OCEAN industry representatives from around the world will meet in New York later this month to work together on tackling shared marine environmental challenges.
The inaugural meeting of the World Ocean Council will bring together business community members interested in developing an unprecedented collaborative approach toward improving the health of the marine environment.
Representatives from the shipping, oil and gas, fisheries, cruise ship tourism, aquaculture, ports and other ocean industries are expected to attend.
The workshop will be kicked off by Georg Kell, executive director of the United Nations Global Compact and Vaclav Mikulka, director of the United Nations Division of Ocean Affairs and Law of the Sea.
“The world’s oceans are at risk. The health of the seas depends on developing a more comprehensive approach to sustainability and stewardship by business.
“A growing number of companies are trying to be responsible, but collective efforts beyond those of a few companies, or even a whole sector, are needed to address the combined effects on the global ocean ecosystem,” said Paul Holthus, executive director of the World Ocean Council.
The phenomenal growth of shipping, oil and gas, fisheries, cruise tourism, aquaculture and other ocean uses is reportedly resulting in cumulative impacts to the marine environment, possibly also affecting the ocean’s crucial role in regulating climate.
“If we are thinking globally, oceanically and collectively, rather than considering our own narrow industry requirements, the World Ocean Council could be a very good idea,” noted Michael Grey from Lloyd’s List, an international maritime news report.
To address this challenge, the World Ocean Council is creating a coalition of ocean industries to:
- Catalyse collaborative science to find solutions to shared marine environmental issues.
- Organise industry working groups to constructively engage with other ocean stakeholders.
- Develop sustainability standards, marine footprint reporting, and ocean stewardship strategies.
- Facilitate interaction among sectors to reduce ocean use conflicts.
The World Ocean Council will convene ocean industry sustainability leaders on June 24 and June 25 2008.
Just humour me for a moment.
It occurred to me that some of you might be wondering what on earth we are doing talking about innovation and aquaculture on the internet?
In fact its much more arcane than this. We are actually talking about using innovation in a structured and strategic way to overcome the global fish supply gap. Productivity transforming innovations… etc, etc
Anyhow, if you have read this far, then here goes…
Here is an excerpt from a piece written by Jeff Howe for his new book which he has also posted on his blog. He describes how one of the open innovation tools we discussed earlier had resulted in some creative innovation responses. Moreover he analyses who are the most productive innovators.
I found this piece both insightful and instructive. Clearly, it is critical for the number and quality of the innovation outcomes that we generate that we invite an array of people outside aquaculture disciplines to participate in our work… read on
When Lakhani dug into InnoCentive’s data, he discovered that Melcarek wasn’t the exception, he was the rule—the scientists most likely to solve a problem were the ones you’d least expect to be capable of solving it.
“We actually found the odds of a solver’s success increased in fields in which they had no formal expertise,” Lakhani says. The further the problem was from their specialized knowledge, the more likely it was to be solved. “Think of the problem as a flower. Except the goal is to attract not only the most insects, but the most diverse group of insects.”
And Lakhani’s paper contained an even more interesting gem: A full 75 percent of successful solvers already knew the solution to the problem. The solutions to the problems in the study—many of which, recall, had stumped the best corporate scientists in the world after years of effort—didn’t require a breakthrough, or additional brainpower, or a more talented scientist’s attention; they just needed a diverse enough set of minds to have a go at them.
It would seem to be evidence that Hayek was right: Civilization’s progress lies not in acquiring new knowledge, but in aggregating and utilizing the knowledge we already have.
Astounding!
You can access a link to innocentive and an array of other open innovation sites here.
Please invite your friends and colleagues from other disciplines to join us in our quest.
