fbpx

Magic Macroalgae

Sustainability

Last week, we attended the mind-blowing wonder that is Semi Permanent, a festival of creative ideas held at Sydney’s own Carriageworks. Between the artists, creatives and branding-experts-turned-horticulturists, we met Sam Elsom – a passionate environmentalist who is changing the world one microalgae at a time.

Sam is the CEO of Sea Forest, a team of world-leading scientists dedicated to fighting climate change by being the first in the world to cultivate Asparagopsis at a commercial scale. Aspara-who? 

Asparagopsis is a brilliant red seaweed native to Australian coastal waters. Through photosynthesis, it captures, or sequesters, carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and absorbs it, accounting for 40% of its biomass. That means less carbon in our waters, which can otherwise have a detrimental effect on our marine life. 

Asparagopsis

Seaweeds like Asparagopsis help to clean and de-acidify our oceans – and Sam and his world-class team are leading the charge.

We took a moment with the visionary to hear about his connection with our partners at Semi Permanent, and what makes him hopeful for our climate’s future…

How did you connect with Semi Permanent?

 

The SP team reached out last year for their Semi Permanent Hotel Project, but I’ve known Murray, Mitchell and the team since my days in the fashion industry.

 

Where do you call home?

 

These days I spend most of my time between South East Coast of Tasmania in a town called Triabunna and Byron Bay.

 

What’s the most interesting thing about working with Asparagopsis?

 

Working with an amazingly talented team at the forefront of world-leading science and driving the development of a new environmentally positive industry for Australia.

What excites you most about Sea Forest’s mission?

 

The prospect that through our seaweed-based livestock supplement we can reduce 15% of global emissions of CO2 is significant and meaningful.

 

Where do we go from here?

 

We are now working on exciting projects across the country with farmers and scaling both our supply and impact on emissions reduction from Australian agriculture. 

Learn more about Sea Forest

Via their Website and Instagram

Follow the amazing Sam Elsom on Instagram

Visit Semi Permanent