February 18, 2025 • 51 mins
Join Birgit Liodden, Founder & CEO of The Ocean Opportunity Lab (TOOL), as we embark on a new podcast series exploring the pioneers transforming the cruise industry. In this debut episode, we shine a spotlight on game-changing partnerships that are accelerating the shift from 'pollution to solution'.
Featuring a dynamic panel of industry leaders and innovators, we uncover how collaborative partnerships between corporate cruise players and agile start-ups are driving sustainable, green, and circular solutions. Our guests share real-life examples of how they are tackling emissions, fostering ocean-friendly initiatives, and creating 'Triple P Ripple Effects'—where People, Planet, and Profit align for lasting impact.
This week, Birgit is joined by:
Agnes Árnadóttir, Co-Founder, Brim Explorer
Solvi Hjelmeland, Founder, Purewave AS
Will Pearson, Co-Founder, Ocean Bottle
Gebhard Rainer, CEO, HX (Hurtigruten Expeditions)
Mentioned in this episode:
TOOL's Cruise Innovators
Explore a world of Cruise Innovators, and nominate your favorite startup! community.toolspawn.com For Seatrade Global 40th anniversary in 2025, we will also prepare the very first edition of TOOL´s Cruise Innovators - a global overview of startups & innovators with enabling solutions for cruise. Welcome onboard our voyage into the future - and join the wave! Sign up today - community.toolspawn.com
TOOL's Cruise Pioneers Initiative
Explore a world of Cruise Pioneers, and nominate your favorite initiative! community.toolspawn.com Cruise Pioneers is TOOL´s collaborative mission to track frontrunner initiatives moving global cruise from pollution to solution. We focus on the bold large and small players at the forefront of driving green, clean and circular initiatives, to inspire others to follow their path. Sign up with us on community.toolspawn.com to nominate your Cruise Pioneer Initiative, or explore already featured Pioneers.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
>> Birgit Liodon (00:02):
Hello, I'm Birgit Liodon, Sustainability ambassador of
Sea Trade and founder of the Ocean Opportunity
Lab. Welcome to the Cruise Pioneers
podcast by Tool hosted on Sea Trade
Cruise Talks Podcasts.
In this new series we will dive into the pioneering
initiatives of cruise lines and entrepreneurs who
(00:22):
move and change the cruise industry. We focus
on real life frontrunner initiatives and power
couples enabling crews to move from
pollution to solution. Get on
board our shared expedition as we get behind the
scenes and explore how owners,
founders and top executives move from
vision to deployment. For this first
(00:45):
episode we have gathered a group of change makers who
partner and build sustainable business across
different levels of a cruise supply chain.
To show you what we mean with the term power
couples, you will gain some inspiring
real life examples demonstrating how
collaborative partnerships with change
(01:05):
makers across corporate crews and startups
enables us to utilize the best and
complementary strengths and capacities of
large and small organizations.
With me today, all the way from London is
Gebhard Rainer, CEO of HX
Expeditions and Will Pearson, Founder
of Ocean Bottle. From Oslo we have
(01:28):
Agnes Arnadottir of Brim Explorer.
And joining us from Spain is Sylvia
Almelan, founder of purewave.
Welcome everyone. I am so excited to have
you joining and enabling
you to open up your experiences and
cases to our audience.
So today we will start off with
(01:50):
your pioneer commitment which
is really exciting. so I would like to
hear from all of you starting with
Gebhart. You can introduce
your high level targets for an emission free and
waste free cruise operation and how you build
a competitive edge for future
proof industry. Gebhard.
>> Gebhard Rainer (02:15):
Thank you very much Birgit and it's great to be with you
on this new innovative format
of a podcast. So Ajax
Expeditions is and continues to be very, very
committed on sustainability as we have
been over the last number of years. Now it's
a new birth year for us since we have split away
from Hurtigruten as our sister
(02:37):
company and have become independent
as of January this year.
And we clearly will continue to focus on
sustainability in addition to our
focus on science and education. From a sustainability point of
view where our goals are. The highest
goal of course is to continue to be a leader and the
leader in sustainability in walking the
(03:00):
talk, so to say in terms of what we do, we want
to become carbon neutral, within
a reasonable period of time. And the reason why
I'm saying reasonable period of time rather than giving you
a year is the fact that there's some regulatory changes
that we are taking into consideration right now to adjust
some of our goals, we were the
(03:20):
first cruise company to
abandon heavy oil, heavy
fuels in 2008. In addition to that we
have and we were the first one that abandoned all
single use plastics from our ships in
2018. We have the only two hybrid
electric ships currently in use in expedition
cruise or in cruise overall which went
(03:43):
into service in 2019 and
2020. And we continue
to stay very focused on
reducing our footprint in the
destinations where we go to. So all of our ships
have full recycling capabilities
both from a waste management point of view in terms
of wet waste and dry waste but also in terms
(04:04):
of recycling capabilities in terms of
gray water, dirty water
and heat reclaiming systems on
board. So we try to maximize
everything as humanly or
technically possible. Today technology
keeps on advancing and we are on the lookout of what
(04:24):
the next new methodologies and new technologies
available to us will be in order to further
enhance our goals in where we
go now. For us sustainability is not only
the impact on the environment itself in
terms of the environmental footprint that we leave behind but
it's also the impact on communities. And that's where our
(04:45):
foundation comes into play and where
our mindful approach to responsible
travel really plays a big role which falls into
the educational aspect of what we do with our
customers, our passengers.
>> Birgit Liodon (04:59):
Thank you so much. And I wanted
to have you guys on board with us in this first episode
because I know that you have had a really
strong practice of working with
smaller innovators as part of delivering on your
goals. And you mentioned about your initiatives and
the focus on reducing single use plastics.
(05:20):
So I wanted to bring into our conversation
Will Pearson who is part of the
value chain that you work with to achieve
moving from plastic as a problem into
creating circular solutions.
And before introducing Will,
how strong has the ambition been from
(05:41):
your end on proactively bringing in these
smaller startups as part of your
sustainability work?
>> Gebhard Rainer (05:48):
It's crucial for us, absolutely crucial. We are a
small company in itself when you look at the industry as a
whole, we are, we jokingly
like to call ourselves the oldest startup
that currently exists because we have 130 year history but
we are a startup as of this year. We are a new
company and we have been collaborating with Will and
his company for a number of years now in in
(06:11):
a very meaningful way and
a very attractive way. As well. And the reason why I'm saying attractive
is because it is something that speaks
to our passengers. It speaks to our passengers
in terms of the story behind Ocean
Bottle. It speaks to our passengers in terms of our
commitment to sustainability, but also our
(06:31):
commitment to small innovators
and startup companies who are creative
enough to address some of the bigger issues in this
world.
>> Birgit Liodon (06:41):
Yeah, and will that, that gives the word
naturally over to you? Can you tell us
about what you do in Ocean
Bottle and your deliverable on the
pioneer commitment moving us towards the
clean living oceans.
>> Will Pearson (06:58):
Well Gebhard, thank you very much for the warm
introduction and big, it's great to be on
this podcast together, really excited about this format
and to see what this can do within the cruise
industry. so yeah, for a little bit more context on
Ocean Bottle, what we're doing as an
innovator, and a pioneer, our ambition really is to
enable individuals all over the world to make
(07:20):
a global impact on the ocean plastic crisis
through call the world's most needed
reusable bottle which is holding right here. So
yeah, for every ocean bottle that we sell, we fund the collection
equivalent to a thousand plastic bottles in
weight in coastal communities all around the world.
And to date we've prevented and collected almost
(07:40):
2 billion plastic bottles in
weight. I do think it's worth sharing
as maybe something of interest is that we've hit
that target to date almost without
working with the cruise industry and with the travel
retail sector. So you imagine what we could
do in partnership with a category that sees
millions of people through its doors every single
(08:01):
day. I think what's really encouraging to see is that
many cruise companies have already
looking to eliminate single use plastic bottles
on board. HX Expedition were the
first M movers in terms of this space. so
really our kind of high level ambition within
cruise is to aid those efforts to reduce
(08:22):
single use plastic on board by kind of providing
that practical and turnkey sustainability
solution. but also connecting the passengers
with the huge positive impact that they're making on
protecting the ocean and giving them a premium product
that they can use for years to come. So yeah, I'm very excited
about this. Great to be on the program. I'm sure we'll talk a
(08:42):
bit more about the partnership as well and how it's worked
practically.
>> Birgit Liodon (08:46):
Yes, thank you Will. And that's the
plastic side of things. And then
we have another innovator that you're working
with in AX Expedition, Gebhard
that is more combining the local
experiences in nature
friendly ways with clean
(09:07):
whale watching, short
cruises. So Brim Explorer.
Agnes, you built Brim
years ago and you have also been working with ah, what
is now Ajax Expeditions for
many years. Can you tell a little bit more
about how it started and how
you started your pioneer commitment that helps
(09:29):
deliver on Ajax as well?
>> Agnes Arnadottir (09:32):
Yes, and thank you for the invitation, Birket. So
my name is Agnes Arnadottir. I am originally from Iceland
and I'm one of two founders of Brim Explorer.
So Brim Explorer is a tourism and tech
company founded in 2018.
We operate our own purpose built hybrid
and electric sightseeing vessels mainly in the Arctic
(09:52):
part of Norway. So we offer, and also
Svalbard, we offer whale watching and northern light cruises as
you mentioned, and other nature and wildlife,
experiences. So I would have to
say that HX or Hurtruten, they've been quite
crucial partner for us as a company since the
beginning. Our second
vessel was launched in 2019 and
(10:15):
was basically launched to cooperate
with Hurtruten, up on Svalbard where we
operate six months a year while there's
still daylight. So Brim is an old
Norse word for waves, that break when
reaching shore. We chose that word because our
vision from the start was to create waves and both challenge
and set standard for sustainable boat tourism
(10:37):
industry. And I think
we've managed that quite well. of course creating waves and
being innovative is not easy. So the challenges
have been multiple, as we have been
operating, but now we have five boats
in operation and and quite sustainable
operation in all
aspects.
