Last week Oslo Business Region kicked off a crowdsourcing and collaborative initiative as part of the movement for sustainable ocean business.
The ambitious initiative is based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, recognising business as the driver of change, and Oslo´s position as a leading maritime capital with the fastest growing startup community across the Nordics. It seeks to mobilise the ocean and tech communities to join forces, building the world´s leading capital and ecosystem for sustainability-oriented ocean tech entrepreneurs. Nor-Shipping and Director Per Martin Tanggaard supports the Ocean Entrepreneur Capital initiative and cooperate actively with Oslo Business Region and the new Director of Sustainability, Ocean Industries & Communication – Birgit M. Liodden.
Initiative partners
Other initiative partners spans across the established industry and the change brought to shipping by external players. New players include Nordic Impact´s Katapult Ocean – an impact investment fund and accelerator program targeting sustainable solutions across the ocean industries. Another is EntrepreneurShipOne who is equipping its fleet with technology, sensors and developing an open ocean data platform aiming to accelerate the work with quantifying the ocean for the betterment of human kind – a zero emission pay it forward platform for the Nordic startup community. Its founders include Kahoot entrepreneur Johan Brand and BluEye Co-founder Christine Spiten. Not to mention Ocean Industry Forum Oslofjord, Circular Norway and the environmental NGO Bellona, as well as a broad range of key maritime companies.
The Ocean Entrepreneur Capital initiative was kicked off at SS Christian Radich, known for its´ prestigious TradeWinds events at Nor-Shipping. SS Christian Radich is also the newest addition to the EntrepreneurShipOne fleet.
Gender diversity key for change!
A key focus across the new projects coming out of Oslo, is sustainable business and ocean tech, with a specific focus on gender diversity to fuel competitiveness and innovation.
Emphasizing Oslo Business Region and Nor-Shipping´s shared initiative of promoting gender diversity, seven out of twelve speakers at the kick-off were women representing commercial and technical roles. At the entrepreneurs´ deck talk, 75% of the entrepreneurs on stage were female, without including Liodden as moderator.
First male WISTA member and mentor
Tanggaard and Liodden cooperate on gender diversity across a span of maritime projects towards Nor-Shipping 2019. From the Ocean Entrepreneurs Capital project, to the upcoming WISTA International Conference in Tromsø 24-26 October. A strong supporter of WISTA, Tanggaard signed up as the first male member of WISTA Norway as the organisation recently opened for accepting male members.
And as WISTA Norway & YoungShip now include male mentors in their program for female maritime talents, Tanggaard has also signed up as the first male mentor in the program. He encourages other male top executives to follow his example, joining WISTA both as members and mentors, and proactively contribute towards a diverse maritime industry to drive innovation and competitiveness.
We look forward to working in a close partnership to drive gender diversity, sustainability and entrepreneurship across the ocean industries! Welcome onboard!
Contacts
Per Martin Tanggaard
Nor-Shipping Director
Phone:Â + 47 977 677 45
E-mail: [email protected]
Birgit M. Liodden
Director
Sustainability, Ocean Industries & Communication
Oslo Business Region
Phone: + 47 95 17 13 89
E-mail: [email protected]
