Healthy Oceans / Seaweed​​

Case Study: Driving Investments and Scale in Seaweed

Client: Global Seaweed Coalition

The Context & Challenge:

• The Mission of the Global Seaweed Coalition is to facilitate the emergence of an international seaweed sector, with global safety standards, grounded in science. The Coalition achieves this through the implementation four pillars: funding, advocacy, science, and policy. Seaweeds play a vital role in marine ecosystems, providing habitat and food for various marine species, contribute to nutrient cycling, and help maintain water quality. 
• Seaweed has also the ability to absorb and store carbon dioxide, which can help mitigate the effects of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas levels. 
• The Global Seaweed Coalition spearheads worldwide collaboration that links all stakeholders in the seaweed industry to promote sustainable seaweed practices, share best practices and technical knowledge, and address the current fragmented and uncoordinated state of the seaweed sector. The aim is to garner increased investments and interest for initiatives that can be scaled up effectively to promote a sustainable global seaweed industry. 

The Deliverable:

• To help fulfill the Global Seaweed Coalition’s mission, Ubuntoo has developed a platform enabling knowledge and solution sharing, as well as the interaction between members and key seaweed stakeholders from around the globe. The Global Seaweed Coalition’s platform on Ubuntoo has helped inform its worldwide coalition members about innovative solutions, scientific publications, policies/regulations, news, and important upcoming events for the seaweed industry. Through the directory, solutions pages, and the forum, members can interact with each other and with solution owners who are also invited to join and update their own organization’s page. Regular newsletters are sent to all members, highlighting some of the latest content extracted from the platform. 

The Result:

• The Global Seaweed Coalition, in partnership with Ubuntoo, is successfully facilitating worldwide collaboration to address the fragmented state of the seaweed sector. The platform boasts over 400 innovative seaweed solutions ranging from seaweed ingredients, seaweed packaging, harvesting and post-harvesting technologies, feed supplements, biofertilizers, cosmetic ingredients, and more. 
• Over 318 scientific publications and knowledge blogs have been shared to all 1,200 global platform members, informing them of policy regulations, best practices, new scientific research, and more. The members represent a diverse array of
  nationalities and professional background: coming from over 90 different countries, and ranging from seaweed experts, seaweed startup owners, students, to researchers, and more. 
• This collective effort is advancing the mission to promote a sustainable global seaweed industry and has made substantial contributions through the publication of innovative solutions and the sharing of vital knowledge and expertise among its global membership.