>> Birgit Liodon (10:58):
Yeah. So you're basically a problem
solver alongside Will for
HX Expedition while they
provide the early commercial
customer, market from your end, which is
I think the very best examples
of the power couple dynamics. and then I
also invited along Sylvie Elmelan of
(11:20):
Purewave. And while Solvi isn't
working with Age Expeditions, yet,
there is also an amazing market when we connect
entrepreneurs together. so
Solvi, she has a company that
produces ocean friendly pipe
cleaners, and where Brim is one of
(11:40):
the first customers on board. And
can you tell me Agnes, what is the issue
about the piping systems on board
ships and vessels and how has that been for
Brim?
>> Agnes Arnadottir (11:54):
Well, just in general. So if
you're, if you claim yourself to be a sustainable company, you
have to take sustainability and consideration in every
choice you make. Basically, if it's what
kind of food you serve on board or plastic, single
use plastic as Gephard mentioned,
other things are are all the chemicals or, or
(12:14):
the the producers, the things you use to clean the
boat or or other substances on board. And what
Salvi, introduced to us through you Birit. Thank
you. Was a, a much more or basically
100% environmentally friendly
pipe cleaner. and in toilets
on, on vessels they tend to clog themselves up very
(12:34):
easily. So the general norm is to use
strong chemicals to clean the pipes. And of course even though
you have a gray water tank or a black water
tank, those chemicals end up somewhere. So
having an environmental friendly
alternative is fantastic. And we have not
tested the Pure Wave solution for some months and it
(12:54):
works very well. it's simple but it does the job.
So I can highly recommend it to, to other bolt
operators.
>> Birgit Liodon (13:01):
Yeah. Thank you Agnes and
Sylvie. That brings the word over to you because I
mean your solution is not on the
decarbonization part but as Agnes
mentioned about the chemicals, the
other type of output that we
leave behind when we operate ships and
vessels. So can you tell us a little bit
(13:24):
about Purewave and the
difference that you make through your pioneer
commitment for the cruise industry?
>> Sylvia Almelan (13:32):
Yes. thank you Birgit. It's so
nice to be here. I'm the founder
of Purewave.
Purewave Pipe Cleaner. Purewave
Pipe Cleaner
is 100%
pure. it's a lot of
of Yeah, you can choose a lot of different
(13:54):
chemicals out there for pipes but we are
the first one with the Swain label.
So I am very proud of that. so we have
now do a lot of testes
and we have Bream together with us and we are
so happy for that. And
yeah, that is
(14:15):
a little bit about Purewave.
>> Birgit Liodon (14:19):
and you have developed this as a
startup company, basically delivering to other
startups but also targeting the larger
players. And I think that is the baseline
of all of your three companies is that you
are moving into the cruise sector,
starting maybe with one actor as
(14:40):
your pilot or early stage customer.
but then of course we have all of
us have different targets to deliver on.
Gabhart mentioned a little bit about
theirs and I'm really eager to hear from
the very different types of operations that you
do, your current progress
compared to the targets. I would like to Hear
(15:02):
you know, in which areas has it been
easier to get ahead and
where is it that you have experienced the most
challenging bottlenecks on your journeys? And
Gebert, I will, I will start with you.
>> Gebhard Rainer (15:17):
Yeah, Some of the more
challenging areas or the more
interesting areas are when you think about
fuel in general. So we gave up heavy fuel in
2008 but diesel is still a
pollutant. It still leaves ah a pretty strong
footprint behind. and moving away from
that there's in the EU a heavy
(15:39):
promotion for eco fuel in order
to have more, more of a
natural fuel, ah, type
that is not completely sustainable or
completely emission free. The difficulty with
it is one there aren't enough quantities
available to actually fuel
the whole of the industry. And two from an
(16:02):
expedition cruise perspective we
typically are leaving from
ports where you don't have the facilities to
actually have the availability of that type
of fuel that would help us. So
you look at alternative propulsion like we have done with the two
hybrid ships. Use that for load
balancing to reduce the overall use of
(16:24):
fuel and looking at new technologies,
that's one challenge. The other challenge
is with recycling which
sounds pretty simple because recycling is fairly
advanced today in terms of recycling facilities and what you
can recycle. The difficulty again is for an
expedition cruise company that very often in the
ports that we go in, if you look at
(16:47):
Antarctica, it's Ushua, Punta Arenas,
down in the very south, there are no recycling facilities
there. I just got back from Antarctica and
I had meetings with the the government, the provincial
government in the south of Argentina
and they finally have now approved that they
will install and build recycling
(17:07):
facilities. It's highly political. We've been talking to them for
the last 15 years and nothing has
moved. everything takes a very long time. Now
that we have started a year ago using
a private recycling company for
limited recycling, it sort
of started embarrassing the government
and they have now come forward and said yeah,
(17:30):
we're going to do recycling. But these are some of the
challenges. Shore power for example, because of
the hybrid ships that we have and I'm sure
Agnes can vouch for that.
Very important when you get into port, the biggest
pollution happens very often in port with
cruise ships because they have to leave their engines on in order to get the
(17:50):
systems going or have the systems running. If you can hook
up the shore power you can switch off
completely from pollutant, fuels
and you have clean energy. Shore
power is not available everywhere.
it's like it is with electric plugs.
Every country has its own
(18:10):
interpretation of what a plug should look like. Has
different connections. There's no international standard yet. At
some point hopefully there will be. There are
some successes. Scandinavia is far ahead of the
rest where you have a lot more shore power
accessibility. Iceland has now become
shore power sufficient as well. We have last year
achieved the first time ever. And the only cruise
(18:33):
company that has in every port that we went
into in Iceland we have been on shore power. We are
getting shore power in Greenland now. we have made an
arrangement to have shore power in Nuuk so that
we can hook up our ships there. It's a slow process.
So these are some of the challenges that they, they look simple on
the outset but they're fairly
(18:54):
complex behind.
>> Birgit Liodon (18:56):
Yeah definitely. And what we see here
is so many times the
commercial pioneers and actors
moving faster than local
governments regulations and everything.
So will you are delivering and
creating a resource
replacing a problem with
(19:19):
a ah cool guest ah gadget
and what have been you know
your you know your key
achievements on this path and where is it
that you find your challenging bottlenecks.
>> Will Pearson (19:34):
Cool. I really like your summary. that
being a sustainable guest gadget I think that's a, we might
start using that one. yeah, I think you know in terms of current
progress but also the bottlenecks you've been facing, you know
as this we've been bit busy scaling up
internationally over the past few years. We've worked with
over 2000 different brands and companies
globally. but really besides an incredible
(19:57):
partnership with HX
Expeditions, you know we are pretty new to
the cruise industry. there's a lot of stakeholders
to navigate, so excuse the pun there,
particularly in, in the large organizations. So I
think you know the experience with
HX has been incredible. really collaborating
quite closely, understanding their needs as a
(20:19):
business and then you know us being an agile and
innovative startup we can move quite quickly
and really deliver on those needs. So I think
for us the bottlenecks and what we would love to see more
of is probably just more appetite and
willingness around testing
products. It doesn't have to be across
(20:39):
the entire fleet. It could be on one ship
to be with to then really test and prove that actually
this is something that works, you know both in
terms of whether it's a revenue driving opportunity,
whether it enhances their sustainability goals, or
actually just you know their brand and passenger
experience. So that is what we would love to see that kind
(21:00):
of test and collaborate model. and really I think,
you know, we as the startups often do most of the
heavy lifting. So you know, you tell us what you
need, we will come and try and deliver
that for you. so I think that's really important and I
would imagine that it would apply as well to a lot of other
innovators that we want to see, you know, tackle
(21:20):
the challenges that the cruise companies are
facing in terms of climate and nature.
>> Birgit Liodon (21:25):
Hm. And Gebhard, you include
your guests in the plastic
experience in different ways, where you start with
the excursions, doing beach
cleanings and then they will, they
will meet the upcycled plastic both
through whales, Ocean bottles and through
lanyards on their guest badges and in
(21:47):
other ways. And I would assume, Will, that you are
eager to attract also more customers from the
cruise segment. And Gebhardt, can you give any
good recommendations from your end with
experiences from Ajax, introducing Ocean
Bottle and replacing your single
use, plastics?
>> Gebhard Rainer (22:06):
Yeah, absolutely. I mean I could make recommendations both cruise
and land based. While Will was
talking, I was actually thinking about the previous company where I came from
in the Caribbean, Sandals, where we
had an initiative going exactly what
Ajax has done, what we have done on the cruise ships
in replacing plastic bottles.
(22:26):
And these are large resorts, hotels where
you have a large consumption of water
through plastic bottles every day. And it's a huge problem in the Caribbean
just like it is everywhere else.
Ocean Bottle could do a fantastic job with them
there. So maybe we'll talk afterwards a little.
>> Will Pearson (22:43):
Bit, Will, it sounds great.
>> Birgit Liodon (22:46):
That is great. And I think also as one of
the partners with ctreadwell and
as part of the tool community, I think you also
have, upon request, some
special campaigns on, if anybody else
from the cruise sector in the audience are
eager, to get up to
speed and follow the lead of hx.
>> Will Pearson (23:10):
Absolutely. I mean we're open to collaboration, open
to conversations and absolutely keen to explore
and I think the exciting thing that Gebhart said there as
well around these
passengers, if we can connect them with the
sustainability journey that that cruise company is
taking, that HX expedition is taking, you know,
(23:30):
they will actually act as ambassadors about that, you know,
both on voyage but also afterwards, which I
think is really, really cool.
>> Gebhard Rainer (23:38):
Yeah. And that's the part that we like very much because it feeds right
into the educational aspect, which is one of the three
pillars that we have as an organization. So we do as you
rightfully said Birgit. We, we, we
educate. Although we don't say to our passengers that we educate them,
but we educate them on sustainability,
on ocean plastics, on the effect
(23:58):
ocean plastics have microplastics, that go into everything and
everywhere and have them participate in beach
cleanups. It's amazing when you go up to Svalbard and
go to the northern parts of Greenland, as to how much
plastic you find on the beaches there. And you would think, how
does it get there? There's nobody living there. You know,
there's no. Nobody, there's no roads where people
(24:18):
throw garbage out of their windows from the cars.
