4Ocean
 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry |
|
| Founded | January 2017 |
| Founders |
|
| Headquarters | Boca Raton, Florida, United States |
| Products | Bracelets, water bottles, clothing |
Number of employees |
|
| Website | www |
4Ocean is a for-profit company founded in Boca Raton, Florida, in 2017.[2] 4Ocean retails bracelets made from recycled materials, as well as apparel and other merchandise for which the materials are environmentally- and socially responsibly sourced.[3]
Although 4Ocean is a for-profit company, they are also a certified B Corporation,[4] a private certification of social and environmental performance for for-profit companies.
The company uses a portion of the profits generated by bracelet sales to remove one pound of trash from the ocean and coastlines as part of efforts to eliminate plastic pollution in oceans.[5] 4Ocean has cleanup operations based in Florida, Haiti, Guatemala and Bali,[6][7][8][9] and has organised volunteer cleanup events in a number of countries. The company has a "One Pound Promise", which promises that, at a minimum, one pound of ocean waste is removed per item sold.[10]
History
[edit]
4Ocean was founded by Alex Schulze and Andrew Cooper,[5] who, on a trip to Bali, Indonesia,[3] noticed the beaches were filled with plastic waste; Schulze and Cooper witnessed fishermen pushing their boats through mounds of plastic in order to get to more open waters.[11] Upon learning that plastic waste accumulated on the province's coastlines due to the currents of the ocean, they began to explore ideas of widespread cleanup operations.[5]
Schulze and Cooper created a business model that allowed for volunteers to have access to the supplies and resources necessary for the retraction and disposal of waste found in the water and along coastlines.[3]
As of 2022, 4Ocean claims to have removed over 25 million pounds of waste from various oceans and coastlines since its inception.[12] As of January 2019, over 200 people were employed by the company.[7] A transparency disclosure released through the B Corporation indicated that in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the company laid off 136 of its 179 employees.[13]
Business model
[edit]
4Ocean is a commercial for-profit business that is funded by the sales of its online products. These funds are distributed to fund cleanup operations and provide deep-sea cleaning equipment. For every $20 of turnover, 4Ocean claims its employees recover one pound of plastic waste from oceans and coastlines.[15]
Partnerships with industry have led to some companies becoming plastic neutral through offsets provided through 4Ocean.[16] Another source of revenue for the organization is the sales of the recycled plastic into products by companies that partner with the organization.[17]
In November 2019, Business Insider reported that the advertising archive of Facebook showed 4Ocean had purchased 4,290 adverts, spending $3,654,791, making them the 14th-largest purchaser of political, electoral or issue-focused adverts on the platform.[18]
Awards
[edit]- 4Ocean won the Surfer magazine "Agent of Change Award".[19]
- The founders of 4Ocean were named in the Forbes magazine "30 Under 30 — Social Entrepreneurs 2019" List.[20]
- The founders of 4ocean were named to the "201 Creative Class" by Newsweek.[21]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "4ocean Operations". 4Ocean. 2020. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
- ^ Weir, Bill. "This startup wants to end the ocean plastic crisis". Call To Earth. CNN.
- ^ a b c Huddleston, Tom Jr. (2018-09-07). "4Ocean's surfer founders cleaned up 1 million pounds of ocean garbage". CNBC. Retrieved 2019-03-07.
- ^ "Find a B Corp". B Lab. Corporate Directory.
- ^ a b c "These millennials started a business to rid the world's". Today (NBC). Today (NBC). Retrieved 25 August 2018.
- ^ "Locations and Facilities". 4ocean.com. 4Ocean. Archived from the original on 9 November 2021.
- ^ a b Bakkalapulo, Maria (3 January 2019). "This South Florida Company Wants To Clean The Seas - And Prove It Can Make Money Doing It". WLRN-TV. PBS. Retrieved 2019-03-07.
- ^ "4ocean/Our impact". 4ocean. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
- ^ "4ocean Has Removed More Than 7 Million Pounds Of Trash, Expands Bracelet-Funded Cleanups To Central America". Forbes. 29 January 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
- ^ "About Us". 4ocean. Retrieved 2021-07-14.
- ^ "Entrepreneurs pay fishermen to collect plastic". Fox 13. Fox 13. 6 August 2018. Retrieved 25 August 2018.
- ^ "4Ocean - homepage". 4Ocean. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
- ^ "Transparent Disclosure 2020". B Corporation Transparency Documents.
- ^ Zucco, Tom. "Eckerd College Marketing Professor Uses Bracelets To Spread A Sustainability Story". Eckerd College.
- ^ "New Guinness World Record - 4ocean Helps Set the Mark for Largest Underwater Cleanup!". 4ocean. Retrieved 2019-06-28.
- ^ "Endangered Species Chocolate claims industry first with ocean plastic neutral status". Bell Publishing Ltd. Confectionery Production.
- ^ Hegel, Theresa. "BYBBA Partners With 4Ocean To Combat Plastic Pollution". ASI Central.
- ^ Holmes, Aaron (14 November 2019). "From Trump to Planned Parenthood, these are the Facebook pages spending the most money on political ads". businessinsider.com. Business Insider. Archived from the original on 9 November 2021. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
- ^ "Agents of Change Archives". SURFER Magazine. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
- ^ "4Ocean". Forbes. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
- ^ "The Creative Class 2019". Newsweek. Archived from the original on 25 April 2019. Retrieved 21 February 2019.