ANNOUNCING THE FINALISTS OF THE INAUGURAL OIO X HP GENERATION IMPACT INCUBATOR
Check Out the Winners and Runners Up Here
In August this year, Ocean Impact Organisation (OIO) announced a new Major Partnership with HP Australia, with the leading global brand becoming the first Major Technology Partner for OIO. The first official project of the newly announced partnership is the HP Generation Impact Incubator, a program designed to support and accelerate early stage innovators on a mission to transform the future of ocean health.
The HP Generation Impact Incubator launched on 10th August 2021 with a call for applications from young innovators and entrepreneurs (aged 35 and under) residing in Australia, with the opportunity to win cash, HP technology and expert mentorship from OIO and HP to help bring their ocean innovation to life.
The HP Generation Impact Incubator shortlisted Finalists were announced on the 12th of October 2021, alongside The Ocean Impact Pitchfest 2021 (of which HP is also proud to be a Presenting Partner) shortlist. With over 80 applications received during the 7-week application period, shortlisting the 8 Generation Impact Finalists was no easy task.
The Finalists are (in alphabetical order):
Annette McClelland from Tekuma; Curtis Sciacca from Nurtured.Co; Emile Theau from Sine Surf; Josh Howard from Single Use Ain’t Sexy; Joshua Castle from Blue Symbiosis; Lottie Dalziel from Banish; Maria Isabel Toasa Cordero from EM Energy and Sian Murray from Pleasant State.
The shortlisted Finalists will now be judged by an expert panel with the Winner and Runners Up announced on the 4th of November 2021.
Scroll down to read all about the Finalists and watch their pitch videos.
For Co-founder and CEO of OIO, Nick Chiarelli, the number of applications submitted for The HP Generation Impact Incubator confirmed just how passionate and eager young Australian innovators are to develop solutions which contribute to increasing the health of the ocean. “It has been fantastic to see young Australians respond to our call to action and apply to the HP Generation Impact Incubator. At OIO our goals are to accelerate 100 ocean startups in 5 years and, in doing so, put Australia ‘on the map’ as a global source of innovative solutions to help Planet Ocean. The Finalists of the Generation Impact Incubator give me great hope Australia can, and will be, such a leader.”
For Mike Boyle, Managing Director of HP Australia and New Zealand, the results illustrated the wealth of young talent striving to develop solutions to help Planet Ocean. “With over 80 innovative ideas from different industries submitted to the Incubator program, we know there’s a strong appetite for young Australians to make real change and transform ocean health” said Boyle. “This thinking could not come at a more crucial time, with The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s latest report issuing a code red for humanity, and calling on government, business, industry and individuals to make change now”.
In June 2021, HP announced their goal of becoming the world’s most sustainable technology company, through the company’s plastic strategy of reducing single-use plastic packaging by 75% by 2025.
With the newly formed partnership between OIO and HP, Boyle continues “while we’re making strong strides at HP, we know that real, lasting impact is achieved through partnership, and at scale. We’re looking forward to announcing the winner of the HP Generation Impact Incubator and helping empower and enable Australia young innovators to solve some of the most pressing challenges facing the ocean.”
HP GENERATION IMPACT INCUBATOR FINALISTS
ANNETTE MCLELLAND
Company: Tekuma
Website: https://www.tekuma.tech
Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annettemcclelland/
About:
Annette McClelland is the co-founder of Tekuma, an organisation on a mission to improve the way that humans interact with technology by developing technology that is user friendly and that helps others to increase the positive impact they can create.
The Innovator:
Annette Tekuma is the CEO and Co-founder of Tekuma, a human-machine interface startup on a mission to improve the ways that humans interact with technology. She has a BA in Communications, an MBA from UTS, and her love of the ocean has led her to become a qualified PADI Advanced Open Water Diver.
The Innovation:
Tekuma are actively working to improve the user experience and accuracy of outdated technologies, such as the current two-joystick controller. Annette and her co-founder, Michael Griffin, have designed a single hand operation controller that allows the user to have better control and a hand free. The force-based nature of the orb means movement of the orb spatially correlates to how a user wants to move their device, significantly reducing training time and brain bandwidth when completing tasks vs standard two-joystick interfaces, which has been proven by Michael’s mechatronics engineering thesis.
Built to be device agnostic it universally controls multiple devices on different communication platforms for various applications - allowing end-users and manufacturers to plug it into existing systems. Current ocean health partners utilise this tech to conduct biosecurity surveillance, maritime maintenance, research sample collection collection, search and rescue, and other ocean exploration activities. The technology can be scaled even further by partnering with organisations already dedicated to improving ocean health.
CURTIS SCIACCA
Company: Nurtured.Co
Website: https://www.nurtured.co
Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/curtis-sciacca
About:
Curtis Sciacca is the co-founder of Nurtured.Co, an organisation with a purpose of developing and creating artificial coral reefs in order to rejuvenate, rehabilitate and restore coral reefs worldwide.