But it shows you, and this is again part of the
education. It shows you the climate effect. It shows you
where climate is made in the north and the south. And it shows you the
ocean currents that carry all that around and drop
it off in areas you would never expect it.
We educate our passengers,
(24:38):
as to how we recycle plastic in
collaboration with small recycling companies, with
companies like Ocean Bottle, and
other small recycling companies where we
rework these plastics into useful things
again that that people can use and learn
from.
>> Birgit Liodon (24:55):
M. Yeah. And I really, really
love that model. And I think in general
it's something about us as humans when
we start care for something, when we feel that this
is personal, then we have a
whole different ability to, to create
change, of patterns and change our mindset.
(25:16):
So I think there's such an still unused
potential of driving this
individual and collective change through
inspiring and engaging
guests and crew and people that we
interact with in our value chain and in
this you also bring people under the surface
when they are joining onboard Brim. And you are really also
(25:39):
a huge part of both like the environmental
and educational experience for Ajax
Expeditions. And I mean
in your process now you already
have surpassed like the first ambition. You have
five ships out there
sailing. but. And where are you now ahead of
your targets? And what has been
(26:00):
Brim's really most painful and
challenging bottlenecks on the way?
>> Agnes Arnadottir (26:06):
That's a very good question. But before I answer that, I just want to
elaborate a little bit on the previous topic because I, I find it
very interesting. Gabard also the journey you have
taken in, in HX and Hirstruten, and that's
a journey we have also had from the beginning where,
where we. My background is from an
environmental, foundation, Palona foundation, where my
job was to try to influence industry leaders and public Opinion
(26:29):
and so on. So when we started Brim, we decided that we also
wanted to use our boats as a platform to
educate guests and inform them and try to
influence their decisions. And that's I think the real
power of tourism is basically when you have guests on board. They're
open minded. So we can not only educate them but we can
also give them tools and we can help steer consumption
(26:49):
because in fact it's the consumption that is the
big part of emissions and pollution.
and if for instance ocean bottle can be an
inherited part of of the journey and if that can be
implemented in more places as a ah, substitute for
all the millions or billions of the plastic bottles
that some end up being recycled but
(27:10):
most not then that's already like a huge
step. So for us like
having that as a guiding principle and when designing the
tours. But also we don't have an industry meeting on board our
vessels. We serve the lunches vegan
because well everyone can eat that. And also it's the,
it's the lowest possible carbon footprint you can have
(27:31):
also in the consumption. So the totality
makes this industry also very special I think because you have
access to people, both their minds but also you
can you can bring back something by, by influencing
positively their, their consumption and the understanding
of the importance of their own consumption. Which is
basically the biggest challenge
(27:51):
of the tourism industry. It's not how you arrive to a
destination with a plane or a train. The biggest
challenge is what you leave behind where you are.
Is there any recycling opportunities? What are
the purchasing options? And for instance being
in Troms which is now a great destination
with millions of guests, a
(28:12):
year like yes, okay they have to fly there.
But it's even more important that when they get there they understand that they
can drink the tap water and don't buy the plastic bottle and that
they don't bring home a lot of crap
souvenirs made well in
the, on the other side of the world. So we can, if
we are really thinking about sustainability, we also have to think about
(28:32):
what choices we, we give our, our
guests. But okay, that was digression. on
the, on the bottlenecks. Well
I feel that there haven't really been any
other next and bottlenecks
as we go. But that's how innovation
works. Of course the
(28:53):
kind of the benefit of our innovation journey is
that we have been innovating boats. We're operating ourselves.
So for every boat we
build, the more we Learn the more we can improve. With
the final goal being optimizing
and optimizing an electric sightseeing
vessel basically. So a data vessel, not expedition but
(29:13):
a vessel that goes 100 nautical miles a day
preferably on one charge in reasonable speed.
So that we can be for instance a substitute
to the cruise operators
offering smaller ah day
tour excursions in addition to, to the other
operation. So getting there has
(29:34):
been challenging because the
industry is conservative
and getting a, a
shipyard to, to agree on
the, on our kind of design principles which
has been electric by design meaning
that every decision you make for the design of a
(29:54):
vessel has to be made
thinking about the weight and that the
batteries you want on board, they are meant for taking the
boat from A to B and not to drive all the hotel
loads and all the other things. So range
and efficiency. So that means that you cannot
think as a regular diesel vessel. You have to think about where
(30:14):
you place the components to reduce cabling, to reduce
weight. You have to think about how much AC or,
or heating you have and so on and so on.
So just educating and we are two social scientists
and a music teacher that founded Brim
and Educate, educating all the engineers and the
experts that okay we can do things differently if you
(30:35):
just If we just think the electric by
design first. That has taken a lot of time
and the first boat was not perfect, not even close to
perfect. The second was not either. We're getting
closer. We have even developed our own
components. The electric motor we have on board is a
design by us, not produced by us. But we found
a partner in Italy who has designed a very
(30:58):
efficient electric motor. And now we're
also designing the first solid state batteries for
maritime sector together with another Italian company.
And we're designing the power electronic units.
And basically our goal is to have a complete
driveline, a skateboard for a
vessel between say 18 and 40 meters. That
(31:18):
can be kind of long range and fast speed
for day tours. So it's very
exciting. the regulatory obstacles are
still there but we have been,
we in our experience, the
regulatory authorities are also.
>> Will Pearson (31:37):
Understanding.
>> Agnes Arnadottir (31:37):
that reviewing existing regulations
might be necessary when implementing new technology. So
I think we're getting, getting somewhere. And ideally
we'll continue to have good partners as for instance
HX Expeditions in the future.
>> Birgit Liodon (31:53):
And you're also open for
teaming up with more actors in the sector.
>> Agnes Arnadottir (31:59):
Elsewhere in the world or
100%. We have been looking for solutions outside of the
maritime sector. And so for instance the
electric motor is originally made for
cable cars. and the batteries they
were originally made for or they were thought for
airplanes for instance. So we look at other sectors
where we would need some more assistance in
(32:22):
the future is when we want to integrate solar
into the vessel design. So in the railings or in the
roofs to, to be able to
generate some additional energy while operating.
We haven't come that far but that's one of the topics we want to solve
and hopefully near, near future.
>> Birgit Liodon (32:39):
Thank you Agnes. And while I mean the Brim.
>> Will Pearson (32:42):
The Brim boats look at absolutely amazing. So I was going to say the
Bremboats look absolutely amazing. You know, as well as being leading
on sustainability they are. They are beautiful and it's been
amazing to. To witness how you've built and scaled.
>> Agnes Arnadottir (32:53):
Yeah, thank you. My, my grandmother, she's 94
and she thinks it doesn't even look like a boat.
>> Birgit Liodon (32:58):
So she's not very impressed.
Classic. And while Will and
Agnes you're both a bit more mature in your
commercial stage of your company. So it's a little earlier.
Sylvia you're in the kind of moving from
testing and pilot customers
and over to the first commercial
(33:18):
contracts and. And in. In that
stage where you're just starting to get signed
commercial contracts. What. What has been
your bottlenecks in. In
getting on board basically with more
vessels.
>> Sylvia Almelan (33:39):
We have. Purewave is a really good
product and You know I have
Not many years ah background from this industry.
So I have learned a lot on the way
and You know it's a lot of things to
understand in this industry.
but m.
(33:59):
I think we are very exciting
because Bream,
and the Fjords and
all this company we have been talking to so
far are really
interesting and exciting
about the product.
(34:20):
So I feel very lucky.
So we have always challenges and we
have Working with new products
now. So we have just Yeah,
on these days we have four or five new
products coming out.
I cannot say so much now but You
(34:42):
can just wait and see.
>> Birgit Liodon (34:44):
Yeah. And. And has your. Your
key kind of bottleneck per now
been been the access to companies
and vessels to test the solution on
board?
>> Sylvia Almelan (34:57):
Yes, of course. but you
know Birgit Leoden
have a lot of contacts and
I am so happy for your
help Birgit to
introduce and helped me to get
forward in this industry.
>> Birgit Liodon (35:19):
Thank you. And So
Per today we have
quite a broad range of
innovators, you guys, from the large
to the smaller and more
newer aspect. And
then I wanted to check in with you because I mean
you are all creating triple P ripple
(35:40):
effects when you are combining kind of
these low hanging fruits of solutions that are
enabling ocean friendly shift for the
cruise pioneers while we wait for
completely emission free ships. And
now I wanted to hear from you as something to
bring back to the audience and in very in a very
like a few key words, do you
(36:03):
each have one additional area where you have
very clear commitments and where you are
keen to partner up with an entrepreneur
to power couple for a radical
solution? Gebhart, I know that the
foundation does a lot of great initiatives.
Where is your area, where there is now room
(36:23):
for more innovators on board with Ajax
expedition?
>> Gebhard Rainer (36:26):
Yeah, I think two areas. One you mentioned is the foundation itself.
The foundation is a very important part
of what we do because it's the non profit extension that
really reaches into communities that are
remote, that need a
responsible approach in terms of how we,
we think about them and how we think about supporting
(36:48):
them in their economic developments. It doesn't
help if the cruise industry goes into these
communities and says, you know, I
bring you 2,000 people at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Can you
put some singing song and bands up and I'll give you a thousand dollars for
it. That destroys the identity,
destroys the culture, it destroys the community and it creates a lot
(37:08):
of animosity. And you can see some of that
more and more appearing now because of mass tourism where
local communities are standing up and say enough is enough.
We just don't want it anymore. Tourism
is important because it is for many
communities it's the quickest way of economic development.
But it needs to be done responsibly.
