Blue Economy

How do trailblazer social innovators shape the Blue Economy?

Business Spirit News reporting — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 08:30:04 +0000

How do trailblazer social innovators shape the Blue Economy?

Tags

Social Innovation

Social Entrepreneurship

Impact Ecosystem

Topic

Blue Economy

Social Enterprise

Impact Hub corner

Stories of visionary entrepreneurs making inclusive and sustainable innovation happen at scale with the support of the global Impact Hub community.

Seafood alternative

Overfishing is putting enormous pressure on ocean ecosystems, but how can delicious and healthy sashimi help?

Bluana Foods startup is connected to Impact Hub Bucharest, Romania, has designed a tasty alternative solution to decrease the need for fresh fish.

The enterprise is creating a plant-based healthy seafood alternative product for tuna and salmon sashimi, using only natural ingredients.

Bluana Foods uses algae extracts with a molecular gastronomy approach to obtain a product such as fish meat.

The startup is entering the growing plant-based market, estimated to reach 15 billion Euros.

“With the help of our team of Chefs, we have a bottom-up molecular gastronomy approach while using natural only ingredients.

Bluana Foods is working on plant-based seafood alternative products for tuna and salmon with a molecular gastronomy approach. Image: Bluana Foods

Currently, we have a founding team, an MVP, and more than 700 people giving positive feedback,” Florin Irimescu, Founder and CEO of Bluana Foods, explains their product development.

The team is working on their market strategy and participating in various high profile accelerator programs such as the Black Sea ClimAccelerator, organised with the support of EIT Climate-KIC (Knowledge and Innovation Centre) and Proveg Incubator program in Berlin, the world’s leading incubator of plant-based and cultured food startups.

Zero impact aquafeed

By adopting Circular Economy principles, enterprise Ittinsect uses insects and agricultural by-products to replace traditional aquaculture and ornamental fish feeds containing fishmeal and fish oils.

As a member of the Impact Hub Siracusa community in Italy, this startup is dedicated to developing and producing innovative fish food with zero fish meal and oil content.

Ittinsect is developing innovative fish food with zero fish meal and oil content. Image: Pexels

“The product is based on a special recipe of enriched insect proteins with the same nutritional properties as fish meal, but with a higher biologic efficiency,”

says Alessandro Romano, CEO of Ittinsect.

They won the EIT Food “Challenge Lab” in 2020, and their concept also impressed the judges at the BlueInvest Awards 2021, as they became finalists in the "Sustainable Food and Feed from the Ocean" category.

The value proposition of Ittinsect is built on the three pillars of product characteristics, being flexible, sustainable and healthy.

By avoiding ocean resources, they contribute to sustainability and stop the chain of microplastics, mercury, fertilisers and other contaminants that generally accumulate in the organisms that are fed with traditional fishmeal.

The Dopper changemaker challenge

The ‘ocean saving bottle’ company, Dopper, organised the third edition of its Changemaker Challenge to find the most innovative student ideas for a plastic-free future with crystal-clear waters.

They teamed up with Impact Hub King’s Cross, UK, Impact Hub Amsterdam and Impact Hub Berlin to engage third-level students from various locations.

Applications poured in from the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Nepal for a chance to win a £5,000 research grant, promotional support and valuable contacts.

Dopper is a social enterprise based in the UK, widely recognised as an activist company encouraging people to see the whole picture about ocean protection and water usage.

The three best ideas from the UK included projects focusing on recycling ghost fishing nets, utilising sea kelps and replacing plastic food packaging with a sustainable alternative.

The Dopper Changemaker Challenge is organised in collaboration with several Impact Hubs to find innovative student ideas for a plastic-free future with crystal-clear waters. Image: Dopper

Lab of tomorrow

The Lab of Tomorrow is a business development program to solve specific challenges in emerging markets. It aims to inspire European and local businesses to jointly create new sustainable and profitable business models, products, and services in emerging markets.

It is an open innovation process based on adopting Design Thinking and Business Design methodologies with strong stakeholder engagement.

In 2022 they brought together European and Thai companies, startups, NGOs, policymakers and researchers to address the challenge of plastic waste reduction in Thailand.

