A Diverse Range of Companies from Around the World and Across the Sectors This Year Joined the WOC - the Global Blue Economy Business and Investment Organization

19 December 2019 - In 2019 the following companies and organizations joined the World Ocean Council as part of their commitment to ocean sustainable development, science and stewardship:

• African Youth Organization for the Blue Economy (AYOBE)
• Aquanet Power
• BALance Technology Consulting GmBH
• BMT Group
• Cargo Equipment Experts
• CLIMsystems
• DeepSea Mining Alliance (DSMA)
• DEME - Dredging, Environmental & Marine Engineering
• ECOncrete
• Marine Capital
• Maritime Archaeology Sea Trust (MAST)
• Norton Rose Fulbright
• Ocean Minerals LLC
• Opes Oceani
• Priority Cargo Network
• Topaz Energy and Marine
• Worldwide Project Consortium (WWPC)
• Yokohama-Kawasaki International Port Corporation (YKIP)

These companies and organizations are part of the WOC’s growing global business and investment alliance for ocean leadership, collaboration and action. A full list of the WOC Members can be found here.

The WOC brings together leadership companies and organizations to collaborate in concrete cross-sectoral action, including by:

• Creating the “Ocean Investment Platform” to link ocean industries, innovators and investors to accelerate investment in ocean sustainable development.
• Developing the “Blue Economy Innovation Network” as a platform for accelerators, incubators and challenge competitions focused on ocean sustainable development.
• Addressing the role of ocean business and the Sustainable Development Goals, e.g. by providing ocean business input to the SDG development, creating the first SDG review for ocean industries.
• Launching the global Young Ocean Professionals initiative for the ocean business community.
• Developing the “SMART Ocean-SMART Industries” (SO-SI) program to expand and improve industry involvement in data collection and sharing to better understand the ocean, improve safety, reduce environmental impacts and increase social license to operate.
• Providing a regular presence for the global ocean business community on ocean governance developments at the U.N., especially the ongoing Law of the Sea negotiations on an additional legally binding agreement regarding Biodiversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ).
• Creating the WOC Sustainable Ocean Summit (SOS), the only annual global, high-level, multi-industry gathering developed by and for the business community which is focused on ocean sustainable development.

The 7th SOS was in Paris, 20-22 Nov 2019, with the theme of “Investing in Ocean Futures: Finance and Innovation for the Blue Economy”.

For more information, see www.sustainableoceansummit.org. Click here for the list of CEOs and senior executives who attend the SOS, and here for the SOS 2019 program.

Additional WOC efforts to address ocean sustainable development issues critical to business include efforts on: marine spatial planning/ocean zoning; marine sound; the Arctic; biofouling/marine invasive species; marine mammal impacts; port waste reception facilities, to reduce marine debris and plastics; ports and coastal infrastructure adaptation to sea level rise/extreme weather events.

Recent and Upcoming WOC Outreach and Engagement

2-13 December, MADRID
U.N. Climate Change Convention – Conference of the Parties (COP) 25 (Participant)

World Ocean Council (WOC) – The Global Blue Economy Business Organization

The WOC is the international, cross-sectoral alliance for private sector leadership, collaboration and action on ocean sustainability, stewardship and science. Companies from a range of industries worldwide are distinguishing themselves as leaders in “Corporate Ocean Responsibility”, including: shipping, oil and gas, tourism, fisheries, aquaculture, mining, renewable energy, ocean technology and investment.