Ocean Recovery Alliance

From Openwaterpedia
Doug Woodring, founder of Ocean Recovery Alliance
Grate Art of the Ocean Recovery Alliance in Hong Kong, founded by Doug Woodring
Ocean Recovery Alliance's Global Alert Platform was nominated for the 2016 WOWSA Awards, a recognition of outstanding men, women, performances and offerings around the globe sponsored by the World Open Water Swimming Association in the World Open Water Swimming Offering of the Year category

Ocean Recovery Alliance, a registered non-profit organization in Hong Kong and California, was established in 2010 in order to bring new technologies, innovations, creativity and collaborations to solve issues that face the health of the ocean today. One of the main focuses is on plastic pollution, and the group has made two commitments related to the reduction and prevention of global plastic pollution at the Clinton Global Initiative. The group recently held a one-day side event at the Rio+20 Earth Summit, called Plasticity which focused on the future of plastic, and where the leaders are going with innovations, solutions, and new opportunities. The organization was founded by Doug Woodring, an eco-environmentalist and open water swimming and adventure sports event director.

Its partnership with the World Open Water Swimming Association has resulted in the Plastic Disclosure Project guidelines being incorporated by all World Open Water Swimming Association-sanctioned events.

Focus

The focus of the Ocean Recovery Alliance is to bring together new ways of thinking, technologies, creativity and collaborations in order to introduce innovative projects and initiatives that will help improve our ocean environment. This includes creating business opportunities for local communities when applicable, in order to address some of the pressing issues that our ocean faces today.

Organization

The group is an umbrella organization which operates and organizes a variety of sub-projects, some of which will have their own operating teams, budgets and objectives. In some cases, these projects may complement one another, and in others, they will be stand-alone. Two of the projects within the group were announced at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in 2010, and are focused on innovative prevention programs for plastic waste reduction. This includes the Plastic Disclosure Project, and the Global Alert platform. The Ocean Recovery Alliance is also a founding member of the Ocean Conservancy’s “Trash Free Seas Alliance” which was announced at the Clinton Global Initiative in 2011.

It also works with its Ocean Ambassadors.

Plastic Disclosure Project

The Plastic Disclosure Project was launched at the Clinton Global Initiative by Ocean Recovery Alliance as a way to bring about large scale prevention of plastic waste. This is an investor and multi-stakeholder driven program to encourage companies and other institutions to measure their plastic footprint and develop plastic management strategies to create a world where plastic adds value to businesses without negatively impacting the environment.

The guidelines of the Plastic Disclosure Project are supported by the World Open Water Swimming Association and are incorporated into all World Open Water Swimming Association-sanctioned events.

Approach

The approach is simple: an annual disclosure request is sent on behalf of socially responsible investors and other community stakeholders to companies around the world that are users of plastic in their products or services, asking them to measure their plastic footprint. The goal is to inspire improved strategies for lessening plastic's impact on the environment, managing the material in more efficient ways, and treating it as a resource instead of a waste product. This includes less waste in the supply chain, more recycling within one's user-base, more recycled content, new design, and the use of new materials.

Videos


Global Alert Platform

Video of Human Aerial Art in 2012

Schoolchildren in Repulse Bay Beach in Hong Kong create human aerial art in an event organized by Doug Woodring and Ocean Recovery Alliance.

Video of Human Aerial Art in 2013

Schoolchildren in Repulse Bay Beach in Hong Kong create human aerial art in an event organized by Doug Woodring and Ocean Recovery Alliance.

2016 World Open Water Swimming Offering of the Year nomination

Ocean Recovery Alliance's Global Alert Platform was nominated for the 2016 WOWSA Awards, a recognition of outstanding men, women, performances and offerings around the globe sponsored by the World Open Water Swimming Association in the World Open Water Swimming Offering of the Year category.

Doug Woodring found himself surrounded by discarded plastics and rubbish while diving in a remote marine protected area. He was struck by the need to improve the world's ocean for future generations. He created the NGO, Ocean Recovery Alliance, and recently launched the Global Alert Platform, an innovative, online tool that allows people to report, rate and map plastic pollution levels in their local watersheds or coastlines via their mobile devices and computers. For creating a platform and database to help broaden public awareness about the plastic crises anywhere in the world that negatively affects the health of our waters, for managing a global flow of information that can spur solutions to reduce plastic pollution in the ocean, rivers and lakes, for enabling people to report problems and generate data on trash-hotspots via an easy-to-use mobile monitoring tool and online maps, the Global Alert Platform is a worthy nominee for the 2016 World Open Water Swimming Offering of the Year.

External links

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