Responsibly. To the extent that we in
(37:30):
tourism we need to understand what
is actually useful, helpful and make sense
for these communities. what do they need
that allows them to retain and
protect their integrity and their culture but
at the same time develop an
infrastructure, an economic base that
(37:50):
allows them to continue having their
communities. The biggest issue in
remote communities is often that the youth
leaves these communities and looks for
opportunities and prosperity because there's unemployment. There is
just no hope or future left when you live
in a place that's seven months of the year locked off
(38:11):
because of natural circumstances, the
weather. So that's one area
where the foundation is very
important because we use the foundation to go in and to explore
and to find out and have these communications that feed
them back to us and allows us to
have a very different and a responsible
approach in how we visit these communities. The second
(38:33):
area of focus for me is on the
ships themselves and Agnes has mentioned
something before and that is a real trigger
for me as well. And that's the consumption,
amount of consumption and the wastefulness that
we in the civilized societies
have become accustomed
to. We don't think about loading up
(38:55):
our plate with food and leaving halfway on it and throwing it
away. It's just because it's there and it's
being served and we don't think about the source of
where it comes from. And it all sounds easy
but the difficulty there is, and it goes back again to
reaching out in educating
communities. It's
when you are in more remote areas where we, where
(39:17):
we embark from.
We try to buy as much local as we can, which is
not always easy because you're dealing with very small farm
communities who don't have the training or the
understanding as to why a certain consistency
in production and a year round quantity is
very important. In order to do business it
(39:37):
has to be reliable. You
can't launch a ship from Ushuaia into
Antarctica on the hope that there is
enough food available for you to buy locally. You
can't stop along the way and walk down a
street to a supermarket to buy what you
forgot or what you didn't get because there is nothing. You
go into areas where there is nothing, you can't resupply,
(40:00):
you can't fly supplies in. So you've got to make sure your
local supply chain is
intact and as sustainable as
possible. So we are working with local communities
and local regional governments trying to educate, trying to
help them, trying to find out what can we do to provide
them with in order for them
to in sort of a co op like
(40:22):
arrangement, come up with ideas
and collaborative work that allows them to
have a variety of supplies in a consistent
manner throughout the year that supplies the industry
that needs it from the port
there. Not helpful for us if we have the flying
container loads of produce into
these locations in order to supply our ships.
>> Birgit Liodon (40:45):
Definitely. And I also understood that
with the new structure of Ajax foundation that you are
also looking more into
delivering on your value commitment
by also supporting local
entrepreneurs with non dilutive capital
which is I think a great
opportunity on how to use
(41:06):
these kind of supportive and more
philanthropic resources. So I think
that's quite amazing and really, really important
for any relevant innovator out there. And I think
you have your next deadline for applying is
around May this year. May and November each year.
Yeah.
>> Gebhard Rainer (41:25):
Yes. So we have two sides to that. One is
where we allow, small local enterprises,
innovators to apply for funding. We're very happy to
fund because there is a lot of, creativity that comes out of
it. And then we have given the authority to our ship
captains for a rapid response fund. When
they go into local remote communities, they have the authority
(41:45):
to spend on the spot a thousand euros if there is
a need for it. And they can see a benefit that helps
the local community there. And that has actually been
really well received by the communities
because it's uncomplicated, there's no bureaucracy to it.
It's immediate effect. It's right there.
>> Birgit Liodon (42:03):
Thank you. And Will, how is
it with your unresolved pain points, are there
any where you want to team up with other,
innovators in your supply chain?
>> Will Pearson (42:15):
Yeah. So our company really is built
on partnerships. so we're always looking
for new partnerships with,
plastic collection organization, you know,
companies that we can invest in and help scale the
projects that they are, doing on the ground.
So yeah, we're always, always on the lookout for more
projects that we can help scale. and then on the
(42:37):
other side, you know, flipping the coin the other way
in terms of power couples, you know, I think to put
some numbers into sort of words into
numbers, sorry, around the partnership with HX and the impact that
that's actually helped deliver. If you don't mind, Gab
Hart. So our partnership to date has funded
a collection of million, kilograms of
ocean on plastic, which is a huge milestone for us
(42:59):
already. that's equivalent to over 90
million plastic bottles in weight.
and that we've been able to achieve that by putting
the products in the hands of around 90,000
passengers. I think what's really exciting as well
is not only has it had that impact on Ocean Plastic,
I mean it's allowing us to scale up our
investment in the plastic collection projects themselves.
(43:21):
But sort of since offering the products, it's seen a
huge upt in product sales through their
retail around Ocean Bottle, but also just
how they've embedded the storytelling within
the passenger experience. So having a joint
partnership video in the cabins, offering up a
map of reefer locations on board the ship is all
(43:42):
really incredible stuff, that we've been able to
do in partnership. So I think
power couples are the way forward. and I think a
lot can be achieved in twos.
>> Birgit Liodon (43:53):
That's amazing. And that's 1 million
kilos in less than a year since you
launched the.
>> Will Pearson (43:59):
Yeah, correct. We launched it's been in the works for a
while the project. We've been doing a lot of collaboration behind
the scenes making sure the design is
right for HX and their customers and
But yeah that's the impact we've been able to generate
just since publicly launching in July last year.
>> Birgit Liodon (44:17):
Wow. So I see a huge potential for
large cruise corporates. And you guys moving
onwards. Agnes, on your
end, what is your key pain
points where you can see
the eager opportunity and interest to team up
with other innovators?
>> Agnes Arnadottir (44:35):
Well as I mentioned before I think the largest pain
points for the longer reach and perhaps some
small some small expedition vessels in the future like
24 meter or, or vessels that are used
for more than just short day tours. It's basically
how to generate sustainable energy on board.
So solar and wind generated energy.
(44:55):
yeah, yeah. We have been looking at solar
sales and and different innovations. It's
not quite mature yet. We have done some
some drawings or sketches ourselves. But
I would be very happy if if anyone that has that is
working on like a smaller scale solutions for this
would, would reach out.
>> Birgit Liodon (45:15):
Thank you Agnes. That
is a perfect outreach to the
regenerative energy innovators out there that
are listening and Sylvie, on
your end, I mean you, you deliver a solution for,
for Agnes to reduce toxic
elements coming out into ocean and affecting
ocean life. But where is your pain
(45:37):
point this
time?
>> Sylvia Almelan (45:40):
It's I am looking for manufacturer
I think it had to be quite innovative
because we need to have better
packaging solution for a pure
WAVES product.
>> Birgit Liodon (45:55):
So replacing the petro based packaging
for your liquids.
>> Sylvia Almelan (45:59):
Yes, it is extremely important
for us to choose patching that
is as
environmentally friendly as possible.
>> Birgit Liodon (46:11):
Great, thank you. Then we have
a ah last quick question to all of you
before we round off. Because of course we all
have different challenges and bottlenecks and opportunities
ahead. But all of this boils down
to getting the right people on board.
CTRADE has a great initiative focused on
tomorrow's talents today. and as we need
(46:34):
great humans on board with loads of different
backgrounds and capabilities to build the future of
cruise, I wanted to hear from
each of you if you can share
either your Personal hack or advice
to fellow talents and industry
colleagues, or if you could share
a specific skill set or mindset that you
(46:56):
consider key. For any talents out there
who are eager to join the cruise pioneer
movement, Gebhard, you go
first.
>> Gebhard Rainer (47:06):
I think the most important thing is of course, passion. You have to
believe in what you do, you have to
believe in what you can achieve and you have to believe in the fact
that if there's another human being that can do something,
then you can do it as well. So always reach for the stars.
Believe in yourself. Be who you are and follow through. Have
the stamina and have the determination to do what
(47:26):
you believe in. In today's world there are so many
obstacles. We have created a lot more
complexity that is really not necessary.
We have created a lot of bureaucracy and red tape
and there's always somebody who will say,
yeah, but this will never work.
Don't let people discourage you.
Follow through and be persistent because
(47:49):
you will find people out there who are
mindful, like minded and who
will partner and who will come up with opportunities and
solutions that eventually work. And I think the proof
of that is here. When you look at what Will has done with
Ocean Bottle and what Agnes and, and her
partners have done with Brim and what Solvi is
doing with Pure Wave, it's
(48:10):
fantastic. And conversations like this, they
build networks and you know,
just listening, you get ideas that
you can further explore and you have more conversations and you
introduce other people to it. And before you know it,
a three way conversation has become a 50 people group
that is suddenly pulling on the same string.
>> Birgit Liodon (48:32):
Thank you Gebhard. That is a really
great set of reflections. Will,
your five cents.
>> Will Pearson (48:40):
Yeah, I would definitely echo what Gebhardt
has just said. I think you know, if you can find a
challenge within the cruise industry or beyond,
where you think there's an entrepreneurial opportunity, you
know, go and take it. And you know, I think the
impact that you can make, both you know, for the environment
and for future generations, but also
economically can be, can be huge. So I would
(49:03):
definitely encourage you to do that. And if, you know, if you're not
looking to become an entrepreneur, if you don't want to take on that
challenge because it can be quite daunting,
daunting at times. There's huge impact
that you can make within the cruise companies. You know,
you've got leading companies like HX who are
ah, way ahead of the trend, but also massive
(49:23):
organizations where there's A lot of great work to be done.
So I think, you know, as individuals we often
discount what we can accomplish. But I think actually through
our work, you know, we can really unlock ah, a lot
of impact. So yeah, that's what I would, I would
say.
>> Birgit Liodon (49:37):
Thank you, Will. Agnes.
>> Agnes Arnadottir (49:41):
Yes, thank you. Firstly, I just want
to encourage everyone to experience the
Antarctic, the Arctic, experience what
we basically should all be caring about. It's
by experiencing that you really get the compassion
for nature. And also of course, ocean bottle.
I gave my whole family an ocean bottle, several years ago
(50:02):
for Christmas. And I have mine still. It's it's
those small steps that in the end will, will
decide whether we manage to
impact and, and change the negative
spiral that unfortunately both environment and climate,
are in. And for the, for the
personal talent or mindset, I think
(50:22):
the courage to challenge the established,
we need a radical change and, and it's not necessarily
comfortable. And we need to keep
the spirit up even though it feels
overwhelming. But I mean step by step the
solutions will be there and we need to
practice what we preach. Maybe the most important message
here. we all have to start with ourselves and if
(50:44):
not the next generation will have hard time forgiving
us.
>> Birgit Liodon (50:48):
Yeah. Thank you, Agnes.
Sylvie, you get to share your
reflections.
>> Sylvia Almelan (50:55):
Yes. I think it's We need to have a
why. I need to have a why and
my why is very clear
and it's hard
but I think it's quite important
to know the why and work
hard. It's not
(51:16):
easy and try to connect
with good people,
people who want the same as
you and I want, and
seeking for people with
more experience.
