Sustainability at ARC Marine

Our solutions enhance not only the sustainability of every marine project but also biodiversity, through our nature-inclusive designs which protect assets while creating a sustainable eco-friendly habitat for an abundance of marine life. Our long-term ecosystem impact monitoring will allow informed decision-making and a science-led approach to healthier and sustainably productive oceans, supporting wider sectors such as ecotourism, sustainable fisheries and offshore energy.

Biodiversity enhancement and the protection of nature is at the heart of what we do. Using specialist approaches, such as biomimicry, we have proven success in the enhancement, and uplift, of biogenic reefs (mussels and oysters), sea grass beds, intertidal communities, and production species; and are excited to broaden our ecological engineering application to tropical coral reefs, mangroves, and other diminishing habitats around the world.

Human activity has been damaging our planet for decades, with the release of carbon into the atmosphere and the climate crisis being some of the biggest issues of our time. Our solutions reduce carbon, and reduce the impact of physical weather events such as storm surges and rising sea levels – a key driver for our long-term sustainability impact and contributor to reducing coastal degradation in vulnerable communities.

Our solutions are also designed to remain in place beyond their operational life, contributing to long-term carbon sequestration as they naturally integrate into and support evolving ecosystems. This supports wider efforts to reduce the impact of carbon intensive production – benefitting our environment, communities in which we work and stakeholder efforts to reduce value chain emissions.

Through our research and design, circularity is embedded across our solutions and supply chain, enabling us to lead by example as a carbon neutral company. Through our utilisation of recycled and waste materials, alongside grey water usage, we operate responsibly – designing in waste as a core raw material! These efforts help place us as a leading engineering manufacturer in the marine space and enabling us to work with more partners, in more locations around the world.

With ocean plastic, marine waste and fossil fuels all contributing to marine pollution, we play our part by ensuring no plastic is included across our solutions. With our circular principals, and emphasis on climate and biodiversity enhancement, we have designed out plastic. This means our deployments can be left in situ with no damaging retrieval requirements (or cost), do not add to plastic pollution and reduce negative ecosystem impacts.

We actively contribute to positive social impact. We are able to manufacture anywhere in the world, meaning we use local labour wherever possible, creating jobs for local people – often in the global south, where our contributions create visible and immediate improvements. Longer-term, our monitoring and management of ecosystems can be led by locals too – we partner with agencies and businesses to train individuals and teams to support our work – providing meaningful employment opportunities. Additionally, as a by-product of our deployments, we support sustainable fishing, as our Reef cubes are un-trawl-able, meaning increased fish stocks for those coastal communities who’s livelihoods depend on fish for food and income.