We live, breathe, and love the great outdoors, and this gives us even more of a reason to become more sustainable as a business. We host corporate events both in the heart of Wales and in Portugal and in doing this, we are well aware that there’s work to be done to minimize our own carbon footprint. So when we first heard about Mossy Earth’s kelp reforestation project in Portugal, an idea came to mind! We would take further steps to reduce our impact on the planet, as well as encourage our guests to do so too.
We have been donating to rewilding projects via Mossy Earth on a monthly basis over the last couple of years (such as planting native trees in the Carpathian Mountains, restoring California’s sea otter population and monitoring Atlantic salmon in Scottish rivers). But whilst we’ll continue to contribute on a monthly basis, our new plan is to work in collaboration with Mossy Earth’s team, using our corporate retreats as a vehicle to increase our green impact on the planet. To combat long-term carbon emissions, we will step up our current activity to help financially contribute towards bigger reforestation projects.
Corporate teams that join Big Blue on a retreat will be able to make a donation to reforestation projects from £250 up to £2,000 per trip, and Big Blue Adventures will price match in relation to our trip profits. So if your company donates £1000, we will match that! This contribution will go towards replanting kelp forests on the Portuguese coastline, which sequesters a significant amount of CO2. Together we can make a bigger impact on the planet.
So how can your company help reduce carbon emissions when booking a corporate retreat with Big Blue Adventures?
Green Corporate Retreats
Each kelp reforestation project would help fund a kelp module, which would be grown in Mossy Earth’s lab. This enables the Mossy Earth team to grow kelp under controlled conditions onto 12,000 stones each season. Once ready, we can take the stones and drop them overboard at the kelp restoration site in Portugal. Our corporate groups will be able to follow the progress and impact of their donation’s on this project!
Matt Davies, co-founder of Mossy Earth explains:
There isn’t a complete survey of the world’s seaweed and kelp forests yet to explain exactly how much we’ve lost and why they are disappearing rapidly. Although, what we are aware of is the following drivers of degradation are most likely at large:
- Water pollution from industrial and agricultural discharge
- Climate change affecting water temperatures and increasing the occurrence of ocean heatwaves and storms
- Sediment build-up from both human and natural causes,
- Overfishing is disturbing the balance of the food chain and impacting coastal ecosystems
Seaweed and kelp forests are highly beneficial to the environment; without them, we risk losing the biodiversity they support and the vital ecosystem services they provide. They are important habitats for a rich array of marine fauna, which in turn helps to restore the fish stocks we’ve depleted. They also mitigate climate change by reversing ocean acidification, reducing coastal erosion, and capturing CO2 from the atmosphere – at a rate 5 times more efficiently than tropical forests!
If you and your company would like to learn more about the kelp reforestation project, and the pros and cons of regular tree-planting, here are some resources and videos we’d recommend watching:
Bringing back the Lost Kelp Forests of Europe – Project Vlog – YouTube
Tree Planting Can Make Climate Change Worse – YouTube