And there is so much lovely
(51:37):
people out there
and they want to help us.
We just need to find the right people.
As the Gebhad say, a lot of.
So follow your heart,
never give up and do
changes.
>> Birgit Liodon (51:57):
Thank you, Sylvie. So we have
to round off this first episode of
the cruise Pioneers. I think by now
people are well aware what a power
couple is actually all about. And for the
next show series moving towards sea trade in
Miami in April and then onwards to
(52:18):
Hamburg, and in the fall. We are
really, really looking forward now to bring you
into the depth and the world of these
amazing power couples that are changing our
industry, making it future fit and
as I would say, making it an
incredibly exciting path
for anyone who has an entrepreneur
(52:40):
or ocean maritime professional in their
belly. So thank you. To all of you for
joining us today. And for the rest of the audience out
there, stay tuned. We will soon be back with
another episode. Thank you.
>> Agnes Arnadottir (52:55):
Thank you.
Hello, I'm Birgit Liodon, Sustainability ambassador of
Sea Trade and founder of the Ocean Opportunity
Lab. Welcome to the Cruise Pioneers
podcast by Tool hosted on Sea Trade
Cruise Talks Podcasts.
In this new series we will dive into the pioneering
initiatives of cruise lines and entrepreneurs who
(00:22):
move and change the cruise industry. We focus
on real life frontrunner initiatives and power
couples enabling crews to move from
pollution to solution. Get on
board our shared expedition as we get behind the
scenes and explore how owners,
founders and top executives move from
vision to deployment. For this first
(00:45):
episode we have gathered a group of change makers who
partner and build sustainable business across
different levels of a cruise supply chain.
To show you what we mean with the term power
couples, you will gain some inspiring
real life examples demonstrating how
collaborative partnerships with change
(01:05):
makers across corporate crews and startups
enables us to utilize the best and
complementary strengths and capacities of
large and small organizations.
With me today, all the way from London is
Gebhard Rainer, CEO of HX
Expeditions and Will Pearson, Founder
of Ocean Bottle. From Oslo we have
(01:28):
Agnes Arnadottir of Brim Explorer.
And joining us from Spain is Sylvia
Almelan, founder of purewave.
Welcome everyone. I am so excited to have
you joining and enabling
you to open up your experiences and
cases to our audience.
So today we will start off with
(01:50):
your pioneer commitment which
is really exciting. so I would like to
hear from all of you starting with
Gebhart. You can introduce
your high level targets for an emission free and
waste free cruise operation and how you build
a competitive edge for future
proof industry. Gebhard.
>> Gebhard Rainer (02:15):
Thank you very much Birgit and it's great to be with you
on this new innovative format
of a podcast. So Ajax
Expeditions is and continues to be very, very
committed on sustainability as we have
been over the last number of years. Now it's
a new birth year for us since we have split away
from Hurtigruten as our sister
(02:37):
company and have become independent
as of January this year.
And we clearly will continue to focus on
sustainability in addition to our
focus on science and education. From a sustainability point of
view where our goals are. The highest
goal of course is to continue to be a leader and the
leader in sustainability in walking the
(03:00):
talk, so to say in terms of what we do, we want
to become carbon neutral, within
a reasonable period of time. And the reason why
I'm saying reasonable period of time rather than giving you
a year is the fact that there's some regulatory changes
that we are taking into consideration right now to adjust
some of our goals, we were the
(03:20):
first cruise company to
abandon heavy oil, heavy
fuels in 2008. In addition to that we
have and we were the first one that abandoned all
single use plastics from our ships in
2018. We have the only two hybrid
electric ships currently in use in expedition
cruise or in cruise overall which went
(03:43):
into service in 2019 and
2020. And we continue
to stay very focused on
reducing our footprint in the
destinations where we go to. So all of our ships
have full recycling capabilities
both from a waste management point of view in terms
of wet waste and dry waste but also in terms
(04:04):
of recycling capabilities in terms of
gray water, dirty water
and heat reclaiming systems on
board. So we try to maximize
everything as humanly or
technically possible. Today technology
keeps on advancing and we are on the lookout of what
(04:24):
the next new methodologies and new technologies
available to us will be in order to further
enhance our goals in where we
go now. For us sustainability is not only
the impact on the environment itself in
terms of the environmental footprint that we leave behind but
it's also the impact on communities. And that's where our
(04:45):
foundation comes into play and where
our mindful approach to responsible
travel really plays a big role which falls into
the educational aspect of what we do with our
customers, our passengers.
>> Birgit Liodon (04:59):
Thank you so much. And I wanted
to have you guys on board with us in this first episode
because I know that you have had a really
strong practice of working with
smaller innovators as part of delivering on your
goals. And you mentioned about your initiatives and
the focus on reducing single use plastics.
(05:20):
So I wanted to bring into our conversation
Will Pearson who is part of the
value chain that you work with to achieve
moving from plastic as a problem into
creating circular solutions.
And before introducing Will,
how strong has the ambition been from
(05:41):
your end on proactively bringing in these
smaller startups as part of your
sustainability work?
>> Gebhard Rainer (05:48):
It's crucial for us, absolutely crucial. We are a
small company in itself when you look at the industry as a
whole, we are, we jokingly
like to call ourselves the oldest startup
that currently exists because we have 130 year history but
we are a startup as of this year. We are a new
company and we have been collaborating with Will and
his company for a number of years now in in
(06:11):
a very meaningful way and
a very attractive way. As well. And the reason why I'm saying attractive
is because it is something that speaks
to our passengers. It speaks to our passengers
in terms of the story behind Ocean
Bottle. It speaks to our passengers in terms of our
commitment to sustainability, but also our
(06:31):
commitment to small innovators
and startup companies who are creative
enough to address some of the bigger issues in this
world.
>> Birgit Liodon (06:41):
Yeah, and will that, that gives the word
naturally over to you? Can you tell us
about what you do in Ocean
Bottle and your deliverable on the
pioneer commitment moving us towards the
clean living oceans.
>> Will Pearson (06:58):
Well Gebhard, thank you very much for the warm
introduction and big, it's great to be on
this podcast together, really excited about this format
and to see what this can do within the cruise
industry. so yeah, for a little bit more context on
Ocean Bottle, what we're doing as an
innovator, and a pioneer, our ambition really is to
enable individuals all over the world to make
(07:20):
a global impact on the ocean plastic crisis
through call the world's most needed
reusable bottle which is holding right here. So
yeah, for every ocean bottle that we sell, we fund the collection
equivalent to a thousand plastic bottles in
weight in coastal communities all around the world.
And to date we've prevented and collected almost
(07:40):
2 billion plastic bottles in
weight. I do think it's worth sharing
as maybe something of interest is that we've hit
that target to date almost without
working with the cruise industry and with the travel
retail sector. So you imagine what we could
do in partnership with a category that sees
millions of people through its doors every single
(08:01):
day. I think what's really encouraging to see is that
many cruise companies have already
looking to eliminate single use plastic bottles
on board. HX Expedition were the
first M movers in terms of this space. so
really our kind of high level ambition within
cruise is to aid those efforts to reduce
(08:22):
single use plastic on board by kind of providing
that practical and turnkey sustainability
solution. but also connecting the passengers
with the huge positive impact that they're making on
protecting the ocean and giving them a premium product
that they can use for years to come. So yeah, I'm very excited
about this. Great to be on the program. I'm sure we'll talk a
(08:42):
bit more about the partnership as well and how it's worked
practically.
>> Birgit Liodon (08:46):
Yes, thank you Will. And that's the
plastic side of things. And then
we have another innovator that you're working
with in AX Expedition, Gebhard
that is more combining the local
experiences in nature
friendly ways with clean
(09:07):
whale watching, short
cruises. So Brim Explorer.
Agnes, you built Brim
years ago and you have also been working with ah, what
is now Ajax Expeditions for
many years. Can you tell a little bit more
about how it started and how
you started your pioneer commitment that helps
(09:29):
deliver on Ajax as well?
>> Agnes Arnadottir (09:32):
Yes, and thank you for the invitation, Birket. So
my name is Agnes Arnadottir. I am originally from Iceland
and I'm one of two founders of Brim Explorer.
So Brim Explorer is a tourism and tech
company founded in 2018.
We operate our own purpose built hybrid
and electric sightseeing vessels mainly in the Arctic
(09:52):
part of Norway. So we offer, and also
Svalbard, we offer whale watching and northern light cruises as
you mentioned, and other nature and wildlife,
experiences. So I would have to
say that HX or Hurtruten, they've been quite
crucial partner for us as a company since the
beginning. Our second
vessel was launched in 2019 and
(10:15):
was basically launched to cooperate
with Hurtruten, up on Svalbard where we
operate six months a year while there's
still daylight. So Brim is an old
Norse word for waves, that break when
reaching shore. We chose that word because our
vision from the start was to create waves and both challenge
and set standard for sustainable boat tourism
(10:37):
industry. And I think
we've managed that quite well. of course creating waves and
being innovative is not easy. So the challenges
have been multiple, as we have been
operating, but now we have five boats
in operation and and quite sustainable
operation in all
aspects.
>> Birgit Liodon (10:58):
Yeah. So you're basically a problem
solver alongside Will for
HX Expedition while they
provide the early commercial
customer, market from your end, which is
I think the very best examples
of the power couple dynamics. and then I
also invited along Sylvie Elmelan of
(11:20):
Purewave. And while Solvi isn't
working with Age Expeditions, yet,
there is also an amazing market when we connect
entrepreneurs together. so
Solvi, she has a company that
produces ocean friendly pipe
cleaners, and where Brim is one of
(11:40):
the first customers on board. And
can you tell me Agnes, what is the issue
about the piping systems on board
ships and vessels and how has that been for
Brim?
