About us
Hybrid Initiative
WoMen+Sea is a hybrid initiative with a mission that combines a business and societal purpose, blending for-profit and nonprofit objectives in alignment with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
All our work promotes essential practices to help the maritime industry transition successfully to a fair, green future, and make sustainability performance a source of long-term growth.
We provide paid consultancy services to change makers (maritime companies, colleges, governments and UN organisations) to improve environmental, social and governance performance.
We also undertake pro bono work for "public good initiatives" to conduct collaborative research with academia that can ultimately bring value to our beneficiaries.
Who we are
We are a group of qualified sustainability experts with backgrounds in law, business, human resources, science and education bringing together two decades of experience working with UN organisations, governments, companies and civil society.
WoMen+Sea brings us together to advance the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the maritime sector and help its stakeholders anticipate, drive, and respond to changes in market demand for ESG performance.
We work at individual, organisation, and systems levels on processes, policies and behaviours. We use design thinking, multi-stakeholder collaboration, leadership development, transformational learning, and other methods to help clients better work with complexity and systems change.
Our story
Our work on ocean governance, sustainable fisheries and sustainable yachting opened our eyes to the importance of the maritime sector for People, Planet and Prosperity.
With a belief that seafarers have a role to play in advancing sustainable practices and that prioritizing sustainable growth is the only way to go, we started examining environmental, social and governance issues in seagoing operations. We became aware of the external and internal challenges the sector faces as it increases efforts towards sustainability.
We understood that external factors such as the fluctuations of global trade, the unlevelled playing field resulting from uneven enforcement of international regulations, and the critical need for decarbonisation are complex economic, governance and industrial challenges.
We also discovered that some persistent characteristics specific to the maritime such as a male-dominated culture, inward-looking habits, an overly traditional education, and the notion of sea-blindness act as additional barriers to speed up the transition towards sustainability.
Conscious of these challenges, and believing that investing in people, diversity, modern leadership, collaboration and transparency boosts motivation, loyalty, performance, innovation and advances modernisation and sustainability, we created Women+Sea as a hybrid initiative.
WoMen+Sea brings together a team of multidisciplinary experts to help develop effective sustainability systems with(in) the maritime industry that build on synergies across environmental, social and governance dimensions and contibute to future-proofing the sector.
How we work
Vision
A world where seafarers and their employers are custodians of our oceans.
Mission
To advance maritime industries' sustainability, together, at sea and onshore.
Approach
By bringing insights from other sectors, we strive to turn specific ESG challenges in the maritime into opportunities that will help the sector future-proof its industries in line with four Sustainable Development Goals.
Practice
We focus on practices that are essential to improve environmental, social and governance performance, and surface synergies across these three aspects of sustainability. These enabling practices bring people together to strengthen trust, enrich perspectives, enhance leadership thinking, and promote inclusion and transparency. Such practices support innovative co-creation, build buy-in, and help shape partnerships and collaborative action.
Team
We are an international multidisciplinary team of consultants, advisers, analysts and sector specialists united by the mission of WoMen+Sea.
We share a common understanding of how sustainability benefits business, and believe in the importance of applying systems thinking to our practice. We are part of a network of 400+ sustainability practitioners that gives us access to a wide range of additional skills, knowledge and perspectives.
Principal consultants
Consultants & advisers
Analysts
Partners
WoMen+Sea partners with organisations who share our mission and wish to collaborate in order to complement expertise, capabilities and geographical reach.
