secret for now, but here is already the questionnaire we have submitted to them:

Could you briefly present yourself? How does your job allow you to contribute to protecting the ocean?
Which concrete solutions does your organization implement to solve the plastic pollution challenge?
What would be, in your opinion, the solutions to implement in the near future to solve the issue at the pace and scale it requires?

See you tomorrow for our first portrait.

Happy World Oceans Day!

Update : Find the links to our three portraits below !

← Our Ocean Conference 2018: ConsultantSeas’ main takeaways Profile n°1: Anne-Cécile Turner, The Ocean Race →

Our Ocean Conference 2018: ConsultantSeas’ main takeaways

by Marie Le Texier | Nov 21, 2018 | Events, News, Projects

Our Ocean Conference 2018: ConsultantSeas’ main takeaways

ConsultantSeas attended Our Ocean Summit 2018 in Bali on October 29^th-30^th 2018. We present our analysis and experience of the Summit here.

The fifth Our Ocean Conference (OOC) was successfully held in Bali on October 29^th-30^th 2018. Overall, the Summit generated 305 commitments, including USD 10,7 billion monetary commitments. Amongst the official conclusions of the Summit, two are of particular relevance to us:

“Marine Pollution and Marine Protected Areas are the most dominant commitments,” said Suseno Sukoyono, the Head of Inter State Institutions for the OOC 2018. Marine Pollution included commitments from at least 9 countries (Indonesia, Japan, The Netherlands, Chile, the EU, Thailand, Norway, France, The USA) and 11 private sector related commitments.
The participation of private sector has been higher than it was for previous editions. “It means marine protection is no longer just the responsibility of the government, but has become the attention of all of us,” Suseno noted. Interesting to note that many CEOs or senior industry representatives attended the event, demonstrating a tangible willingness to act.

ConsultantSeas was present at the Summit as part of the Youth Leadership Summit organized by the Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA). We presented our Ocean Action Lighthouse (OAL) project, which was one of the top 20 projects selected for the design thinking workshop amongst 500+ applications.

The OAL is an online tool that maps out ocean plastics reduction projects worldwide, and classifies them against their location, value chain level, and type of project. Online users can easily navigate through the landscape of existing solutions. With this lighthouse, we want to help replicate best practices, scale-up individual actions, and facilitate collective action.

In the coming months, we will develop a first pilot focused on the Brittany region in France. Our aim is to demonstrate the power of our mapping tool in generating unforeseen opportunities to collaborate amongst various actors directly related to the ocean plastics issues – companies along the plastic value chain, civil society and the public sector.

Hear Marie Le Texier talk about her experience and learnings at the Youth Leadership Summit in this short video.

We look forward to sharing our first results and progress at Our Ocean 2019 in Norway next year!

← ConsultantSeas @ the Our Ocean 2018 Summit 3 women involved in preventing ocean plastic pollution →

ConsultantSeas @ the Our Ocean 2018 Summit

by Marie Le Texier | Oct 23, 2018 | Events, News

ConsultantSeas @ the Our Ocean 2018 Summit

Only a couple of days left until the Our Ocean Summit 2018, for which ConsultantSeas has been selected to attend.

The first Our Ocean conference was held in 2014 and since then the various editions of the event have generated commitments totalling around US$18 billion and 12.4 million square kilometers of marine protected areas.

The fifth Our Ocean Conference, to be held in Bali on October 29^th– 30^th2018 will focus on the theme, ‘Our Ocean, Our Legacy’. It will continue to drive high level commitments towards marine protected areas, sustainable fisheries, marine pollution, climate change, sustainable blue economy and maritime security.

Indonesia together with other four southeast Asian countries and China have been acknowledged to account for over half of the global annual leakage to the Ocean. Marine Pollution is therefore likely to attract special attention during the Summit.

