OBJECTIVE

My team, working alongside Marine Biologist, Dr. Ruth Gates and The Gates Coral Lab built a global strategy connecting stakeholders focused on the race to save coral reefs.

OUTCOME

My team delivered a suite of tools for Dr. Gates and The Gates Coral Lab to use for selling this idea to future collaborators. This included a modular presentation pitch deck, network branding assets, audience-specific messaging, website design, synthesis of the research from cross-industry interviews, an interactive landscape map of the top 15 players in coral preservation, infographics, a community engagement strategy, and a network launch strategy.

The strategy is ready for implementation, but is on hold as the Gates Coral Lab manages change in the wake of Dr. Ruth Gates’ untimely passing.

• Timeframe: 10 months | 2018

• Team Size: 5 members

Coral reefs are critical

Coral Reefs contain the most diverse ecosystems on the planet, protect coastlines from tropical storms and provide food and cancer-treating medicine for humans. Economically, coral reefs are the foundation for a global economy in tourism and hospitality with an estimated value of over $375 billion.

Coral reefs are being destroyed by a variety of factors, including: natural phenomena such as hurricanes, local threats such as overfishing or coastal development, and the global effects of climate change—warming seas and increasing levels of CO2 in the water.

Globally, 50 percent of coral has been destroyed in the last three decades, including more than 90 percent of a 1,430-mile stretch of the Great Barrier Reef last year alone. At this rate, 90 percent of coral reefs will be in danger by 2030, and nearly all of them by 2050.

Identify the problems

We heard time and again, that efforts to save coral reefs are most certainly happening. However, these results are happening in silos. This is a result of both existing academic culture and systems that are not currently setup to support collaboration.

Dr. Ruth Gates

The loss of Dr.Ruth Gates cannot be overstated. She worked on the frontlines of climate change and showed up everyday with a fierce, unwavering, optimism. She was committed to breaking down the walls so often seen in academia with the intention of creating a community where people share and collaborate for the purpose of saving the world. I feel deep gratitude for knowing her and for having the chance to experience how transformative it is to stand in someone’s light. We were lucky to have her.

Understand stakeholder needs

The feedback included not only the desire for a more collaborative culture, but also better channels to communicate coral’s value to industries outside of academia. Additionally, there is a need for a more strategic approach to research globally.

The Reef Guild

We designed the Reef Guild. A collaborative network bringing together coral stakeholders in partnership to share research findings, funding and strategies. It is designed to harness the current culture of competition in a more productive way with built-in incentives to promote data sharing.