Blink:

I am excited the number of articles published online the last two months detailing the current seaweed revolution and its potential role to help mitigate climate change. The list of companies engineering viable ways to capture/sequester carbon is growing.

Read On:

One of my all-time favorite quotes is when Wayne Gretzky, hockey superstar/legend was asked what makes him so great, he responded: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” Two skaters (a.k.a.  seaweed innovators) I became aware of recently are Sam Elsom and John Auckland:

• Sea Forest – Sam Elsom a former high-end fashion designer with his own label, decided to become an aquatic farmer after learning about seaweed, a zero-input crop with no requirement for land, fresh water or fertilizer, plus its potential to have a positive impact on climate change. With the assistance of a team of university scientists and some venture capital, he founded his company Sea Forest (2018) which produces an engineered compound when fed to livestock, reduces the amount of methane gas they produce (e.g., cow burps). Global methane emissions from livestock which trap heat is currently estimated at 6%.                                    

• Seafields Solutions – A British business leader’s vision John Auckland, is to capitalize on the carbon capture properties of seaweed by creating[JM1]  a massive floating farm of sargassum seaweed located in the South Atlantic (21.2K square miles). He and his investor partners are currently testing the technology needed and project the floating mega-farm Seafields would capture one gigatonne of the fifty gigatonnes of CO2 emitted annually into the atmosphere. A mere dent, but a starting point!

Each company still needs to conduct extensive research to better understand seaweed’s benefits to society and ocean ecosystems. Regardless, I am optimistic about these two companies and plan to continue posting seaweed success stories. My next seaweed post will be about its potential for packaging innovation.

Opinions Welcomed!

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