"Think Global, Act Local" is one of the most well-known slogans of the climate movement. It summarizes the reasoning that to tackle global challenges such as global warming or the loss of biodiversity, taking action in one's immediate surroundings is often the best solution. Feeling ownership of impact made is more likely if it is more connected to a person's daily life, not counting the fact that it is easier to take advantage of the benefits, if they are in the same place as you are.
OutBe is an innovative startup that has local action at the heart of its project with the slogan "Help Nature Out ". Founded in Genova (Italy) in 2021 by a team of under 35 sustainability professionals, OutBe wants to provide more people with a responsible way to experience the Ocean.
The goal is to involve regular citizens in marine conservation by combining water sports such as kayaking, sailing or seaside hiking with data gathering, in a concept known as Outdoor Citizen Science. We have already written about citizen science in another article, on the Archipelagos platform in Greece. Citizen science is understood as scientific work such as data gathering done by ordinary people without special qualifications, to help the work of scientists.
OutBe has the mission to provide the tools to contribute to the wellbeing of the Planet and of people, hence it targets both consumers and businesses to reach as many stakeholders as possible. With regards to their B2B offer, OutBe gives companies the opportunity to involve their employees in local sustainability initiatives. More precisely, OutBe facilitates the contact of these companies with both the citizen science projects and the outdoor activity organizers to enable participants to learn about Ocean environmentalism. Examples of such activities could be collecting and monitoring plastic trash by kayaking or observing marine mammals while sailing. Moreover, OutBe provides the KPIs to monitor on a continuous basis the positive impact that the employees within the company have had on their surroundings thanks to their citizen science actions.
At the moment, OutBe is in its soft-launch phase, raising brand awareness. For the current year, the goal is to build the ecosystem of science projects and outdoor activities, for now in the Liguria region of Italy. During the year the companies who want to engage in marine conservation will be onboarded in the OutBe ecosystem to have a greater impact together.
What is the impact of this?
OutBe's model involves businesses, promotes local tourism, but only its sustainable activities, such as the mentioned kayaking or sailing.
The collection of larger amounts of data support science and academic research in increasing its knowledge and literacy about the Ocean.
Involvement of regular citizens in the protection and study of the Ocean and a higher awareness for its problems. Additionally, employees that partake in OutBe's programmes spend time in nature contributing to their health and wellbeing.
What can you do?