INVESTING IN THE FUTURE OF PLANET OCEAN
Original article written by Courtney Kruk for AMPLIFY here.
TIM SILVERWOOD & NICK CHIARELLI / @SPINDRIFTSTORIES
Written by Courtney Kruk.
In the last ten years, I’ve had the privilege of living on Australia’s east coast along stretches of coastline considered some of the most pristine and magnificent in the world. Tim Silverwood has spent the same decade advocating for the preservation of those and other coastlines around the world, co-founding Take 3 for the Sea in 2009 to fight plastic pollution, sailing 5000km across the North Pacific Ocean to study the infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch, appearing in documentaries and speaking publicly about the greatest issues facing the world’s oceans. His latest venture, Ocean Impact Organisation, will likely consume another decade or two of his life, though it’s a slightly different approach to ocean sustainability than Silverwood’s previous vocations.
“I was kind of prepared to just start another traditional non-profit and do more environmental advocacy and campaigning,” Silverwood begins, detailing his transition from Take 3 for the Sea into Ocean Impact Organisation. “Then Nick sort of came into my world and he had this really refreshing perspective on a new type of change and that was through business for good.” Nick Chiarelli is the other half of OIO, a chartered accountant by trade with far more experience in the business world than in environmental activism. Silverwood and Chiarelli’s contrasting professions would prove an ideal meeting of minds, a perfect fusion of expertise coupled with a shared desire to be catalysts for positive environmental change.
TIM SILVERWOOD / @SPINDRIFTSTORIES
Chiarelli’s initial idea centred around forging a generation of businesses and entrepreneurs looking for novel ways of doing business that would help the ocean. After deciding it was time to tackle a new project and move on from Take 3, it was the mission Silverwood had been waiting for. “Admittedly we took 19 months to really sort of “date” and figure out if we were going to sign up because we knew that it was going to be a long journey,” Silverwood says.
“WE WEREN’T STARTING THIS ON A WHIM, WE WERE STARTING THIS BECAUSE NICK WAS ON THE OTHER SIDE DISILLUSIONED WITH HIS TRADITIONAL BUSINESS SETTING...HE WANTED TO FIND CONSCIOUS CAPITALISM AND GIVE BACK. FIND A NEW WAY OF DOING THINGS, BREAK THE MOULD A LITTLE BIT. HE’S A REAL DISRUPTER. SO, IT DIDN’T TAKE LONG FOR US BOTH TO REALISE THAT WE MET IN THE MIDDLE.”
NICK CHIARELLI / @SPINDRIFTSTORIES
Ocean Impact Organisation launched in February as a service to help people start, grow and invest in businesses that positively impact the ocean. It’s Australia’s first ocean impact ecosystem and startup accelerator for businesses and entrepreneurs looking to make a positive impact on the ocean and harness the untapped business potential of this landscape. “In terms of what is sort of defined by “ocean impact”, it’s an emerging terminology which essentially says that we live on planet ocean, it’s governed by the sea whether we like it or not,” Silverwood explains. “So, we are looking at all the challenges the ocean faces [divided] into six key themes.”
There’s no shortage of inspiration to be found as Silverwood describes each theme, offering examples along the way for potential business ventures and innovation. The first is Ocean Health, exploring opportunities for the protection of ocean ecosystems and restoration; Ocean Energy, examining the potential for renewable energy from the ocean to reduce reliance on fossil fuels; Transportation and Security, decarbonising vessels and the future of lower impact maritime operations; Ocean Harvesting, encompassing initiatives like regenerative aquaculture and improved ocean farming; Inspiration and Leisure, improving ocean literacy and enhancing eco-tourism; and New Frontiers, the “big, crazy, wild ideas” like large scale seaweed farming, offshore floating cities and underwater research laboratories.
TIM SILVERWOOD, NICK CHIARELLI & DONOR: ROBIN TEDDER / @SPINDRIFTSTORIES
While the themes were built into the organisation from inception, they’ve proved integral to their first campaign - The Ocean Impact Pitchfest 2020. A completely virtual event, Pitchfest was launched to discover, showcase and celebrate innovations and innovators who are creating a positive impact on the ocean. Judged by a panel of industry leaders and supported by over 40 partners, including Bank Australia providing the $15,000 cash prize for first place, Silverwood says the campaign has attracted an enormous volume of applicants and a broad spectrum of unique ideas and innovations for ocean-based business. “We think we know a lot and then you see the applications come in,” he says.
“There’s just so many. Everything from satellite monitoring to help ships move around storms and currents more efficiently to save astonishing amounts of carbon pollution, to preventing disasters like we saw in Mauritius recently. There’s robotics, incredible ocean energy solutions, looking at new biomaterials for plastics, new ways of monitoring...so many incredible ideas.” From the 200 applications received, ten finalists will be announced on the 20th of October, with the Pitchfest winner and runners up revealed on the 4th of November. Prizes include cash, a support package and access to key business and science mentors - all designed to scale and develop ideas to ensure a significant positive impact on the ocean.
