By Zem Joaquin, CEO and Founder of Ecofabulous/
Images by Adventure Ecology.
Ever dreamed of setting sail on the open ocean with a handsome explorer? This fall, thanks to modern technology’s satellites and video streaming, you can.
Last year David de Rothschild and friends set up shop in San Francisco to build a catamaran constructed out of recycled plastic bottles. A couple of months ago David gave Bill McDonough and me a tour of the Cradle to Cradle inspired workshop. Though originally skeptical, I walked away with a burning desire to know more about this boat, its crew and the waters they will chart.
David, a world class adventurer and activist wanted to draw attention to the unbelievable mass of garbage (especially plastic) accumulating in our seas. And to do so, he will take us on a journey (eventually) to the Pacific Gyre where we see the most poignant example of human impact on the oceans.
Named one of the sexiest bachelors alive, David has a titillating way of presenting the devastation. He is charming yet informed but not easily daunted. Ecofabulous caught up with the British environmentalist to find out more about his motivations and aspirations.
Plastiki
1. What really inspired you to set sail on this incredibly ambitious mission?
In June 2006 I read a report issued by UNEP called ‘Action Urged to Avoid Deep Trouble in the Deep Seas’ which alerted me to the fundamental issues facing our oceans. After reading this and on further investigation I felt I had to do something. True to Adventure Ecology’s values I wanted to create a compelling and pioneering adventure that would not only be informative but would capture the imagination of a global audience and empower them to act more responsibly towards our planet.
One of the inspirations behind The Plastiki adventure was Thor Heyerdahl’s 1947 expedition, The Kon-Tiki, which saw Heyerdahl and five like-minded adventurers traveling to Peru where they built a replica of an ancient Inca raft from balsa wood and other native materials and sailed it across the Pacific to test his theories on early Peruvian settlements. By putting his theories into practice in such an audacious and bold way Heyerdahl was able to raise phenomenal awareness and educate generations of people, which is what we hope to achieve with The Plastiki, but within the context of the environment and the world’s oceans, highlighting the growing impact we are having on our most remote and fragile ecosystems.
2. Plastiki is a project under the umbrella of Adventure Ecology. What is Adventure Ecology and why did you establish it?
The mission of Adventure Ecology is to captivate the imagination, motivate and ultimately activate. We do this through adventure. We take the issue and create a story primarily through expedition and exploration. The current series is about promoting a better understanding and respect for one of the most pressing ecological issues of our time; waste.
As far as the establishment of AE, it wasn’t exactly planned per se but really a culmination of things. I have always been fascinated first and foremost by health and the concept that you are what you eat, and you are what you breathe, which took me down the path of organics and understanding the environment that way. As I became more involved in organic farming I naturally became more curious about the environment as a whole and the ‘green space’ surrounding us, but when I started looking around for more information I found it all to be a bit aggressive and guilt mongering. Whereas the information would be interesting, I didn’t know what to do with it and would go away feeling a bit defeated and guilty in the face of all these problems rather than liberated to take positive action.
It was then during an expedition across the Antarctica in 2004 that it dawned on me how adventure can be utilized to create an alternative and accessible information platform on the environment and act as a catalyst for change. I felt that by taking these adventures and telling their stories, rather than allowing them to dissipate and be forgotten, it would allow the journey to continue resonating and build a community up and around them. So it really was an organic process that essentially grew out of what I felt to be a gap in the market for information that was compelling, inspiring and informative but also inclusive and fun. I think that for so long the issue of ‘green’ was such an overwhelming concept and I wanted to take it out of that realm in order to captivate, engage and encourage a new community to get involved and take positive action for our Planet. We can make saving the planet an adventure.
3. Well I can clearly see how the Plastiki mission fits in with the overall objectives of Adventure Ecology! It sounds like a spectacular adventure that will alter perceptions about where our junk ends up.
Plastiki
Absolutely! The goal of the expedition is to not only continue encouraging the world to focus on reducing, reusing and recycling more of its natural resources but ultimately to think smart by re-thinking waste as a resource.
It is such re-think that will ultimately help to promote and provide stepping-stones towards the type of thinking that will lead individuals, business and industry alike to start living within the equilibrium that our natural world craves.
4. You’ve been working on this project for some time. What has the overall response been? Have the boat and the mission been received well?
The perception to date has been two-fold; the non-sailing community is wowed by the magnitude of the challenge and often poses questions specifically on the systems, the crew and how we will live together in such close quarters. Kids have asked what we do with our waste if we keep it on board. However, the sailing community thinks we are quite mad and struggle to fathom how we will sail across the Pacific on a 60ft catamaran made almost entirely out of reclaimed plastic bottles!
5. You could have chosen any port, why did you select San Francisco to set up shop?
We chose San Francisco for its international location and proximity to Hawaii. The bay, with its sailing community, has been an ideal testing ground and we are lucky enough to have the ongoing support of Mayor Gavin Newsom. Also, with the link to its ‘Sister City’, Sydney, it made sense to start and end the voyage on opposite sides of the Pacific Ocean.