The Innovator:
Curtis’s passion for the ocean has now led him into the business of developing eco-promotional opportunities whereby business and the environment can both benefit from each other, through the development of artificial coral reefs. Curtis Sciacca has already successfully commercialised and developed two different organisations including a Rod and Reel protection business, and an innovative charity in which supplies access to free meals through hot food vending machines.
The Innovation:
Nurtured. Co aims to rehabilitate, restore and rejuvenate coral reefs worldwide. The fundamental goal is to enhance coral reef growth and improve coral restoration and rehabilitation within the Great Barrier Reef. The team utilises scientific data in relation to coral growth and mortality metrics in order to measure the overall impact on ocean health. Nurtured. Co employs new aged technology, enhancing the growth of artificial reefs through low voltage electrical currents in order to grow calcium carbonate (the material in which a coral skeleton is made out of) on steel materials.
Nutured.Co utilises mineral accretion reefs which have been proven to be more effective and efficient compared to traditional coral transplanting and gardening methods as it encourages greater growth, reproduction and settlement. .This produces a naturalistic coral reef foundation, creating a marine ecosystem quickly and inexpensively.
EMILE THEAU
Company: Sine Surf
Website: https://sinesurf.com
Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emile-theau-707201179/
About:
Emile Teau is the co-founder of Sine Surf, a company which produces sustainable and durable performance surfboards and surf wear through the use of wooden materials, resulting in producing half the amount of plastic waste compared to regular surfboard production.
The Innovator:
Emile Theau is a nanotechnology and data recovery systems engineer who has developed environmentally sustainable surfboards. The idea was born after Emile discovered that products currently available on the market are environmentally damaging and are at odds with the nature-loving surfing community.
The Innovation:
The manufacturing of a typical foam and fiberglass surfboard produces approximately twice its weight in industrial waste. This waste is generally plastic foams and PET or Epoxy resins that are often reduced to microplastics. With approximately 20 million surfboards sold per year globally, this accounts for 160,000 tonnes of plastic waste, much of which can take over 500 years to biodegrade.
Emile’s company, Sine Surf, is a startup aiming to shift the surfing industry towards more sustainable practices. Sine Surf has developed a new method and a new hollow structure to reinvent a more sustainable, wooden surfboard material. These methods drastically reduce the manufacturing time of hollow wooden surfboards to 25% of the previous 30 hours it would generally take a skilled craftsman. Furthermore, with new automation and design, surfboards are over 95% biodegradable by volume, produce less than 0.5 kg of industrial waste during manufacturing, and are better than net zero emissions.
JOSH HOWARD
Company: Single Use Ain’t Sexy
Website: https://www.singleuseaintsexy.com/
Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-howard-9440746b/
About:
Josh Howard is the founder of ‘Single Use Ain’t Sexy’ which strives to reduce plastic consumption through the production of dissolvable soap products and reusable glass bottles, making it easily accessible to households all over Australia.
The Innovator:
Josh is an entrepreneur who is passionate about finding solutions to environmental problems. Josh is the founder and CEO of 'Single Use Ain't Sexy', creating the business in order to provide simple & stylish solutions for Australians to reduce their single-use plastic bottle consumption at home in an affordable and efficient way.
The Innovation:
Single Use Ain’t Sexy have developed Australia's first dissolvable foaming hand soap tablet & reusable glass bottle. Single Use Ain’t Sexy aims to reduce everyday plastic soap dispensers by producing ones that can be recycled by just adding water, and washing your hands with refill tablets. The solution is simple, sexy and sustainable, and has been designed to seamlessly integrate into the daily routines of everyday Aussies wanting to make sustainable changes at home.So far the company has saved up to 125,000 single-use plastic bottles from ending up in oceans, waterways and landfills.
JOSHUA CASTLE
Company: Blue Symbiosis
Website: http://www.bluesymbiosis.com/
Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuajaycastle/
About
Joshua Castle is the founder of Blue Symbiosis, a company that strives to make a difference which involves one of the major environmental issues, oil and gas infrastrures. By utilising old structures, Blue Symbiosis seeks to repurpose retired oil and gas infrastructure for regenerating seaweed cultivation in order to make a positive impact towards our Planet Ocean.
The Innovator:
Joshua Castle is a passionate environmental activist which led him to completing his Bachelor of Marine and Antarctic Science with Honours. Joshua’s thesis involved the research into repurposing oil and gas infrastructure to regenerative seaweed sites, resulting in Joshua travelling all over the world for his studies and the development of Blue Symbiosis.
The Innovation:
Blue Symbiosis focuses on finding solutions for decommissioning and scaling seaweed production. Decommissioning is an emerging $60 billion AUD problem for governments and industries in which they are expected to share the costs. Seaweed has the potential to deliver vast environmental benefits for ocean health, but if it can’t be scaled, significant impacts on ocean health can’t be realised.
