Most companies exist to make money. We created Ocean Beer to make a difference with it.
For us, protecting the ocean isn’t a CSR strategy we added on top of our brand. It is the reason the brand exists in the first place. Every decision we make, from the ownership structure to where our profits go, therefore starts from that purpose.
Why the ocean?
People often ask us why we chose the ocean over climate, forests or any other cause. Our answer is that the ocean underpins all of them, and it is the one the world funds the least.
Your life depends on the ocean, even if you live hundreds of kilometres from a coast. It produces around half the oxygen we breathe. It absorbs about a quarter of the CO₂ we emit every year. It has also taken in more than 90% of the extra heat caused by global warming, shielding us from much of it. It drives the water cycle too: 86% of the water that evaporates into our skies comes from the ocean, before winds carry it inland and it falls as rain on our fields and rivers. More than three billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihoods, and 90% of the goods traded worldwide travel by sea, probably including the device you’re reading this on.
Yet of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals, SDG 14 (Life Below Water) is the least funded. Researchers estimate that reaching it by 2030 requires around $175 billion of investment every year. Between 2015 and 2019, less than $10 billion was invested in total, which is about $2 billion a year, or roughly 1% of what’s needed.
The funding gap is just as big for marine protected areas, one of the most effective tools we have to protect the ocean. They receive under $1 billion a year, while protected areas on land receive nearly $23 billion. The ocean covers more than 70% of our planet but gets only a tiny fraction of what we spend protecting nature.
We therefore decided to put our money into that gap.
How it works
We created Ocean Beer to turn an everyday product into a lasting source of funding for the ocean. The brand is fully owned by the Ocean Born Foundation, a certified non-profit that gives 100% of its profits to organisations working on the front line of marine restoration.
This isn’t a campaign, and it isn’t a donation we make when the numbers look good. It is built into how the company is owned and run.
Of course, one beer won’t save the ocean, and it was never meant to. The point is to show what becomes possible when an everyday product is connected to a bigger purpose. Every time someone chooses Ocean Beer, they contribute a little to projects that protect marine ecosystems and the people who depend on them.
Rethinking what profit is for
For us, profit doesn’t have to be the end goal. It can be the fuel for something bigger. A healthy business can create jobs, serve its customers and make money to restore the natural systems that make life possible, instead of paying it out to shareholders.
We don’t expect every company to copy our model (although that would be pretty awesome!), but we hope to inspire some to run their business differently. We want more entrepreneurs, companies and industries to ask what they can give back, not only what more they can take.
We also want people to have more everyday choices that contribute to something positive, without a headache every time they face a supermarket shelf.
Ultimately, we don’t want to be the only beer giving back to the ocean. We want a world where it’s completely normal for businesses to use their success to protect the planet that made it possible.
The ocean has given us an incredible amount. Giving our profits back is our way of saying thank you.