ConsultantSeas will be present at the Summit to present our Ocean Action Lighthouse (OAL) project. The OAL is an online tool that virtually maps out ocean plastics reduction projects worldwide. Our aim is to create the conditions for enhanced collaboration across actors of the plastic value chain and across geographies to scale up individual efforts.

In the Indian Ocean Basin more specifically, there are over 100 voluntary commitments registered on the Community of Ocean Action on Marine Pollution. Yet, there is limited visibility on who is doing what and where.

Increasing the capacity of community members to navigate through the complexity of this landscape would likely foster new partnerships along the plastics value chain and accelerate the replication of best practices across the region.

We do hope that our commitment will make a difference. Stay tuned to hear our progress and feedback from Bali!

← Reaction to Starbucks’ announcement on July 9th Our Ocean Conference 2018: ConsultantSeas’ main takeaways →

Reaction to Starbucks’ announcement on July 9th

by Marie Le Texier | Jul 12, 2018 | News

Reaction to Starbucks’ announcement on July 9th

Starbucks’ announcement on July 9th demonstrates a powerful lever for consumer and business practice changes.

On July 9^th2018, Starbucks Coffee Company announced that it will eliminate single-use plastic straws from its stores.

While the announcement was praised by many organizations, some critics argue that such an announcement will not be impactful in terms of marine pollution reduction. Starbucks commitment will allow to avoid 1 billion straws per year, while it is estimated that 500 million straws are used per day in America. According to the Ocean Conservancy’s 2018 Coastal Cleanup Report, over 640,000 straws and stirrers were found on beaches globally, accounting for approx. 3 percent of the total trash collected. Bloomberg News reports that straws probably account for 0.03 percent only of total plastic waste by mass.

But we are convinced that Starbucks’ commitment demonstrates a powerful lever for consumer and business practice changes.

The power of consumer behaviour as a key driver of change for businesses: “As Starbucks chief executive officer Kevin Johnson outlined in his presentation to investors (…), the company is focused on adapting to rapidly changing consumer trends (…). The movement to eliminate single-use plastic straws has been gaining tremendous momentum globally, with consumers showing increased concern for the greater issue of waste, of which straws is just a part.” (source). This example demonstrates the power of citizens and consumers to influence big corporations and drive meaningful business change.

How product re-design can help address the problem of plastic waste: Solutions to the ocean plastics issue need to be found across the entire plastic lifecycle, from design to waste management and repurposing. Through better choice of materials and redesign of the product (here the straw-less lid), companies contribute to the resolution of the problem, as outlined by Moss, Eidson and Jambeck (2017).

This example is a reminder of the importance shared responsibility and shared contribution. Even if Starbucks’ decision may appear as a drop in the ocean, it is showing what best practices that make business sense look like. No doubt that this commitment is a first step of a global ‘ocean plastics’ mitigation strategy for Starbucks, and that several other companies will follow this decision.

← Ocean Action Lighthouse ConsultantSeas @ the Our Ocean 2018 Summit →

Ocean Action Lighthouse

by Marie Le Texier | May 9, 2018 | News, Projects

Ocean Action Lighthouse

Ocean Action Lighthouse: ConsultantSeas is excited to launch its new project ‘Ocean Action Lighthouse’! The Ocean Action Lighthouse is an online tool that virtually maps out ocean plastics reduction projects worldwide. Our aim is to create the conditions for enhanced collaboration across actors of the plastic value chain and across geographies to scale up individual efforts. We also want to help shape a common practice for impact assessment.

To date, there is no easy access to the global landscape of ocean plastics reduction initiatives. As the problem is being tackled on a larger scale with a mounting number of actors, the landscape of initiatives tends to crowd itself. And there is limited visibility on who is doing what and where. Plus, the notion of best practices in combatting ocean plastics is in its infancy, and so are the tools to measure the impact of actions. These are the gaps we aim to fill.

Stay tuned if you want to know more about this ambitious project’s developments: contact@consultantseas.com

← ‘Is plastic so fantastic’? Reaction to Starbucks’ announcement on July 9th →

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