SOA Launches 'Impact Solution Label' in Partnership with Solar Impulse Foundation

Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA) is pleased to announce the Impact Solution Label—the industry’s first certification label to recognize companies promoting solutions that contribute to the sustainability of the ocean sector. In partnership with Solar Impulse Foundation, the 'Best in Impact' seal of approval champions ocean-positive companies’ efforts to protect and preserve the ocean while making a profit.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — In a groundbreaking measure for ocean sustainability, Sustainable Ocean Alliance— the world's largest network of young ocean leaders and home to the world’s first Ecopreneur Network program—announced its latest partnership with Solar Impulse Foundation to launch the Sustainable Ocean Alliance Impact Solution Label—the industry’s first certification label to recognize ocean-positive companies with a stamp of approval for their efforts to deploy business practices that contribute to the ocean sector’s sustainability. SOA defines ocean-positive solutions as enterprises that sustain, regenerate, or restore the ocean's health and resilience through their business strategies and practices. The Sustainable Ocean Alliance Impact Solution Label builds on the Solar Impulse Efficient Solution Label. 

“This partnership marks a significant advancement in vetting and certifying businesses that are stewards of our ocean via their impact with a best-in-class stamp of approval for their solutions,” said Daniela V. Fernandez, Founder & CEO of Sustainable Ocean Alliance. “We are honored to partner with Solar Impulse Foundation and welcome even more visionary ecopreneurs and their startups into our growing network. Together, we are setting a new standard for businesses that not only seek to make a profit but also prioritize the health of our planet’s most precious resource: the ocean.”

By collaborating with ocean ecopreneurs, investors, philanthropists, and scientific experts, Sustainable Ocean Alliance has pioneered an unprecedented and comprehensive approach for gathering, structuring, and analyzing impact data from ocean startups globally. This innovative approach has allowed Sustainable Ocean Alliance to monitor and assess positive ocean impact of solutions within the organization's extensive network of grants and investments over recent years. Now, Sustainable Ocean Alliance will apply this premier system to set the Impact Solution Label benchmark, granting startups and investors outside of the SOA network the advantage of its proven impact evaluation methodology.

Ocean-positive startups that apply for and receive the Solar Impulse Efficient Solution Label are eligible to apply for the Sustainable Ocean Alliance Impact Solution Label. This groundbreaking label certifies startups through a rigorous application process that analyzes how their business practices are specifically working to safeguard the ocean. Startups that receive the designation can use the Impact Solution Label in marketing materials and receive access to Sustainable Ocean Alliance's larger network and opportunities.

The Impact Solution Label is designed to shed light on existing solutions that are clean, profitable, and outperform the mainstream options in its market. The Label’s intensive assessment is conducted by external, independent experts and is based on the following eligibility criteria:

• Credibility of the solution

• Scalability of the solution

• Contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

• Maturity stage

• Economic competitiveness and profitability

“The Solar Impulse Efficient Solution Label, which we created seven years ago, has proved that more than 1,500 technical solutions exist to protect the environment in an economically profitable way,” said Dr. Bertrand Piccard, President of the Solar Impulse Foundation. “Today I am glad that this partnership with Sustainable Ocean Alliance can help identify and label more solutions, specifically in the field of ocean protection. I hope this initiative will inspire even more ecopreneurs to come together and receive much-needed recognition for their valiant efforts to support our global climate change mitigation movement.”

The Sustainable Ocean Alliance Impact Solution Label application will open on June 12, 2024. Learn more about the Impact Solution Label program and application process here.

For media inquiries, please contact SOA@globalstrategygroup.com. 

About Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA)

Sustainable Ocean Alliance is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to activating young people, developing and implementing innovative solutions, and mobilizing a global movement of ocean allies to restore the health of the ocean. In 2014, Daniela V. Fernandez founded SOA during her first year at Georgetown University to bring youth voices and solutions to the forefront of ocean sustainability and innovation.  

Today, SOA has grown into the world’s largest network of young ocean leaders, innovators, and advocates. To date, the organization has accelerated over 370 solutions to the greatest threats facing our ocean, including for-profit startups and community-led nonprofit projects around the world.

About Solar Impulse Foundation

The Solar Impulse Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by explorer and cleantech pioneer Dr. Bertrand Piccard. Following the success of the first round-the-world flight in a solar aircraft, its mission is to accelerate the adoption of solutions capable of protecting the environment by reconciling economic development with the ecological challenge.

The Solar Impulse Foundation reflects its founder's unifying and realistic approach to 'qualitative growth'. Demonstrating that it is possible to meet ecological challenges without undermining economic development, in April 2021 the Foundation achieved its first objective of identifying and labeling 1,000 'Efficient Solutions', assessed as clean and profitable by independent experts. While continuing to expand its portfolio of solutions, Bertrand Piccard and the Foundation seek to facilitate the emergence of these technologies on the market by advocating for the modernization of the legislative framework and publishing guides to support political and economic decision-makers in their ecological transition.

Why focus on the ocean? 

The ocean sustains almost all life on this planet—and is our greatest defense against climate change. It covers 71% of the globe’s surface, represents the planet’s largest carbon sink, and generates 50% of the oxygen on Earth. It is also home to the ecosystems with the greatest potential to mitigate climate impacts—mangrove forests, salt marshes, and seagrass meadows absorb ten times more carbon dioxide than terrestrial rainforests and store this carbon in both living biomass and in underlying substrates like soil. These blue carbon ecosystems also serve as a buffer to storms, absorbing wave energy and reducing wave height to better protect coastal communities. 

Amidst the current climate crisis, the importance of safeguarding our ocean cannot be underestimated. However, human activity is stressing our planetary systems beyond capacity. Right now, the situation is critical: humanity must do our part to protect the ocean so it can continue to protect us.