Through her NGO MareCet, Louisa Ponnampalam advocates for the conservation of marine mammals and their habitats in Malaysia. She is a recipient of the prestigious Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation. She also runs programmes such as the Langkawi Dolphin Research Project, which grooms the next generation of marine ambassadors.

Sidhant Gupta’s invention, Clearbot, is a self-navigating, AI-powered robot that collects rubbish thrown into seas, rivers and lakes—up to a tonne of it a day—sorts it and brings it to shore for recycling. The company's clients include Sino Group, the Hong Kong government’s Highways Department and WeRobotics. He previously founded a company that built the world’s fastest robotic fish and made an AI-powered underwater camera for scientific research.

Read more: Sidhant Gupta of robotics startup Clearbot is building the Tesla of the seas

Marine scientist Sam Shu Qin co-founded Our Singapore Reefs in 2017 to create greater awareness of and inspire action towards marine conservation. The organisation has conducted more than 40 dives in Singapore’s waters to remove marine waste and holds monthly talks for schools and corporations. It also previously embarked on a three-year collaboration with the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore to promote the importance of the country’s biodiversity.

Buildings made from plastic bricks? Anything is possible thanks to The Plastic Flamingo. “The Plaf” transforms marine waste into construction materials and even recycles plastic grocery bags without burning any fuel. But chief operating officer Erica Reyes is proudest of the company’s social impact; it hires undereducated workers from vulnerable backgrounds and has shaped them into a powerful local team.

Read more: This young environmentalist turns plastic waste into construction materials

In 2013, Jason Huang, a lover of beaches, started doing clean-ups during his visits. After he documented his efforts on the internet, like-minded people joined him, and his clean-ups grew exponentially. To date, Re-Think, the organisation he established, has attracted more than 35,000 participants to its beach clean-ups, who have helped remove more than 128 tonnes of debris. In 2018, Re-Think published Taiwan’s first illustrated encyclopaedia of marine debris.

Coral reef degradation has devastating effects on marine life. Vriko Yu’s company ArchiReef tackles the ocean problem with game-changing 3D printed coral reefs made from clay. They are entirely eco-friendly, customisable to particular environments and capable of mimicking the behaviour of real reefs. The technology was first adopted by the Hong Kong government to restore coral that had suffered serious typhoon damage, and ArchiReef has since also embarked on a project in Abu Dhabi.

Read more: One entrepreneur’s race to save Hong Kong’s coral reefs

Thailand has one of the world’s largest fishing industries but is plagued with pollution from abandoned nets. Salisa Traipipitsiriwat leads the Net Free Seas initiative of the global NGO, Environmental Justice Foundation. The organisation salvages nets and refashions them into plastic products, including plastic face shields and sanitiser bottles during the pandemic. It works with more than 100 fishing communities in Thailand, who get extra income through these efforts and also benefit from cleaner seas.

See more honourees from the Sustainability category on the Gen.T List.

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