The Lab of Tomorrow is a business development programme to solve specific challenges in emerging markets, such as plastic waste or renewable energy. Image: Pexels

More than half of land-based plastic waste leakage comes from just five countries: China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

The challenge of reducing, reusing and replacing single-use plastic in Thailand thus goes far beyond the country’s borders.

The program is managed in collaboration with Impact Hub Berlin, and it runs in partnership with government organisations.

Participants are asked to answer questions like: How might we reduce, reuse or substitute single-use plastic to decrease plastic waste ending up in rivers and oceans in Thailand?

The big issue is divided into sub-challenges like promoting plastic-reduced products and services, increasing plastic and littering awareness of customers, and reducing plastic bottles or promoting the use of a zero-waste kit.

So far, 330 participants have joined seven previous Lab of Tomorrow innovation processes, and 47 promising business ideas have been developed, of which twelve business models are currently in the pilot phase.

Headline Image: Unsplash

Background style

Light

Sponsored?

April 2023

Collaborative content with

Impact Hub Global

Can blue food help save the planet?

Sasha Cohen Ioannides — Mon, 03 Apr 2023 10:05:06 +0000

Can blue food help save the planet?

Tags

Topic

Globally, three billion people rely on fish and seafood for 20% of their animal protein intake, which means that around 6.5% of all protein consumed comes from fish, based on figures released by the World Bank.

Seafood consumption has doubled within the past fifty years due to wealth increase and the desire to decrease other animal protein sources.

This rapidly growing trend has led to over 90% of fish stocks being over or fully fished and disrupting marine ecosystems.

The demand is expected to be doubled again within the next 50 years.

Seafood-based proteins produce much less environmental impact than terrestrial-based ones, primarily due to the lack of land required to grow them.

Thanks to the diversity of blue foods, including fish, many invertebrates, aquatic plants, algae, and other aquatic animals, this diet can also impact humans’ health positively.

Due to the overfishing of predators, similar to overhunting on land, many otherwise hunted species begin to overpopulate, which can easily unbalance fragile and complex underwater ecosystems.

Turning challenges into opportunities there are areas where innovative and sustainable solutions are popping up thanks to impact-driven leaders.

One such case is with sea urchin populations that overgraze kelp and seagrass forests, turning the water into a desolate wasteland.

Startup Urchinomics is managing urchins populations while producing premium seafood products. Image: Pexels

Norwegian-based startup Urchinomics solves this problem by rehoming the urchins into ranches, where they go from annoying pests to a premium seafood product that can be consistently supplied year-round.

This way, food is farmed while positively affecting the environment, recovering a healthy ecosystem with a particular focus on sea kelp forests.

Addressing harmful urchin overpopulation with an innovative solution that preserves marine life by creating food is also proven to be a viable business model.

While sea urchins face overpopulation, other marine animals, such as sea oysters, have been underpopulated. This results in undersupply and also negative environmental impacts.

Oysters might not be as famous for their critical role as coral reefs. Still, they provide multiple benefits, such as water quality improvement, nursery habitat for fish, and reduced nitrogen levels, while contributing to the local economy and culture.

A sustainable farming business, The Oyster Restoration Company, based in the United Kingdom, aims to fix this problem by providing 150 million native oysters annually.

They are working on this by selectively breeding oysters to create disease resistance, a common problem in aquaculture.

They work to bring balance back into the environment and improve farm yield to reduce dependency on pacific species.

Oysters are overlooked for their ability to improve water quality, provide fish nurseries, and reduce nitrogen levels while contributing to the economy and culture. Image: Pexels

Although farming fish and invertebrates is becoming more popular, seaweed farming is getting more attention as this plant absorbs carbon dioxide and nitrogen while protecting seabeds.

Oceanium, a Scottish enterprise, is a sustainable seaweed farm that meets many industries’ needs by producing food, feed, and biomass. They launched the “KELP-EU” or “Kelping the EU”, an 18-month project with multiple partners that allows them to study seaweed further.

However, not all farming has to be nature-based.

German-Thai company HydroNeo brings the process of shrimp farming to the future through Internet-of-Things technology. They have developed a smart farm management system that allows farmers to check pH and water temperature while remotely feeding and aerating their farms.