TIM SILVERWOOD & NICK CHIARELLI / @SPINDRIFTSTORIES
Silverwood says Pitchfest, which saw entries from 38 different countries, has in many ways validated the 18 months he and Chiarelli spent “pressure testing” the idea for OIO, building strategies and communicating their long-term vision. It has also showcased Australia’s unique position to be at the forefront of ocean-based solutions to climate change and a leader in developing innovation and environment-focused technology.
“We are an ocean going, ocean loving nation, so we already have a vibrant ocean economy, we just probably haven’t been shining a light on it,” Silverwood says. “We used our media approach to Pitchfest to focus on this target of the Australian ocean economy being valued at 100 billion dollars by 2025...that’s currently tracking [at around] 73 billion so it’s already a very big and vibrant industry and growing all the time. And when you start to look at little segments like ocean energy for example, there are great conversations already taking place around how [Australia] can become a net exporter of renewable energy whether that’s solar or hydrogen...or new innovations tapping into wave energy.
“Seaweed is another one. Currently we’ve only got a three million dollar Australian seaweed industry but with a modest investment that can very rapidly become a 100 million dollar sector by 2025 and a 1.5 billion dollar industry by 2040. There are huge opportunities here, it’s really about what I believe to be an attitude shift, an appreciation that we can do things differently. In Australia, we extract minerals and we extract fossil fuels and we sell them to the global market without any approach to innovation and doing things differently and it’s just to our detriment, it’s not sustainable for us economically (…)”
PITCHFEST PROMO @GRUMPYTURTLECREATIVE
Silverwood’s assessment of Australia’s potential blue economy is well timed. In mid-September, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison made news headlines with his “gas-led recovery”, announcing plans to expand the use of the fossil fuel to re-establish the post-coronavirus economy. In the accompanying funding package the Morrison government allocated A$50 million for Carbon Capture and Storage projects, a technology designed to extend the life of dirty fossil fuels. To date, more than A$1 billion has already been spent by various government grants on this technology that has so far failed to deliver any notable abatement. Contrast these plans with the realm of unexplored eco-tech options, and one can only imagine where the blue economy would already be if similar amounts had been invested into ocean technologies instead.
Despite the government’s ambitions to continue burning dirty fossil fuels, Silverwood and Chiarelli are confident in the alternatives, directing their energy into sustainable solutions and environmentally positive innovations with Ocean Impact Organisation. “We really want to be part of this galvanising of the new ocean economy and all these incredible opportunities. Because the people are definitely here, the academic institutions are here, the research and everything we do is brilliant. What we probably haven’t done [in Australia] is shine a light on the commercialisation piece and we haven’t created this startup and innovation ecosystem which is really what we’re trying to help to catalyse.”
“The idea of changing and doing a 180 and looking at these regenerative and restorative options and all the information in plans, like the Beyond Zero Emissions Million Jobs Plan, it is a bit harder but we’ve got to do it at some point,” Silverwood continues.
“THIS IS WHERE I THINK IT COMES DOWN TO THAT CONVERSATION ABOUT LEADERSHIP, I MEAN WHAT KIND OF COUNTRY DO WE LIVE IN WHERE WE ARE SO DEVOID OF LEADERSHIP TO TACKLE THE GREATEST CHALLENGE OF OUR TIME (...) EVEN IF THERE’S A BIT OF PAIN TO GET TO THE PLEASURE. BECAUSE ALL THESE OLD INDUSTRIES ARE GOING TO HAVE TO WIND UP, JUST LIKE OLD INDUSTRIES THROUGHOUT TIME HAVE WOUND UP AS TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION AND ADVANCEMENT TAKES OVER THE OLD.”
TIM SILVERWOOD & NICK CHIARELLI / @SPINDRIFTSTORIES
One of OIO’s more surprising characteristics is that it is based on profit, whether that is for an entrepreneur putting forth a business idea or an investor looking for a return. It draws on an ideology of ‘conscious capitalism’, a concept discussed in depth by the pair in the first episode of the Ocean Impact Podcast. If the desire to make profit isn’t going away, how can we ensure that profit is made in a purpose led and impactful way. “That’s definitely what a growing class of people, particularly in investment communities, are after,” Silverwood explains. “It’s not to say we’re there yet or we’re going to be there tomorrow because there are still norms that need to be conformed to which is where there are a lot of challenges, like do you want the investment return or do you want the impact? They want both (...). What we really want right now is to create this new ecosystem and way of doing things.”
It’s certainly a shift for Silverwood after a decade spent leading a non-profit organisation aimed at inspiring simple actions to help the environment. “I love the idea of coming at it from both sides and I suppose the biggest shift for me is that I’ve sort of been a little bit allergic to going into the big business and that sort of capitalistic model because I’m not sure that it will work for humanity in the long term,” he says, “But the idea of doing business better and being more conscious, that’s a fantastic step towards the end goal.
“And if we can show it works and in five years’ time show that OIO has created this massive investment around positive, new generation business that’s good for the ocean, then we’ve just given the bird to the other guys and said I told you, you’ve gotta be more like this because people won’t support you if you’re not like that. We can actually advocate for the future we want, we can be quite radical by doing good business which is a really refreshing approach for me and I’m really charged up about it.”
TIM SILVERWOOD & NICK CHIARELLI / @SPINDRIFTSTORIES
Original article written by Courtney Kruk for AMPLIFY here.