Humans face crises all the time. Whether it’s personal challenges, societal points-of-no-return and even planetary worries, we all have the option to turn our obstacles into opportunities. This is exactly what fisherman Bren Smith did after facing two ecological crises that nearly destroyed his livelihood.

“The first was the cod stock crash back in Newfoundland, Canada where 30,000 people became out of work. I then faced another crisis where my farm was destroyed two years in a row by Hurricane Irene and Hurricane Sandy,” remembers Bren, who’s now the Co-Executive Director and Co-Founder of GreenWave.

“I had to face the fact that if my goal was to work on the ocean the rest of my life and die on my boat one day, I needed to figure out how to be climate-resilient, and how to start growing all these different species together that help address climate change, but also ensure that I can make a living and feed my community.”

And so GreenWave was born. The Index Award 2017 Winner in the Work category is an all-around system enabling regenerative ocean farming on a scale. They train the next generation of ocean farmers to grow and hatch carbon-positive ocean crops such as shellfish and seaweed.

“These are crops, we don't have to feed, we don't have to fertilise,” explains Bren. “They don't require land, capture nitrogen and carbon, and don't require any freshwater. This makes it, hands down, the most sustainable form of food production on the planet. So as a farmer, I'm able to grow food, create jobs, run a business, but also really breathe life back into the oceans.”

Through initiatives such as hands-on guidance, design tools, buyers' networks and online communities, they’re providing all the information they can to equip the world’s ocean farmers to become part of the new blue-green economy. 10,000 farmers trained in 10 years is the goal – all around the world.

“Currently, we have 8,000 people in the US on our waiting list for our programming, so the interest is just tremendous.”

“We went from working just in one state here locally to working throughout the US and now globally. Currently, we have 8,000 people in the US on our waiting list for our programming, so the interest is just tremendous.”

When GreenWave was founded in 2014, they were a small fish in a big pond, representing a completely new way of approaching ocean farming. But today, they school ahead: ”We sort of started out of a petri dish, but now there are dozens and dozens of organisations working in this sector. There are millions of dollars being deployed by governments, by investors to really scale this industry and just 10 years ago, this was not even on the radar. We really have momentum.

One of Greenwave’s core principles is bringing social justice into its ocean farming. The non-profit includes people who’ve been excluded from the current economy and are heavily impacted by climate change. “It's indigenous communities, and fishermen, who are losing their livelihoods,” Bren emphasises. “We put them at the center of our programming.”

"I sometimes wonder, what happens if this blue economy is structured and built mostly by women and indigenous communities?”

The mission continues to grow a bigger following, and so does the aspirations and actions of GreenWave. Just over the last year, they’ve increased yields on farms by five and expanded the number of hatcheries in the US. In the future, they’re looking to launch farmer sparring communities, monitors for crop health, as well as a climate mitigation fund, which allows people to donate money to farmers as an appreciation of their farms’ carbon sequestering.

Today, Bren is back on the ocean full-time, watching how his idea has turned into a push for a new agenda: “What really gets me excited is that I'm no longer the center of this. There are all these amazing farmers doing blue-collar innovation on their own. I sometimes wonder, what happens if this blue economy is structured and built mostly by women and indigenous communities? It’s a fascinating development that has nothing to do with me.” 

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The Impact Story series features past Index Award alumni journeys and is proudly sponsored by Laerdal Global Health, winners of Index Award 2013 for The Natalie Collection.