>> Agnes Arnadottir (11:54):
Well, just in general. So if
you're, if you claim yourself to be a sustainable company, you
have to take sustainability and consideration in every
choice you make. Basically, if it's what
kind of food you serve on board or plastic, single
use plastic as Gephard mentioned,
other things are are all the chemicals or, or
(12:14):
the the producers, the things you use to clean the
boat or or other substances on board. And what
Salvi, introduced to us through you Birit. Thank
you. Was a, a much more or basically
100% environmentally friendly
pipe cleaner. and in toilets
on, on vessels they tend to clog themselves up very
(12:34):
easily. So the general norm is to use
strong chemicals to clean the pipes. And of course even though
you have a gray water tank or a black water
tank, those chemicals end up somewhere. So
having an environmental friendly
alternative is fantastic. And we have not
tested the Pure Wave solution for some months and it
(12:54):
works very well. it's simple but it does the job.
So I can highly recommend it to, to other bolt
operators.
>> Birgit Liodon (13:01):
Yeah. Thank you Agnes and
Sylvie. That brings the word over to you because I
mean your solution is not on the
decarbonization part but as Agnes
mentioned about the chemicals, the
other type of output that we
leave behind when we operate ships and
vessels. So can you tell us a little bit
(13:24):
about Purewave and the
difference that you make through your pioneer
commitment for the cruise industry?
>> Sylvia Almelan (13:32):
Yes. thank you Birgit. It's so
nice to be here. I'm the founder
of Purewave.
Purewave Pipe Cleaner. Purewave
Pipe Cleaner
is 100%
pure. it's a lot of
of Yeah, you can choose a lot of different
(13:54):
chemicals out there for pipes but we are
the first one with the Swain label.
So I am very proud of that. so we have
now do a lot of testes
and we have Bream together with us and we are
so happy for that. And
yeah, that is
(14:15):
a little bit about Purewave.
>> Birgit Liodon (14:19):
and you have developed this as a
startup company, basically delivering to other
startups but also targeting the larger
players. And I think that is the baseline
of all of your three companies is that you
are moving into the cruise sector,
starting maybe with one actor as
(14:40):
your pilot or early stage customer.
but then of course we have all of
us have different targets to deliver on.
Gabhart mentioned a little bit about
theirs and I'm really eager to hear from
the very different types of operations that you
do, your current progress
compared to the targets. I would like to Hear
(15:02):
you know, in which areas has it been
easier to get ahead and
where is it that you have experienced the most
challenging bottlenecks on your journeys? And
Gebert, I will, I will start with you.
>> Gebhard Rainer (15:17):
Yeah, Some of the more
challenging areas or the more
interesting areas are when you think about
fuel in general. So we gave up heavy fuel in
2008 but diesel is still a
pollutant. It still leaves ah a pretty strong
footprint behind. and moving away from
that there's in the EU a heavy
(15:39):
promotion for eco fuel in order
to have more, more of a
natural fuel, ah, type
that is not completely sustainable or
completely emission free. The difficulty with
it is one there aren't enough quantities
available to actually fuel
the whole of the industry. And two from an
(16:02):
expedition cruise perspective we
typically are leaving from
ports where you don't have the facilities to
actually have the availability of that type
of fuel that would help us. So
you look at alternative propulsion like we have done with the two
hybrid ships. Use that for load
balancing to reduce the overall use of
(16:24):
fuel and looking at new technologies,
that's one challenge. The other challenge
is with recycling which
sounds pretty simple because recycling is fairly
advanced today in terms of recycling facilities and what you
can recycle. The difficulty again is for an
expedition cruise company that very often in the
ports that we go in, if you look at
(16:47):
Antarctica, it's Ushua, Punta Arenas,
down in the very south, there are no recycling facilities
there. I just got back from Antarctica and
I had meetings with the the government, the provincial
government in the south of Argentina
and they finally have now approved that they
will install and build recycling
(17:07):
facilities. It's highly political. We've been talking to them for
the last 15 years and nothing has
moved. everything takes a very long time. Now
that we have started a year ago using
a private recycling company for
limited recycling, it sort
of started embarrassing the government
and they have now come forward and said yeah,
(17:30):
we're going to do recycling. But these are some of the
challenges. Shore power for example, because of
the hybrid ships that we have and I'm sure
Agnes can vouch for that.
Very important when you get into port, the biggest
pollution happens very often in port with
cruise ships because they have to leave their engines on in order to get the
(17:50):
systems going or have the systems running. If you can hook
up the shore power you can switch off
completely from pollutant, fuels
and you have clean energy. Shore
power is not available everywhere.
it's like it is with electric plugs.
Every country has its own
(18:10):
interpretation of what a plug should look like. Has
different connections. There's no international standard yet. At
some point hopefully there will be. There are
some successes. Scandinavia is far ahead of the
rest where you have a lot more shore power
accessibility. Iceland has now become
shore power sufficient as well. We have last year
achieved the first time ever. And the only cruise
(18:33):
company that has in every port that we went
into in Iceland we have been on shore power. We are
getting shore power in Greenland now. we have made an
arrangement to have shore power in Nuuk so that
we can hook up our ships there. It's a slow process.
So these are some of the challenges that they, they look simple on
the outset but they're fairly
(18:54):
complex behind.
>> Birgit Liodon (18:56):
Yeah definitely. And what we see here
is so many times the
commercial pioneers and actors
moving faster than local
governments regulations and everything.
So will you are delivering and
creating a resource
replacing a problem with
(19:19):
a ah cool guest ah gadget
and what have been you know
your you know your key
achievements on this path and where is it
that you find your challenging bottlenecks.
>> Will Pearson (19:34):
Cool. I really like your summary. that
being a sustainable guest gadget I think that's a, we might
start using that one. yeah, I think you know in terms of current
progress but also the bottlenecks you've been facing, you know
as this we've been bit busy scaling up
internationally over the past few years. We've worked with
over 2000 different brands and companies
globally. but really besides an incredible
(19:57):
partnership with HX
Expeditions, you know we are pretty new to
the cruise industry. there's a lot of stakeholders
to navigate, so excuse the pun there,
particularly in, in the large organizations. So I
think you know the experience with
HX has been incredible. really collaborating
quite closely, understanding their needs as a
(20:19):
business and then you know us being an agile and
innovative startup we can move quite quickly
and really deliver on those needs. So I think
for us the bottlenecks and what we would love to see more
of is probably just more appetite and
willingness around testing
products. It doesn't have to be across
(20:39):
the entire fleet. It could be on one ship
to be with to then really test and prove that actually
this is something that works, you know both in
terms of whether it's a revenue driving opportunity,
whether it enhances their sustainability goals, or
actually just you know their brand and passenger
experience. So that is what we would love to see that kind
(21:00):
of test and collaborate model. and really I think,
you know, we as the startups often do most of the
heavy lifting. So you know, you tell us what you
need, we will come and try and deliver
that for you. so I think that's really important and I
would imagine that it would apply as well to a lot of other
innovators that we want to see, you know, tackle
(21:20):
the challenges that the cruise companies are
facing in terms of climate and nature.
>> Birgit Liodon (21:25):
Hm. And Gebhard, you include
your guests in the plastic
experience in different ways, where you start with
the excursions, doing beach
cleanings and then they will, they
will meet the upcycled plastic both
through whales, Ocean bottles and through
lanyards on their guest badges and in
(21:47):
other ways. And I would assume, Will, that you are
eager to attract also more customers from the
cruise segment. And Gebhardt, can you give any
good recommendations from your end with
experiences from Ajax, introducing Ocean
Bottle and replacing your single
use, plastics?
>> Gebhard Rainer (22:06):
Yeah, absolutely. I mean I could make recommendations both cruise
and land based. While Will was
talking, I was actually thinking about the previous company where I came from
in the Caribbean, Sandals, where we
had an initiative going exactly what
Ajax has done, what we have done on the cruise ships
in replacing plastic bottles.
(22:26):
And these are large resorts, hotels where
you have a large consumption of water
through plastic bottles every day. And it's a huge problem in the Caribbean
just like it is everywhere else.
Ocean Bottle could do a fantastic job with them
there. So maybe we'll talk afterwards a little.
>> Will Pearson (22:43):
Bit, Will, it sounds great.
>> Birgit Liodon (22:46):
That is great. And I think also as one of
the partners with ctreadwell and
as part of the tool community, I think you also
have, upon request, some
special campaigns on, if anybody else
from the cruise sector in the audience are
eager, to get up to
speed and follow the lead of hx.
>> Will Pearson (23:10):
Absolutely. I mean we're open to collaboration, open
to conversations and absolutely keen to explore
and I think the exciting thing that Gebhart said there as
well around these
passengers, if we can connect them with the
sustainability journey that that cruise company is
taking, that HX expedition is taking, you know,
(23:30):
they will actually act as ambassadors about that, you know,
both on voyage but also afterwards, which I
think is really, really cool.
>> Gebhard Rainer (23:38):
Yeah. And that's the part that we like very much because it feeds right
into the educational aspect, which is one of the three
pillars that we have as an organization. So we do as you
rightfully said Birgit. We, we, we
educate. Although we don't say to our passengers that we educate them,
but we educate them on sustainability,
on ocean plastics, on the effect
(23:58):
ocean plastics have microplastics, that go into everything and
everywhere and have them participate in beach
cleanups. It's amazing when you go up to Svalbard and
go to the northern parts of Greenland, as to how much
plastic you find on the beaches there. And you would think, how
does it get there? There's nobody living there. You know,
there's no. Nobody, there's no roads where people
(24:18):
throw garbage out of their windows from the cars.
But it shows you, and this is again part of the
education. It shows you the climate effect. It shows you
where climate is made in the north and the south. And it shows you the
ocean currents that carry all that around and drop
it off in areas you would never expect it.
We educate our passengers,
(24:38):
as to how we recycle plastic in
collaboration with small recycling companies, with
companies like Ocean Bottle, and
other small recycling companies where we
rework these plastics into useful things
again that that people can use and learn
from.
>> Birgit Liodon (24:55):
M. Yeah. And I really, really
love that model. And I think in general
it's something about us as humans when
we start care for something, when we feel that this
is personal, then we have a
whole different ability to, to create
change, of patterns and change our mindset.
(25:16):
So I think there's such an still unused
potential of driving this
individual and collective change through
inspiring and engaging
guests and crew and people that we
interact with in our value chain and in
this you also bring people under the surface
when they are joining onboard Brim. And you are really also
(25:39):
a huge part of both like the environmental
and educational experience for Ajax
Expeditions. And I mean
in your process now you already
have surpassed like the first ambition. You have
five ships out there
sailing. but. And where are you now ahead of
your targets? And what has been
(26:00):
Brim's really most painful and
challenging bottlenecks on the way?
