Our oceans cover over 70% of our planet, and they need champions. This World Oceans Day, we're shining a light on five extraordinary people and organisations turning passion into action, and waste into wonder.
🎨 ART & AWARENESS
Liina Klauss
What if the world's litter could be turned into something breathtaking?
That's the question German artist and activist Liina Klauss answers with every piece she creates. Based between Hong Kong and Bali, Liina has spent over a decade collecting marine debris from beaches across Asia and transforming it into large-scale installations that stop people in their tracks.
Her iconic 5,000 Lost- a sweeping colour-wave built entirely from flip-flops washed ashore in Bali - is as striking as it is sobering. Through her "Curating the Beach" events and community workshops, she doesn't just make art: she invites everyone to pick up, look closer, and feel the weight of what we throw away.
💦 OCEAN RESTORATION
SeaTrees
What if protecting the ocean meant starting on the shore?
That's the thinking behind SeaTrees, a non-profit programme built on the belief that healthy coastal ecosystems are the ocean's greatest superpower. By planting, protecting and restoring kelp forests, mangrove forests, seagrass meadows, coral reefs and oyster reefs around the world, SeaTrees tackles ocean health and climate change in one fell swoop. These ecosystems are biodiversity hotspots and carbon-capture machines, and they're disappearing fast. SeaTrees funds restoration through donations from brands and individuals, channelling every dollar directly to local NGO partners who manage the work on the ground. The result? Real, measurable impact - and thriving marine habitats that benefit both the planet and the communities that depend on them.
Sungai Watch
Most ocean plastic doesn't arrive by chance; it travels there through the rivers. Sungai Watch, founded in Bali, tackles the problem right at the source. By installing simple bamboo barriers across river mouths, they intercept plastic before it ever reaches the sea. What makes their approach so powerful is its community-first spirit: local volunteers run each barrier, turning river clean-up into a neighbourhood movement.
The numbers speak for themselves: they've stopped millions of plastic items from entering the ocean and inspired a growing network of waterway guardians across Indonesia. Smart, scalable, and deeply human.
Indosole has been in partnership with Sungai Watch for the past few years and you can shop our RIVERSOLE collaboration-collection (made with river-waste) HERE
Afroz Shah
In 2015, lawyer Afroz Shah moved back to Versova Beach in Mumbai, a place he'd loved as a child, and found it buried under more than five feet of plastic waste. So on a Sunday morning, he grabbed a pair of gloves and started cleaning. That simple act grew into the world's largest beach clean-up, drawing over 300,000 volunteers from every walk of life: schoolchildren, Bollywood stars, slum residents, and politicians. He calls it a "date with the ocean." The UN called it the ‘Champions of the Earth’. Most remarkably, after years of weekly clean-ups, sea turtles began returning to Versova to nest for the first time in decades: nature's own thank you note.
Renoprene by Circular Flow
Here's a number that might surprise you: an estimated 8,380 tonnes of wetsuits go to landfill every single year. Neoprene, the material most wetsuits are made from - is notoriously difficult to recycle, meaning that for decades, used suits had nowhere to go but the bin. Circular Flow set out to change that. After six years of research and development, they cracked a process that shreds and reprocesses old wetsuits into Renoprene, a registered recycled neoprene material that can be used to manufacture entirely new products, from change mats to accessories. Nothing is wasted: zips, snaps and all. No burning, no toxic chemicals. Just a genuinely closed-loop. Now partnered with major surf brands including Rip Curl and Finisterre, Circular Flow is quietly solving one of the watersports world's most stubborn sustainability problems, one old wetsuit at a time.
🌀
Five different approaches. Five different corners of the world. One shared belief: that our oceans are worth fighting for, and that each of us has the power to make a difference!
Happy World Oceans Day. 🌍
#WorldOceansDay
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