The Reef-World Foundation - the international coordinators of Green Fins - led another series of successful ocean conscious business seminars at at DEMA Show (13-16 Nov 2019). These free events, which were attended by representatives across all segments of the dive industry, help businesses and professionals find ways of seating sustainability at the heart of their business model.
This year, the events explained what an ocean-conscious approach is and how this will help businesses across the dive sector thrive. This included: how to plan ocean-conscious dive trips; where to find manufacturers that are reducing plastic packaging; who produces innovative green dive gear; and how to minimise environmental impact from divers and underwater photographers. Real-life examples gave attendees priceless competitor insights about what works and what doesn’t when facing certain sustainability obstacles and attendees were asked to contribute to Reef-World’s Ocean Conscious Suppliers list; a shared resource to help the dive industry find and access sustainable suppliers. Please see below for an overview of the discussions:
Main Takeaways
Sustainability is going mainstream and businesses need to adapt their mindset to ensure survival
This is existential for all of us: the threat we face as an industry is that if there’s no beautiful coral or fish to look at, no-one wants to go diving anymore.
To successfully integrate sustainability into a businesses’ mission, leadership must come from the top-level management
Judge on sustainability criteria, but don’t be judgemental; everyone is on their own journey and there is no perfect, but as diving industry representatives we can lead by example. It doesn’t matter where you are in your journey – even if you’ve not yet taken your first step – as long as you’re committed to improving. There is no “perfect”
Collaboration is the new competition: There was a strong call for collaboration to overcome the challenges ahead
The Green Fins tools provide practical guidance for dive and snorkel businesses to integrate best environmental practice within their operations
For a lot of businesses, thinking about where to start can be really daunting, especially thinking about tackling issues on a global scale. Ask yourself if you have the internal bandwidth, resources and expertise to drive this type of project forward – and, if not, ask for help
Involve all levels of your business in coming up with solutions: some of the best solutions come from crew members who are on the ground and working there day-to-day
The industry can become better at communicating best practice guidelines for photographers to make a real difference
Make it manageable – break your environmental policy down into easy to manage chunks, working against a clear timeline, for all the people in your organisation to have accountability
Have someone to keep you accountable – whether it’s a partnership with someone like Reef-World, a business mentor or even a friend
There are only a couple of manufacturers really innovating the production and design of their equipment to reduce environmental impact – this is something the industry really wants to drive forward
Case studies for sustainable liveaboard travel, manufacturing and underwater photography were showcased
When endowing plastic with value, the problem of waste materials becomes an opportunity for someone to make money – this is already happening and will provide the industry with exciting solutions
Sustainable Diving: The Context
Chloe Harvey, Director of The Reef-World Foundation, opened the seminars by introducing Reef-World and explaining how the charity works to improve sustainability across all industry segments in a non-exclusive manner through the Green Fins initiative, coordinated in partnership with the UN Environment Programme. She also introduced the session’s sponsors and thanked Laurie Wilson, Blue Ocean Network, who was integral to creating these sessions.
On behalf of Laurie and the Blue Ocean Network, Chloe introduced the mindset behind the seminars. Shetalked about the natural lifecycle of a business and explained “that in many places around the world the diving industry has reach maturity – we now either reinvent ourselves or we die”. “The pressure is mounting”, she said, for dive industry members to meet consumer demand for sustainable products and services. What’s more, in the scuba industry, sustainability gives businesses new opportunities, access to new customers, a compelling mission and more. She reminded attendees that sustainability encompasses “a lot more than just offering reusable water bottles”.
Laurie connects this way of thinking to Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle concept: a traditional business would start with what the business does and how. Through an ocean conscious mindset, you start with the why. For example, a traditional approach would be to say you take customers diving (what) because you’re based close to nice reefs and have comfortable boats (how) and the reason is because you love diving and you know your customers will too (why). Adopting an ocean conscious mindset, and in line with the Golden Circle concept, would mean that you start with the why – “we love the ocean and we want to protect it” – and then the how, which might be: “we noticed our coral reefs are struggling, so we started monitoring them and feeding data back to local governments to help them formulate management plans.” The what would simply be taking customers on reef survey dives because they love citizen science. She explained starting “with the why” acts “like a pebble being dropped in a pond;” that is, the positive mindset expands outwards from the source to reach and influence more and more people. Chloe explained how this approach aligns with Reef-World’s values and approach, which focuses on a shift in mindset from within the industry and mentioned PADI’s new tagline, “Seek Adventure. Save the Ocean.”
Chloe agrees with Laurie’s opinion that sustainability is going mainstream; now more than ever, and customers are looking for products and services which align with their personal values. She added that customers don’t want to be treated like a consumer group. People today “treasure their individuality and they expect you to be the same,” she said, so “want to know your why before they give you their time and their money”.
These customers interact with the brands with which they have positive interactions, tailored to them. Those who suspect greenwashing will not only lose trust but will also tell their friends and social networks not to trust you. In a society where trust is now a highly valued currency, this will have a huge impact on your business operations.
