“Our Oceans Challenge” at the SOS: Launching Round 2 of the Award-winning Competition for Sustainable Ocean Development Solutions

The second “Our Oceans Challenge” will be on stage at the WOC Sustainable Ocean Summit (Singapore, 9-11 November, 2015).

“Our Oceans Challenge” (OOC) - the competition and acceleration program to identify innovative ventures to address the sustainability challenges - recently received the prestigious 2015 DuPont Sustainability Award.

The inaugural OOC in 2014/2015 resulted in five start-up business ventures that are attracting the attention of potential investors interested in supporting ocean sustainable development solutions.

At the SOS 2015 in a few weeks, ocean industry representatives from around the world will identify topics for the second OOC, to ensure that the challenge is focused on delivering innovative, practical solutions that address the real and immediate environmental issues facing the ocean business community. The SOS provides a unique global, multi-industry platform and opportunity to expand the network of partners engaged in the OOC - a unique ocean solutions competition developed by and for ocean industries.

The OOC initiative, aims, progress, results and plans will be presented to SOS plenary. One of the objectives of the SOS breakout session discussions will be for participants to identify the topics and specific innovation needs that would be good candidates for the second OOC in 2015/2016. The preliminary results from this SOS sessions will be presented at the end of the SOS – fittingly, just after the plenary session on “Investment and Innovation for Ocean Sustainable Development”.

The ‘crowd sourcing’ of industry innovation needs at the SOS creates a unique opportunity for the ocean business community to identify OOC priorities and join this exciting partnership for creating business opportunities focused on solutions to real world ocean industry challenges.

The OOC was launched in 2014 by a growing coalition of maritime leadership companies, industry organizations and knowledge institutes, including the World Ocean Council (WOC). The OOC online platform catalyzed a community of nearly 500 active participants in the co-creation of 88 ocean business concepts to advance cleaner oceans and industries. The OOC partners selected 16 entrepreneurs for business development support. The final 5 entrepreneurs were selected in late 2014 and received customized support for developing high quality business plans that potential investors are looking at.

The OOC, working with the WOC and an expanding alliance of ocean business community partners, can provide the ongoing global competition - developed by and for ocean industries - to incentivize creative solutions to the challenges and opportunities of Corporate Ocean Responsibility.

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