Plastiki
6. What challenges have you faced with the actual building of the boat?
The whole journey so far from the day of inception to the day we started working on the construction of the vessel has been a huge learning curve. Our main objective of the boat build was to create a vessel designed and constructed out of plastic bottles that not only performed in the water but showcased smart and innovative design solutions that re-think waste as a resource.
This led to our first major hurdle, which was how we keep the integrity of the bottles so it wasn’t simply the case of melting down the plastic as the actual visible presence of bottles has been at the core of everything. Without the bottles, the boat would sink.
And then within that there has been an even bigger learning curve as our design meant that the water would actually flow through and around the bottles, which goes against day one of boat building, keeping the water out, and here we are letting all the water in. It is the intention that the vessel, through its engineering, the use of alternative technologies and the environmentally sustainable design solutions used to inform its creation will help to inform positive industry wide change.
7. During our tour you showed Bill McDonough and me some of the amazing innovations that have come out of your quest for a Cradle-to-Cradle product. What are some of the technical innovations you will be showcasing on the vessel?.
What are some of the technical innovations you will be showcasing on the vessel?
As well as being a platform for new materials, the boat will use a number of technologies that are pushing the boundaries within alternative energies. By working with a number of experts in the boat building field what we hope to have achieved is to have created a vessel that will not only perform but show that you can reuse waste as a resource using cradle-to-cradle philosophies.
We have broken the design of the boat into different areas: waste, energy, water and habitat so you will see a real cross-section of technologies, some of which are available in mainstream markets and others that are currently being developed in laboratories. Just as an example, we are going to have a unique solar installation on board designed by Jason Iftakhar, which will not only generate power and create shade during the expedition but also function post-application as a solar powered educational pod. I want to keep a few surprises back but let’s just say there will be an element of human composting involved.
Plastiki
8. What is the proposed itinerary and how did you decide on this route?
We wanted to raise awareness on the challenges our oceans and its inhabitants face by creating an expedition that reaches across the whole of the Pacific from San Francisco Bay to Sydney Harbour. It would be short-sighted of us to solely focus on the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch so I wanted to not just take one location in isolation but also rather place it within the context of the whole of the Pacific Ocean.
This expedition will give us a platform to explore and highlight a number of the issues facing different areas of the Pacific including the sinking islands of Tuvalu, the effects of mass pollution due to sub-water testing of nuclear armament and coral bleaching, as well as using it to tell positive stories about communities who are learning alternative ways of creating income now that the fisheries have been closed due to over-fishing and showing cases of coral rejuvenation.
9. In keeping with the Cradle-to-Cradle theme, I’m sure your team has thought through what will happen to the boat once it’s useful life has run its course. What is the plan?
As part of Adventure Ecology’s legacy, when we all arrive safely in Sydney, finger’s crossed, the entire vessel will be broken up and each element wherever possible will be up-cycled into another product or developed into another use. It would entirely defeat the purpose of the expedition if we were to dock and leave the boat to the chipper. We wanted to create a lasting legacy that continues to showcase waste as resource.
To reinforce Adventure Ecology’s cradle to cradle ambitions, we have worked closely with Architecture For Humanity on the cabin design to create a compartment that will not only house the crew during the voyage but also be part of a touring educational display on docking and, fundamentally, be used as a blueprint for a humanitarian relief shelter. The solar sculpture has also been designed to function as a post-application educational pod.
10. Impressive! You’re going to great lengths, literally, to increase awareness of human beings’ wasteful ways, yet with all your travels, you’ve created a rather hefty carbon footprint of your own (this is something I struggle with as well!). I know you’re not a big fan of carbon offsets, so what are you doing on a personal level to reconcile this?
Every human being is going to be wasteful, some more or less than others. I am certainly not perfect and yes my carbon footprint is higher than the average.
I have had to weigh up my own ecological impact against what I aim to achieve through Adventure Ecology and our overarching mission to raise as much awareness of ecological challenges as possible, we do this through as many platforms available to us that include TV, publishing and new media, it is through this awareness that people and industry alike will hopefully be inspired and activated to live and act a little smarter in turn helping our planet and maybe even our pockets! As long as my travel is focused on delivering the bigger message I feel it’s justified.
It goes without saying that I try hard to tread lightly, act smart and do practice what I preach. I do try and keep my footprint as low as possible and then I off set, although I do still feel off setting is more off putting and has been created more to salve the consciousness than to solve the problem.
I’m sure people will judge me, it comes with the job, but I believe that Adventure Ecology, its mission and the people it engages, goes some way to compensate for my carbon footprint.
It goes without saying that I try hard to tread lightly, act smart and do practice what I preach. I do try and keep my footprint as low as possible and then I off set, although I do still feel off setting is more off putting and has been created more to salve the consciousness than to solve the problem!
I’m sure people will judge me, it comes with the job but I believe that Adventure Ecology, its mission and the people it engages goes some way to compensate for my carbon foot print.
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