GreenWave
#MoveTheDate Solutions
Personal / Community: Community project
Nature sub-categories: Conservation, Ecosystem health
Description: " BFI Award ""GreenWave"" 2015: GreenWave is a non-profit that exists to restore ocean ecosystems and create jobs in coastal communities by transforming fishers into restorative ocean farmers. Using only restorative species, we are transitioning fishers from being our last ocean hunters to becoming the first farmers and stewards of their local waters. What: 3D Ocean Farming The infrastructure is simple: seaweed, scallops and mussels grow on floating ropes, stacked above oyster and clam cages below. Our farms have the capacity to grow 10 tons of sea vegetables and 250,000 shellfish on each acre per year. From these crops we can produce food, fertilizers, animal feeds, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, biofuels and much more. Our farms filters millions of gallons of ocean water every day, creates homes for hundreds of wild marine and bird species and absorbs the overabundance of nitrogen and carbon (5x land-based plants) that are killing billions of organisms. Where: We know our home waters of the Long Island Sound best and we've begun replicating there. To support communities on other coasts, we have open-sourced our model so others may apply their own native restorative species. How: We designed our model to have a low barrier to entry - anyone with 20 acres of leased ocean, a boat and $30,000 can start their own farm. We recently began an apprenticeship program that transforms unemployed fishers into restorative ocean farmers. Fishers already have the propensity to be excellent ocean farmers, which allows us to train them in a short period of time."
Website about this solution: http://greenwave.org/
Video about this solution: https://vimeo.com/274803314
Why I love this solution: “GreenWave exemplifies beautifully Fuller’s inspirational call for individuals and groups to take the initiative, identify a critical issue, and tackle it independently, creatively, responsibly, and in a comprehensive manner,” sai