Five steps towards sustainability
Chloe explains the five-step sustainability pathway she has developed in partnership with Laurie:
The decision point: when you commit to shifting your mindset towards one of sustainability. If your efforts are to succeed, they must come from management
Target some low hanging fruit which has impact and is within the capacity of your business – this is often low investment and relevant to the local context of the business
Start taking bigger steps with bigger investments – this is where the real change starts happening and these practices become ingrained within the ethos of the company
New opportunities and collaborations will start to come your way as a result of staff and customers being drawn to your business because of its sustainable ethos
By the final step, sustainability is truly ingrained within everything that you do as a company and every decision you make. As a result, you have more loyal, retained customers and higher staff retention because they share your values.
Remember, it doesn’t matter where you are in your journey – even if you’ve not yet taken your first step – as long as you’re committed to improving.
Threats to coral
In many places around the world, the diving industry is very much based on coral reefs and the ecosystems that they support – so Chloe gave an overview of the current situation. Coral reefs cover less than 1% of the seafloor but hold 25% of all marine life. 225 million people are directly dependent on reefs for their subsistence and livelihoods. Yet, reefs are threatened by sea levels rising, the increased intensity and frequency of storms, commercial overfishing and development as well as tourism.
Some of the threats related to marine tourism include anchoring damage, chemical discharge, cleaning agents and toxic sunscreens. Chloe explained that, while a lot of the industry understands diving can pose threats to coral, these can seem insignificant compared to a lot of wider scale threats. She reminded attendees to consider the cumulative effect of the diving industry: if you think about the number of dive centres in a location, how many dive boats visit one dive site and how many divers are going underwater every day, you’ll realise how quickly it can all add up. There are around one million new recruits to the diving industry each year - that represents a potentially huge impact. This doesn’t even take into consideration snorkelling activities, which don’t require any formal training and are often less organised and unregulated.
Promoting positive change from within the diving industry with Green Fins
Yet, we can promote positive change from within the diving industry “by doing it in the right way and having impact”. If the industry understands the threats it can pose to the ocean environment and is armed with the right knowledge, tools and skills to be able to reduce those threats, we will see a measurable difference. Chloe talked about the growing evidence and research that shows “if we can reduce the direct threats to coral reefs, we can build resilience to wider scale threats”. So, tourism, which can pose a threat, can also be an opportunity to build awareness and love for the ocean and a motivation to protect it. This should offer hope to those who might feel helpless in the face of climate change.
Ocean Conscious Dive Operations
What is Green Fins?
Green Fins engages dive centres around the world; teaching them more about the impacts they’re having and gives them the tools and knowledge to address these direct local threats to the marine environment. It also helps companies deliver on international commitments such as the Sustainable Development Goals.
Chloe explained the three main components of the initiative:
Building capacity of national and local governments to be able to manage their national resources. They, in turn, support our work to help dive centres reduce their environmental impact
An environmental certification, which is evaluated using a robust assessment, can show how well a dive operator is following the Code of Conduct. This is monitored year-on-year to show measurable changes in sustainable practices and offer low-cost, practical and tailored solutions to current environmental challenges
Integration with regulatory support and national policy for the longevity of the programme, which can also be used to support the strengthening of regulatory frameworks in consultation with the industry.
Coming soon
Egypt was the latest country to join the Green Fins network – in September 2019 – and there are plans for expansion in Timor Leste, Japan and Guam in the coming months. Chloe explained the programme is spreading but it's not yet available to everyone and called for attendees to get in touch if they are interested in trying to bring Green Fins to their local area.
While the Green Fins materials and tools can be helpful to overcoming daily challenges within dive operations, sometimes the biggest challenge is knowing where to start. Chloe invited Blue O Two to describe how they managed to leap over the barrier between passionately wanting to improve environmental practice across the global alliance of brands, to actually transforming this into a strategy with specific and achievable actions planned and committed to over the coming 10 years.
This seminar series was made possible by the sponsorship of four companies who are already on the sustainable diving pathway and represent different stakeholder groups in the dive and travel industry:
Fourth Element is innovating dive manufacturing by producing dive gear using ghost fishing nets, biodegradable packaging made from vegetables is leading the latest environmental movement within the industry – Mission2020;
Explorer Ventures - is working towards the elimination of single-use plastics onboard its Caribbean vessels. It is also helping The Reef-World Foundation establish targeted liveaboard protocols as part of the Green Fins initiative with the hope of improving dive operator and liveaboard environmental policies worldwide;
Paralenz - a Danish tech company dedicated to the Ocean. Together with divers across the globe, they have developed a camera that enable divers to capture and share the state and life of the Ocean as a seamless part of the dive;
Blue O Two / Worldwide Dive and Sail works with partners with similar philosophies, sources local, sustainable products wherever possible, runs reef clean-ups and educates guests about how they can make a difference; for example, by encouraging them to bring eco-friendly toiletries, such as sunscreen and toothpaste.
Thank you - we hope you enjoyed The Reef-World Foundation’s Ocean Conscious Seminars and look forward to seeing you again at DEMA 2020!
Thank you to all our partners who made this seminar series possible!