Act

We can all do our bit for a healthy ocean.

Everyone should start with themselves first and not wait for governments to take action to impose bans or persuade companies to improve their products or packaging:

Reduce your own carbon footprint
The impact of greenhouse gas emissions on the oceans is the strongest: every time you travel by car or plane or use single-use plastic, your carbon footprint increases - and that harms our ocean.

Use renewable energy
Burning fossil fuels is the biggest problem for our ocean. Build your own solar power plant on your roof or balcony and make an immediate contribution to the citizen energy transition.

Change the way you travel
A typical car emits around 4.6 tons of carbon dioxide per year. Take the train or bike instead. Around 8% of global carbon dioxide emissions are caused by travel and tourism. Try to plan sustainable trips that protect the environment and climate while traveling.

Change your eating habits
Livestock farming is responsible for 18% of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Consider a vegan or vegetarian diet or reduce your meat and dairy consumption. A sustainable diet is not only good for you, but also for the planet and our oceans. If you eat fish, make sure it comes from a sustainable source. Avoid cheap fish from destructive large-scale fisheries and buy from local fishermen where possible.

Reduce marine pollution
The majority of marine pollution still enters our ocean through industrial agriculture, which is causing massive destruction of the ocean through over-fertilization and a variety of environmental toxins. You can prevent industrial agriculture from having such a negative impact on our oceans by consistently buying only products from sustainable agriculture, supporting global permaculture initiatives and being willing to pay an honest price for these agricultural products.

Choose the right bank
Only entrust your savings to a bank that is demonstrably and transparently committed to a sustainable planet and does not make any crooked deals on the back of our nature. We must prevent valuable and irretrievable natural and social capital from being converted into financial capital that is worthless for our future.

Call to go plastic-free
Start with the simple decision to eliminate single-use plastic wherever possible. Take a survey to find out how much single-use plastic is in your life and check out My Little Plastic Footprint for tips on how you can avoid plastic at home in the kitchen and bathroom, when traveling or in your free time.

  • Be ready to refill: A little preparation can go a long way. Take a bottle, shopping bag, cutlery and containers with you instead of accepting plastic alternatives. Stores and restaurants are often happy to refill boxes instead of using their own plastic containers.

  • Reuse and recycle: The earth's resources are not infinite, so we need to take care of them and introduce a circular economy without waste. A good example of this is a cell phone, 80% of which can be recycled. Don't just put your old cell phone in the drawer, recycle it!

  • Reduce microfibers: Between 700,000 and 12 million microfibers can be lost in a single load of laundry. If you wash your laundry less often and at lower temperatures and use a filter, bag or ball, you can catch the microfibers before they enter the wastewater.

  • Avoid products with microplastics. Tiny plastic beads in shower gels or facial cleansers cannot be filtered out before they end up in the sea. Find them with the app Beat the microbead app to find out whether your bathroom products contain unnecessary microbeads.

  • Avoid toxic sunscreens: Use reef-safe sunscreens. Look for an SPF that uses physical UVA and UVB filters, as opposed to the chemical filters that have been linked to coral reef destruction.

  • Take part in a cleanup: go out and collect the garbage! Every piece of litter collected is one less that can end up in a river or the sea. Cleanup apps like Litterati help to track the amounts collected. Conduct a brand audit with the Break free from plastic toolkit to identify the companies responsible for plastic waste in your community, school or office. Then hold them to account by writing to them saying that you want the product but not the plastic packaging that goes with it

  • Ask your government to take a responsible stance on waste disposal, stop waste exports, set a policy on single-use packaging and washing machine filters, provide better recycling facilities and champion the zero-waste movement.

  • Write to companies and ask them to use socially responsible plastic and introduce an EPR program.

  • Ask your local supermarket to offer plastic-free or unpackaged goods.

Get involved in a Citizen Science initiative
Public involvement in scientific research is a growing trend - data collection by the general public can significantly support the work of researchers and make a difference, from identifying corals or fish in underwater images to counting penguins in satellite images or collecting and counting plastic balls on a beach. If you go diving, you can take part in our Citizen Science Initiative to collect marine data.

Make your voice heard!
There are many ways to make your voice heard, be it at a demonstration by using your purchasing power, writing an email, signing a petition or voting in an election. Stand up for what you believe in and make your voice heard! Get in touch with policy makers and let them know that you will only vote for them if they take action to protect our ocean.