Seafood may have a lower environmental impact than land animals, we need to be aware that the pollution produced by this industry is still not as low as it is with plant-based products.

Consumers may still yearn for a fishy flavour but want plant based sourcing, as they are concerned about the effects of microplastic pollution in the ocean or have ethical issues with fishing.

Swedish company, Hooked offers a 100% plant-based substitute for tuna and salmon. Image: Hooked

Swedish-based enterprise Hooked provides a terrific substitute for tuna and salmon through a combination of sustainable soybeans, sunflower oil, and algae.

They list all ingredient sources on their website for a completely transparent and traceable product.

By providing a plant-based vegan substitute for fish, they are reducing microplastic consumption in humans and greenhouse gas emissions from the industry, while reducing the need for fishing.

According to Hooked, canned tuna has 6.06 kg of CO2 equivalent emission per kilo of product, while their product, Toonish only produces 2.7.

It is no question that there is a huge potential for using blue foods to address many challenges.

Still, the seafood industry needs urgent re-examination to create sustainable and regenerative solutions.

Background style

Light

Sponsored?

April 2023

Join the Ocean Video Challenge

Anonymous — Mon, 27 Apr 2020 15:23:14 +0000

Join the Ocean Video Challenge

Tags

Topic

Create a short video about why the world needs to urgently support greater ocean protection and climate action.

The Save the Ocean Creative Challenge is organised by The Ocean Agency, Adobe and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), as part of the Glowing Glowing Gone campaign - a global campaign using creativity and colour to rapidly accelerate ocean conservation and climate action.

This new challenge is designed to help participants gain skills to plan, sequence and craft an informative and persuasive video, while at the same time developing knowledge about oceans, coral reefs and the impacts of climate change. It is also a great opportunity to increase family and community learning engagement and to share with social networks while practising physical distancing to help flatten the coronavirus curve.

“Coral reefs are among the world’s most vulnerable ecosystems to climate change.

Scientists believe we have lost 50% of original coral cover and with projected warming, we stand to lose another 70 to 90% in the coming decades.

What many people also don’t know is that coral reefs are also known as the medicine cabinets of the sea as many life-saving medicines, including for treating viral infections, are made from bioactive compounds found in coral reef organisms.

Coral reef, Image: Pexels

During these days of physical distancing and learning from home, we have a great opportunity to learn more about these amazing ecosystems through online activities such the Save the Ocean Creative Challenge,” says UNEP marine ecosystems expert Gabriel Grimsditch.

This digital challenge seeks to empower people to become “master storytellers and marketing moguls” by using creative software, video footage, imagery, text, and graphics provided.

You can access these online resources to create your video: Information on glowing corals, curated video clips and audio files, and high-quality coral reef images. Award-winning cinematographer David Hannan and Reef Check France donated the footage as part of The Ocean Agency’s Image Bank.

“Creativity is an essential skill, and challenges like this give young people amazing opportunities to get creative while deepening their understanding of hugely important issues. Creative teaching methods can deliver positive outcomes across all subjects and make learning more fun at the same time,” says Simon Morris, Senior Director, Digital Media Marketing, Adobe.

Selected videos will be featured on the Glowing Glowing Gone site.

Creative minds at home - teachers, students, parents, children and families - are invited to bring to life, through video skills, videos on why the world needs to save an important component of the planet’s rich biodiversity.

For this online challenge, the focus is the world’s magical coral reefs, home to a quarter of sea life.

More information about the Save the Ocean Creative Challenge >>

Footer

Open call to raise awarenness

Background style

Light

Sponsored?

April 2020

Tourism sector players are joining forces to fight plastic pollution

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Jan 2020 16:47:14 +0000

Tourism sector players are joining forces to fight plastic pollution

Tags

Topic

Global Tourism Plastics Initiative aims to unite the tourism sector to take actions in the shift towards sustainability.

During the busy tourist season, marine litter in the Mediterranean region increases by up to 40 per cent which has a great irony since eight out of ten tourists travel to coastal areas wishing to unwind on sandy beaches with crystal clear water while enjoying the beauty of natural wildlife.