>> Agnes Arnadottir (26:06):
That's a very good question. But before I answer that, I just want to
elaborate a little bit on the previous topic because I, I find it
very interesting. Gabard also the journey you have
taken in, in HX and Hirstruten, and that's
a journey we have also had from the beginning where,
where we. My background is from an
environmental, foundation, Palona foundation, where my
job was to try to influence industry leaders and public Opinion
(26:29):
and so on. So when we started Brim, we decided that we also
wanted to use our boats as a platform to
educate guests and inform them and try to
influence their decisions. And that's I think the real
power of tourism is basically when you have guests on board. They're
open minded. So we can not only educate them but we can
also give them tools and we can help steer consumption
(26:49):
because in fact it's the consumption that is the
big part of emissions and pollution.
and if for instance ocean bottle can be an
inherited part of of the journey and if that can be
implemented in more places as a ah, substitute for
all the millions or billions of the plastic bottles
that some end up being recycled but
(27:10):
most not then that's already like a huge
step. So for us like
having that as a guiding principle and when designing the
tours. But also we don't have an industry meeting on board our
vessels. We serve the lunches vegan
because well everyone can eat that. And also it's the,
it's the lowest possible carbon footprint you can have
(27:31):
also in the consumption. So the totality
makes this industry also very special I think because you have
access to people, both their minds but also you
can you can bring back something by, by influencing
positively their, their consumption and the understanding
of the importance of their own consumption. Which is
basically the biggest challenge
(27:51):
of the tourism industry. It's not how you arrive to a
destination with a plane or a train. The biggest
challenge is what you leave behind where you are.
Is there any recycling opportunities? What are
the purchasing options? And for instance being
in Troms which is now a great destination
with millions of guests, a
(28:12):
year like yes, okay they have to fly there.
But it's even more important that when they get there they understand that they
can drink the tap water and don't buy the plastic bottle and that
they don't bring home a lot of crap
souvenirs made well in
the, on the other side of the world. So we can, if
we are really thinking about sustainability, we also have to think about
(28:32):
what choices we, we give our, our
guests. But okay, that was digression. on
the, on the bottlenecks. Well
I feel that there haven't really been any
other next and bottlenecks
as we go. But that's how innovation
works. Of course the
(28:53):
kind of the benefit of our innovation journey is
that we have been innovating boats. We're operating ourselves.
So for every boat we
build, the more we Learn the more we can improve. With
the final goal being optimizing
and optimizing an electric sightseeing
vessel basically. So a data vessel, not expedition but
(29:13):
a vessel that goes 100 nautical miles a day
preferably on one charge in reasonable speed.
So that we can be for instance a substitute
to the cruise operators
offering smaller ah day
tour excursions in addition to, to the other
operation. So getting there has
(29:34):
been challenging because the
industry is conservative
and getting a, a
shipyard to, to agree on
the, on our kind of design principles which
has been electric by design meaning
that every decision you make for the design of a
(29:54):
vessel has to be made
thinking about the weight and that the
batteries you want on board, they are meant for taking the
boat from A to B and not to drive all the hotel
loads and all the other things. So range
and efficiency. So that means that you cannot
think as a regular diesel vessel. You have to think about where
(30:14):
you place the components to reduce cabling, to reduce
weight. You have to think about how much AC or,
or heating you have and so on and so on.
So just educating and we are two social scientists
and a music teacher that founded Brim
and Educate, educating all the engineers and the
experts that okay we can do things differently if you
(30:35):
just If we just think the electric by
design first. That has taken a lot of time
and the first boat was not perfect, not even close to
perfect. The second was not either. We're getting
closer. We have even developed our own
components. The electric motor we have on board is a
design by us, not produced by us. But we found
a partner in Italy who has designed a very
(30:58):
efficient electric motor. And now we're
also designing the first solid state batteries for
maritime sector together with another Italian company.
And we're designing the power electronic units.
And basically our goal is to have a complete
driveline, a skateboard for a
vessel between say 18 and 40 meters. That
(31:18):
can be kind of long range and fast speed
for day tours. So it's very
exciting. the regulatory obstacles are
still there but we have been,
we in our experience, the
regulatory authorities are also.
>> Will Pearson (31:37):
Understanding.
>> Agnes Arnadottir (31:37):
that reviewing existing regulations
might be necessary when implementing new technology. So
I think we're getting, getting somewhere. And ideally
we'll continue to have good partners as for instance
HX Expeditions in the future.
>> Birgit Liodon (31:53):
And you're also open for
teaming up with more actors in the sector.
>> Agnes Arnadottir (31:59):
Elsewhere in the world or
100%. We have been looking for solutions outside of the
maritime sector. And so for instance the
electric motor is originally made for
cable cars. and the batteries they
were originally made for or they were thought for
airplanes for instance. So we look at other sectors
where we would need some more assistance in
(32:22):
the future is when we want to integrate solar
into the vessel design. So in the railings or in the
roofs to, to be able to
generate some additional energy while operating.
We haven't come that far but that's one of the topics we want to solve
and hopefully near, near future.
>> Birgit Liodon (32:39):
Thank you Agnes. And while I mean the Brim.
>> Will Pearson (32:42):
The Brim boats look at absolutely amazing. So I was going to say the
Bremboats look absolutely amazing. You know, as well as being leading
on sustainability they are. They are beautiful and it's been
amazing to. To witness how you've built and scaled.
>> Agnes Arnadottir (32:53):
Yeah, thank you. My, my grandmother, she's 94
and she thinks it doesn't even look like a boat.
>> Birgit Liodon (32:58):
So she's not very impressed.
Classic. And while Will and
Agnes you're both a bit more mature in your
commercial stage of your company. So it's a little earlier.
Sylvia you're in the kind of moving from
testing and pilot customers
and over to the first commercial
(33:18):
contracts and. And in. In that
stage where you're just starting to get signed
commercial contracts. What. What has been
your bottlenecks in. In
getting on board basically with more
vessels.
>> Sylvia Almelan (33:39):
We have. Purewave is a really good
product and You know I have
Not many years ah background from this industry.
So I have learned a lot on the way
and You know it's a lot of things to
understand in this industry.
but m.
(33:59):
I think we are very exciting
because Bream,
and the Fjords and
all this company we have been talking to so
far are really
interesting and exciting
about the product.
(34:20):
So I feel very lucky.
So we have always challenges and we
have Working with new products
now. So we have just Yeah,
on these days we have four or five new
products coming out.
I cannot say so much now but You
(34:42):
can just wait and see.
>> Birgit Liodon (34:44):
Yeah. And. And has your. Your
key kind of bottleneck per now
been been the access to companies
and vessels to test the solution on
board?
>> Sylvia Almelan (34:57):
Yes, of course. but you
know Birgit Leoden
have a lot of contacts and
I am so happy for your
help Birgit to
introduce and helped me to get
forward in this industry.
>> Birgit Liodon (35:19):
Thank you. And So
Per today we have
quite a broad range of
innovators, you guys, from the large
to the smaller and more
newer aspect. And
then I wanted to check in with you because I mean
you are all creating triple P ripple
(35:40):
effects when you are combining kind of
these low hanging fruits of solutions that are
enabling ocean friendly shift for the
cruise pioneers while we wait for
completely emission free ships. And
now I wanted to hear from you as something to
bring back to the audience and in very in a very
like a few key words, do you
(36:03):
each have one additional area where you have
very clear commitments and where you are
keen to partner up with an entrepreneur
to power couple for a radical
solution? Gebhart, I know that the
foundation does a lot of great initiatives.
Where is your area, where there is now room
(36:23):
for more innovators on board with Ajax
expedition?
>> Gebhard Rainer (36:26):
Yeah, I think two areas. One you mentioned is the foundation itself.
The foundation is a very important part
of what we do because it's the non profit extension that
really reaches into communities that are
remote, that need a
responsible approach in terms of how we,
we think about them and how we think about supporting
(36:48):
them in their economic developments. It doesn't
help if the cruise industry goes into these
communities and says, you know, I
bring you 2,000 people at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Can you
put some singing song and bands up and I'll give you a thousand dollars for
it. That destroys the identity,
destroys the culture, it destroys the community and it creates a lot
(37:08):
of animosity. And you can see some of that
more and more appearing now because of mass tourism where
local communities are standing up and say enough is enough.
We just don't want it anymore. Tourism
is important because it is for many
communities it's the quickest way of economic development.
But it needs to be done responsibly.
Responsibly. To the extent that we in
(37:30):
tourism we need to understand what
is actually useful, helpful and make sense
for these communities. what do they need
that allows them to retain and
protect their integrity and their culture but
at the same time develop an
infrastructure, an economic base that
(37:50):
allows them to continue having their
communities. The biggest issue in
remote communities is often that the youth
leaves these communities and looks for
opportunities and prosperity because there's unemployment. There is
just no hope or future left when you live
in a place that's seven months of the year locked off
(38:11):
because of natural circumstances, the
weather. So that's one area
where the foundation is very
important because we use the foundation to go in and to explore
and to find out and have these communications that feed
them back to us and allows us to
have a very different and a responsible
approach in how we visit these communities. The second
(38:33):
area of focus for me is on the
ships themselves and Agnes has mentioned
something before and that is a real trigger
for me as well. And that's the consumption,
amount of consumption and the wastefulness that
we in the civilized societies
have become accustomed
to. We don't think about loading up
(38:55):
our plate with food and leaving halfway on it and throwing it
away. It's just because it's there and it's
being served and we don't think about the source of
where it comes from. And it all sounds easy
but the difficulty there is, and it goes back again to
reaching out in educating
communities. It's
when you are in more remote areas where we, where
(39:17):
we embark from.
