Investing in the Oceans

The blue economy is the 7th largest in the world, worth nearly $25tr in asset value. Despite this, it is drastically underinvested from a public and private capital point of view. Estimates suggest that $520bn is lost annually in economic activity and 26 million people are forced into poverty due to coastal natural disasters and ocean degradation.

Preserving our oceans is highlighted by the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14, but it also has critical links to many other SDGs. Almost half the global population relies on seafood as their primary source of protein, which helps to address SDG 2, “zero hunger”. Around 60m people are employed in fisheries and aquaculture, the majority of whom operate in small-scale enterprises in developing countries, contributing to SDG 8, “decent work and economic growth”. Our oceans generate 50% of the Earth’s oxygen and absorb 25% of all carbon emissions, which are important for people’s health (SDG 3) and climate action (SDG 13). The health of our oceans impact everyone, but particularly those at the bottom of the economic pyramid. In this way, addressing ocean pollution and advocating for ocean conservation not only has an environmental benefit, but ultimately also a profound economic one.

Credit Suisse is proud to support the Lead 2030 Challenge for SDG 14. The Challenge aims to surface and support impactful enterprises that look to further narrow the gap in achieving SDG 14. Credit Suisse welcomes entrepreneurs with for-profit enterprises that help improve ocean health, in any form, to submit their business plan for consideration.

About Ocean Bottle

Ocean Bottle exists to bring people together to turn the tide on ocean plastic.

Ocean Bottle makes reusables that work even harder for the planet, through design-led products that fund the collection of ocean-bound plastic with every sale – and now with every refill, thanks to the Ocean Bottle app.

Ocean Bottle partners with organisations to open plastic collection points in areas where plastic pollution is worst and enable collectors to exchange plastic for money and access social resources such as healthcare, education and financial security.

Since launching in October 2019, Ocean Bottle has united customers in 88 countries around its mission and partnered with brands including Pangaia, Soho House, RedBull, Universal Music and Ed Sheeran. They have collected over 9.1 million kg of ocean-bound plastic and improved thousands of livelihoods at the same time. Ocean Bottle’s goal is to prevent 7 billion plastic bottles from entering the ocean by 2025.