According to the Global Tourism Plastic Initiative, alongside the 8 million tonnes of plastic that enter the ocean every year, 300 million tonnes of new plastic is created annually, utilizing non-renewable resources such as oil, gas and coal, and contributing to climate change. If growth in plastic production and incineration continue, cumulative emissions by 2050 will make up between 10 and 13 per cent of the total remaining global carbon budget. As a result, the implications of plastic overconsumption extend even further than the litter that is visible in the ocean.

From polluters to fixers: Global Tourism Plastics Initiative

The plastic problem can only be solved with the active collaboration of stakeholders in the tourism industry, including moving away from single-use plastics, reducing consumption of unnecessary plastics, and moving towards circularity through better recycling and re-using schemes.

“Plastic pollution is one of the major environmental challenges of our time. The Global Tourism Plastics Initiative supports tourism companies and destinations to innovate, eliminate and circulate the way they use plastics, to help achieve circularity in the use of plastics and reduce plastic pollution globally,” said UNEP’s Economy Division Director, Ligia Noronha.

The goal of the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative is to bring the tourism sector together under a common vision to transition to a circular plastic economy and sustainability in the sector. The initiative has been developed by the Sustainable Tourism Programme of the One Planet Network, a multi-stakeholder partnership to implement Sustainable Development Goal 12 on sustainable consumption and production.

The campaign is led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Tourism Organization in collaboration with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

The Global Tourism Plastics Initiative requires tourism organizations to make a set of concrete commitments by 2025, including:

Eliminate problematic or unnecessary plastic packaging and items by 2025
Take action to move from single-use to re-use models or reusable alternative by 2025
Engage the value chain to move towards 100 per cent of plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable, or compostable
Take action to increase the amount of recycled content across all plastic packaging and items used
Commit to collaborate and invest to increase the recycling and composting rates for plastics
Report publicly and annually on progress made towards these targets

This initiative is the tourism sector interface of the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, which currently has over 450 signatories from businesses, governments, and other organizations, with the common objective of reducing plastic pollution through ambitious targets.

Footer

Program of the One Planet Network

Background style

Light

Sponsored?

January 2020

UNDP launches new Ocean Innovation Challenge

Szilvia Szabó — Mon, 20 Jan 2020 16:43:21 +0000

UNDP launches new Ocean Innovation Challenge

Tags

SDGs

Ocean

Responsible Innovation

Topic

Funding

Open Call

Blue Economy

Financing Innovation for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 - Life under water

The ocean ecosystem has never faced such a diverse range of threats caused by overfishing, pollution, habitat loss and the multiple impacts of climate change.

Recognising the increasing urgency of tackling ocean pollution, particularly from plastics and nutrients, the first of several planned Ocean Innovation Challenge focuses on SDG 14.1- Reduce Marine Pollution. This open call seeks innovations that are transferable, replicable and scalable offering grants ranging from $50,000 to $250,000.

“To achieve SDG14, we must break new ground with innovative technologies, policies, regulations and financial instruments. In this regard, the new UNDP Ocean Innovation Challenge is a most welcome addition to the growing number of ocean incubators and accelerators.” says Peter Thomson, UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy on Oceans.

That is clear by now that the `business as usual` scenario will not deliver the transformational change needed to move towards sustainable ocean use.

The Ocean Innovation Challenge is issuing a series of 'Ocean Challenges' or Requests for Proposals, each focused on a specific SDG14 target.

This unique new support has been designed to accelerate progress on SDG14 by the identifying, financing, advising and mentoring of genuinely innovative, entrepreneurial and creative approaches to the ocean and coastal restoration and protection that sustains livelihoods and advances the ’blue economy’.

“At a time when the world’s oceans and seas face unprecedented pressures, UNDP’s new Ocean Innovation Challenge will shine a light on innovative, entrepreneurial and creative approaches that can advance ocean and coastal restoration and protection,” says Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator.

The first 'Ocean Challenge', launched on 8 January 2020, seeks innovative solutions to counter the scourge of ocean pollution.

Initial concepts may be submitted by public or private entities, including governments, private companies (including start-ups), NGO/CSO, United Nations entities, academic institutions, and intergovernmental organizations.

Interested applicants should submit their preliminary proposal here no later than 5 March 2020.

Background style

Light

Sponsored?

January 2020