We try to buy as much local as we can, which is
not always easy because you're dealing with very small farm
communities who don't have the training or the
understanding as to why a certain consistency
in production and a year round quantity is
very important. In order to do business it
(39:37):
has to be reliable. You
can't launch a ship from Ushuaia into
Antarctica on the hope that there is
enough food available for you to buy locally. You
can't stop along the way and walk down a
street to a supermarket to buy what you
forgot or what you didn't get because there is nothing. You
go into areas where there is nothing, you can't resupply,
(40:00):
you can't fly supplies in. So you've got to make sure your
local supply chain is
intact and as sustainable as
possible. So we are working with local communities
and local regional governments trying to educate, trying to
help them, trying to find out what can we do to provide
them with in order for them
to in sort of a co op like
(40:22):
arrangement, come up with ideas
and collaborative work that allows them to
have a variety of supplies in a consistent
manner throughout the year that supplies the industry
that needs it from the port
there. Not helpful for us if we have the flying
container loads of produce into
these locations in order to supply our ships.
>> Birgit Liodon (40:45):
Definitely. And I also understood that
with the new structure of Ajax foundation that you are
also looking more into
delivering on your value commitment
by also supporting local
entrepreneurs with non dilutive capital
which is I think a great
opportunity on how to use
(41:06):
these kind of supportive and more
philanthropic resources. So I think
that's quite amazing and really, really important
for any relevant innovator out there. And I think
you have your next deadline for applying is
around May this year. May and November each year.
Yeah.
>> Gebhard Rainer (41:25):
Yes. So we have two sides to that. One is
where we allow, small local enterprises,
innovators to apply for funding. We're very happy to
fund because there is a lot of, creativity that comes out of
it. And then we have given the authority to our ship
captains for a rapid response fund. When
they go into local remote communities, they have the authority
(41:45):
to spend on the spot a thousand euros if there is
a need for it. And they can see a benefit that helps
the local community there. And that has actually been
really well received by the communities
because it's uncomplicated, there's no bureaucracy to it.
It's immediate effect. It's right there.
>> Birgit Liodon (42:03):
Thank you. And Will, how is
it with your unresolved pain points, are there
any where you want to team up with other,
innovators in your supply chain?
>> Will Pearson (42:15):
Yeah. So our company really is built
on partnerships. so we're always looking
for new partnerships with,
plastic collection organization, you know,
companies that we can invest in and help scale the
projects that they are, doing on the ground.
So yeah, we're always, always on the lookout for more
projects that we can help scale. and then on the
(42:37):
other side, you know, flipping the coin the other way
in terms of power couples, you know, I think to put
some numbers into sort of words into
numbers, sorry, around the partnership with HX and the impact that
that's actually helped deliver. If you don't mind, Gab
Hart. So our partnership to date has funded
a collection of million, kilograms of
ocean on plastic, which is a huge milestone for us
(42:59):
already. that's equivalent to over 90
million plastic bottles in weight.
and that we've been able to achieve that by putting
the products in the hands of around 90,000
passengers. I think what's really exciting as well
is not only has it had that impact on Ocean Plastic,
I mean it's allowing us to scale up our
investment in the plastic collection projects themselves.
(43:21):
But sort of since offering the products, it's seen a
huge upt in product sales through their
retail around Ocean Bottle, but also just
how they've embedded the storytelling within
the passenger experience. So having a joint
partnership video in the cabins, offering up a
map of reefer locations on board the ship is all
(43:42):
really incredible stuff, that we've been able to
do in partnership. So I think
power couples are the way forward. and I think a
lot can be achieved in twos.
>> Birgit Liodon (43:53):
That's amazing. And that's 1 million
kilos in less than a year since you
launched the.
>> Will Pearson (43:59):
Yeah, correct. We launched it's been in the works for a
while the project. We've been doing a lot of collaboration behind
the scenes making sure the design is
right for HX and their customers and
But yeah that's the impact we've been able to generate
just since publicly launching in July last year.
>> Birgit Liodon (44:17):
Wow. So I see a huge potential for
large cruise corporates. And you guys moving
onwards. Agnes, on your
end, what is your key pain
points where you can see
the eager opportunity and interest to team up
with other innovators?
>> Agnes Arnadottir (44:35):
Well as I mentioned before I think the largest pain
points for the longer reach and perhaps some
small some small expedition vessels in the future like
24 meter or, or vessels that are used
for more than just short day tours. It's basically
how to generate sustainable energy on board.
So solar and wind generated energy.
(44:55):
yeah, yeah. We have been looking at solar
sales and and different innovations. It's
not quite mature yet. We have done some
some drawings or sketches ourselves. But
I would be very happy if if anyone that has that is
working on like a smaller scale solutions for this
would, would reach out.
>> Birgit Liodon (45:15):
Thank you Agnes. That
is a perfect outreach to the
regenerative energy innovators out there that
are listening and Sylvie, on
your end, I mean you, you deliver a solution for,
for Agnes to reduce toxic
elements coming out into ocean and affecting
ocean life. But where is your pain
(45:37):
point this
time?
>> Sylvia Almelan (45:40):
It's I am looking for manufacturer
I think it had to be quite innovative
because we need to have better
packaging solution for a pure
WAVES product.
>> Birgit Liodon (45:55):
So replacing the petro based packaging
for your liquids.
>> Sylvia Almelan (45:59):
Yes, it is extremely important
for us to choose patching that
is as
environmentally friendly as possible.
>> Birgit Liodon (46:11):
Great, thank you. Then we have
a ah last quick question to all of you
before we round off. Because of course we all
have different challenges and bottlenecks and opportunities
ahead. But all of this boils down
to getting the right people on board.
CTRADE has a great initiative focused on
tomorrow's talents today. and as we need
(46:34):
great humans on board with loads of different
backgrounds and capabilities to build the future of
cruise, I wanted to hear from
each of you if you can share
either your Personal hack or advice
to fellow talents and industry
colleagues, or if you could share
a specific skill set or mindset that you
(46:56):
consider key. For any talents out there
who are eager to join the cruise pioneer
movement, Gebhard, you go
first.
>> Gebhard Rainer (47:06):
I think the most important thing is of course, passion. You have to
believe in what you do, you have to
believe in what you can achieve and you have to believe in the fact
that if there's another human being that can do something,
then you can do it as well. So always reach for the stars.
Believe in yourself. Be who you are and follow through. Have
the stamina and have the determination to do what
(47:26):
you believe in. In today's world there are so many
obstacles. We have created a lot more
complexity that is really not necessary.
We have created a lot of bureaucracy and red tape
and there's always somebody who will say,
yeah, but this will never work.
Don't let people discourage you.
Follow through and be persistent because
(47:49):
you will find people out there who are
mindful, like minded and who
will partner and who will come up with opportunities and
solutions that eventually work. And I think the proof
of that is here. When you look at what Will has done with
Ocean Bottle and what Agnes and, and her
partners have done with Brim and what Solvi is
doing with Pure Wave, it's
(48:10):
fantastic. And conversations like this, they
build networks and you know,
just listening, you get ideas that
you can further explore and you have more conversations and you
introduce other people to it. And before you know it,
a three way conversation has become a 50 people group
that is suddenly pulling on the same string.
>> Birgit Liodon (48:32):
Thank you Gebhard. That is a really
great set of reflections. Will,
your five cents.
>> Will Pearson (48:40):
Yeah, I would definitely echo what Gebhardt
has just said. I think you know, if you can find a
challenge within the cruise industry or beyond,
where you think there's an entrepreneurial opportunity, you
know, go and take it. And you know, I think the
impact that you can make, both you know, for the environment
and for future generations, but also
economically can be, can be huge. So I would
(49:03):
definitely encourage you to do that. And if, you know, if you're not
looking to become an entrepreneur, if you don't want to take on that
challenge because it can be quite daunting,
daunting at times. There's huge impact
that you can make within the cruise companies. You know,
you've got leading companies like HX who are
ah, way ahead of the trend, but also massive
(49:23):
organizations where there's A lot of great work to be done.
So I think, you know, as individuals we often
discount what we can accomplish. But I think actually through
our work, you know, we can really unlock ah, a lot
of impact. So yeah, that's what I would, I would
say.
>> Birgit Liodon (49:37):
Thank you, Will. Agnes.
>> Agnes Arnadottir (49:41):
Yes, thank you. Firstly, I just want
to encourage everyone to experience the
Antarctic, the Arctic, experience what
we basically should all be caring about. It's
by experiencing that you really get the compassion
for nature. And also of course, ocean bottle.
I gave my whole family an ocean bottle, several years ago
(50:02):
for Christmas. And I have mine still. It's it's
those small steps that in the end will, will
decide whether we manage to
impact and, and change the negative
spiral that unfortunately both environment and climate,
are in. And for the, for the
personal talent or mindset, I think
(50:22):
the courage to challenge the established,
we need a radical change and, and it's not necessarily
comfortable. And we need to keep
the spirit up even though it feels
overwhelming. But I mean step by step the
solutions will be there and we need to
practice what we preach. Maybe the most important message
here. we all have to start with ourselves and if
(50:44):
not the next generation will have hard time forgiving
us.
>> Birgit Liodon (50:48):
Yeah. Thank you, Agnes.
Sylvie, you get to share your
reflections.
>> Sylvia Almelan (50:55):
Yes. I think it's We need to have a
why. I need to have a why and
my why is very clear
and it's hard
but I think it's quite important
to know the why and work
hard. It's not
(51:16):
easy and try to connect
with good people,
people who want the same as
you and I want, and
seeking for people with
more experience.
And there is so much lovely
(51:37):
people out there
and they want to help us.
We just need to find the right people.
As the Gebhad say, a lot of.
So follow your heart,
never give up and do
changes.
>> Birgit Liodon (51:57):
Thank you, Sylvie. So we have
to round off this first episode of
the cruise Pioneers. I think by now
people are well aware what a power
couple is actually all about. And for the
next show series moving towards sea trade in
Miami in April and then onwards to
(52:18):
Hamburg, and in the fall. We are
really, really looking forward now to bring you
into the depth and the world of these
amazing power couples that are changing our
industry, making it future fit and
as I would say, making it an
incredibly exciting path
for anyone who has an entrepreneur
(52:40):
or ocean maritime professional in their
belly. So thank you. To all of you for
joining us today. And for the rest of the audience out
there, stay tuned. We will soon be back with
another episode. Thank you.
>> Agnes Arnadottir (52:55):
Thank you.
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