Blue Symbiosis aims to repurpose retired oil and gas infrastructure to regenerative seaweed cultivation sites in order to increase seaweed production to the scale large enough for seaweed to make a significant impact on ocean health.Benefits of this include helping the oil and gas industry transition towards a sustainable direction, saving decommissioning costs, re-using infrastructure, symbolising change, and the benefits associated with seaweed cultivation. It is possible to tell a new, regenerative story for the future of oil and gas infrastructure.
LOTTIE DALZIEL
Company: Banish
Website: https://banish.com.au/
Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lottiedalziel/
About:
Lottie Dalziel is the founder of Banish, a company with an aim to give Australians all of the tools they need to reduce their waste and ecological footprint.
The Innovator:
Leading sustainability journalist, host of Sustainability Further podcast, founder and CEO of Banish, co-founder and CEO of Little Pepino, Lottie’s professional experience as one of Australia's leading sustainability communicators and educators has led her to develop Banish, an Australian startup in which assists Australian communities in reducing their waste and ecological footprints.
The Innovation:
1580kg of waste enters our oceans every hour. Whilst enormous, this problem is something that every Australian can help tackle. The Banish Recycling and Disposal program (BRAD) helps everyday Australians recycle hard to recycle waste like coffee cups, straws, cutlery, and blister packs. Without this program these items are destined for landfills and our oceans. The program has currently been operating for 11 months and in that time BRAD has recycled 2.5 tonnes or 30,000 pieces of plastic from over 3,500 households. The program not only actively diverts waste from entering waterways but educates Australians on how to responsibly dispose of items and how to use fewer resources.
The BRAD program recycles all items collected onshore through Australian recycling facilities and also accepts most recycling streams of any program in Australia, making it the easiest way to recycle multiple items in one go. BRAD also helps make living sustainably more accessible to larger audiences by offering a financial incentive.
MARIA ISABEL TOASA CORDERO
Company: Em Energy
Website: https://www.emenergy.com.au/
Personal linked in: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-isabel-toasa-cordero/
About:
Maria Isabel Toasa Cordero is the head of research and development for Em Energy, a company with a mission to revolutionize and replace the need for chemical based batteries. Em Energy strives to decrease environmental damage caused by greenhouse gases and chemical leaks.
The Innovator:
Maria has a Masters in environmental and water engineering with over 4 years experience in bioremediation and sustainable matters. Maria is also a passionate environmental conservationist, resulting in the development of innovative ideas in order to help create more sustainable and eco-friendly materials, leading to the development of Em Energy.
The Innovation:
Em Energys’ mission is to revolutionize and replace the need for chemical based batteries. The solution involves an eco-friendly refillable battery that is powered by beneficial microorganisms and algae extracts. Whilst chemical batteries are essential to human day-to-day life, their life cycle from production to disposal has been linked to detrimental environmental damage from the high emission of greenhouse gases to the pollution of chemical leaks into soil and water.
The Em Energy battery will transform the life cycle of the battery, as its performance will match the heavy metal and toxic chemical batteries used today, while promoting a cyclical framework whereby the battery cell disposal will improve nutrients in the soil and water biota.
The sustainable harvest of beneficial microorganisms from healthy soils and algae extracts will generate a solution that contains nitrogen, phosphorus, iron and other nutrients in a stable chemical structure, containing hydrogen radicals that act like lithium electrons in a conventional battery. After use, Em Energy batteries can be replaced and disposed of in the soil, providing nutrients to the soil and food availability for sensitive macroinvertebrate in aquatic ecosystems.
SIAN MURRAY
Company: Pleasant State
Website: https://www.pleasantstate.com/
Personal linked in: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sianmurray3/
About:
Sian Murray is the co-founder of Pleasant State, a company in which aims to reduce plastic waste and production by replacing everyday household cleaning products with more sustainable, recyclable and environmentally friendly materials which are easily accessible.
The Innovator:
Sian is an avid surfer, ocean lover and is passionate about protecting the environment for future generations. She is a Digital Marketing Specialist with a talent for creatively communicating a brand's mission with its community. As the Co-Founder of Pleasant State, Sian has helped take the business from concept to a rapidly growing brand with a highly engaged community.
The Innovation:
Australians buy over 23 million single-use plastic spray cleaning products a year! Unfortunately, these are thrown away once finished, heading to landfills and sometimes even our oceans. Pleasant State refillable solutions allow customers to easily and affordably move away from single-use plastic and toxic cleaning products. The average household will save 15 single-use plastic cleaning bottles from going to landfills each year just by switching to reusable or refillable cleaning products.
This revolutionary solution doesn’t just remove the need for pointless single-use plastic packaging, it stops the transportation of litres upon litres of water which contributes to unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions and puts an end to toxic cleaning chemicals entering waterways. Pleasant States’ products are biodegradable, greywater and septic safe meaning they're safe for our oceans and sea life. To date, the company has saved over 30,000 plastic cleaning bottles from going to landfills and donated $5,000 to Take 3 for the Sea who are working to clean up our oceans.