The Ocean Impact Navigator
Developed by 1000 Ocean Startups with support from SYSTEMIQ, the Ocean Impact Navigator is a new open-source impact KPI framework, designed to simplify, harmonize and strengthen impact measurement and reporting for the Ocean Impact Innovation ecosystem.
Innovators are increasingly bringing pioneering new technologies and business models to the fight for ocean health. However, these innovators – and the sustainable ocean economy – badly need an open-source impact measurement tool that everyone engaged in ocean innovation and impact can use.
To meet this need we have been developing a new, harmonised impact framework that can be used by diverse organisations in the Ocean Impact Innovation ecosystem in an open source manner. The report below presents the Ocean Impact Navigator, a new KPI impact framework for the Ocean Innovation Ecosystem.
The first edition of the Ocean Impact Navigator was launched in Lisbon in June 2022, during an official side event of the UN Ocean Conference.
The Ocean Impact Navigator consists of 30 prioritized prioritized KPIs, grouped in six main impact areas to capture the impacts that innovators are driving across ocean health, climate change, and human wellbeing and equity.
In providing a generalized framework to support players in the Ocean Impact Innovation ecosystem to consistently and effectively measure their impact, the Navigator makes three main contributions:
Investors
Help investors identify the most impactful interventions for the ocean – providing a crucial strategic resource, given the blue economy remains under-invested and capital scarce
Impact
Enable the aggregation of impact data, creating visibility, synergies, and supporting effective decision-making, transparency and communication on shared progress towards a sustainable ocean economy
Startups
The navigator helps streamline and simplify impact measurement requirements for start-ups
Maria Damanaki
Co-chair of the advisory network of the High-Level Panel for Oceans and Former EU Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries
“Accelerating investment in the ocean is critical for people and planet. As Co-Chair of the Advisory Network of the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, I am delighted to see collaboration between science, finance and entrepreneurship to unlock capital and innovation for the blue economy. I welcome the Ocean Impact Navigator as a new tool to help track and report the impact of ocean investment”
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Peter Thomson
United Nations Secretary General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean
"Good science is fundamental to ensuring we sustain the healthy ocean we all want, and reliable measurement is essential for good science. Measurement of many of the ocean's indicators demonstrate its health is in decline, leading us to plan the measures we need to reverse that decline. To invest in these measures, the public and private sector need to know that their interventions are beneficial for the sustainable ocean economy. It is therefore heartening to learn that ocean start-ups and ocean-positive investors will now have that guidance through the Ocean Impact Navigator."
Jonas Gahr Støre
Prime Minister of Norway and Co-Chair of the High-level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy
“The 1000 Ocean Startups is now taking the Ocean Panel’s action agenda one important step forward. As the Panel’s co-chair, I am truly excited about the collective efforts behind the development of the Navigator as a tool for tracking impact. This is a brilliant example of how collaboration can accelerate positive action for ocean health and mobilise capital towards the ocean space. The health of the ocean is at stake and we have to take impactful actions now.”
Kristian Teleki
Director of
Friends of Ocean Action
“Ocean health is critical to planetary health, and by extension to the ability of every one of us to live and thrive. But we need solid data, insights and collaboration at every level to ensure we are managing and investing in the ocean in the most impactful and sustainable way possible. The Ocean Impact Navigator is a critical tool to help us do just that – and especially to support all those across the exciting ocean innovation scene to invest or build businesses in a way that brings lasting positive impact for our blue planet.”
Julian Barbière
Head of Marine Policy and Regional Coordination Section, Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO
“As the Ocean Decade continues to gain momentum, there is a growing awareness of the importance of ocean science, data and knowledge in building a sustainable ocean economy. There is also increasing recognition that initiatives to bridge the gap between ocean science and the private sector are needed to mobilise capital and accelerate positive action for ocean health. I therefore welcome this collaborative effort to develop the Ocean Impact Navigator, which can be a crucial resource to support innovators and investors in making informed and data-driven decisions to help deliver the ocean we need for the future we want.”