Jens Bringsjord
You're listening to Design Atlas Season four.

Jens Bringsjord
Plastic. It's everywhere in our society, although on the surface it may seem like a convenient byproduct of modern consumption. The dilemma of managing plastic waste has become more pressing than ever. What becomes of this discarded plastic, and how can we as creative individuals contribute to addressing this issue?

Megan Luedke
Plastic poses a significant threat to our environment and ecosystems for several reasons. Firstly, its production involves the extraction of fossil fuels, contributing to climate change. The disposal of plastic products, especially single use items like bottles and bags, leads to massive amounts of non-biodegradable waste filling landfills and causing long lasting environmental harm. Additionally, plastics break down into microplastics, which are tiny particles that infiltrate soils, water sources, and even the air.

Megan Luedke
Posing health risks to both wildlife and humans.

Megan Luedke
As creatives, we have the power to influence change and raise awareness about the harmful impact of plastic on our planet. By leveraging artistic expression, storytelling, and innovative design, we can create campaigns that shed light on the consequences of plastic pollution and inspire sustainable practices. Collaborating with environmental organizations, we as creatives and designers can use our skills to promote eco friendly alternatives.

Megan Luedke
Push for stricter regulations and encourage responsible consumer behavior.

Jens Bringsjord
One of the most severely impacted ecosystems is our oceans. Plastic waste, including discarded packaging and abandoned fishing gear, accumulates in vast oceanic garbage patches, posing a direct threat to marine life around the world. Sea creatures often mistake plastic debris for food, leading to ingestion and entanglement, which of course can be fatal and toxic. Chemicals released by plastics really further contaminate the water, harming marine ecosystems and disrupting the delicate balance of underwater life.

Megan Luedke
As creatives, we can harness our talents to produce compelling narratives, visuals, and campaigns that emphasize the urgency of addressing plastic pollution in our oceans and advocate for sustainable choices to preserve these vital ecosystems.

Florent Beauverd
I want to be part of this story, and the only way to be part of the story is for people to actually focus on telling it.

Jens Bringsjord
That's Florent Bober, the 39 year old environmental scientist turned director of creative and documentary productions at an organization known as the Ocean Cleanup.

Megan Luedke
The Ocean Cleanup is a nonprofit organization founded by Boyan Slot in 2013 with the mission to develop advanced technologies to rid the world's oceans of plastic pollution. The project focuses on deploying cleanup systems, such as floating barriers that use natural ocean currents to concentrate and capture plastic debris. By strategically placing these systems in the ocean where plastic tends to accumulate.

Megan Luedke
The Ocean Cleanup aims to reduce the amount of plastic waste in the oceans and prevent further environmental harm.

Jens Bringsjord
The organization's innovative and ambitious approach has garnered global attention and support in the ongoing battle against marine plastic pollution. Florent, as a creative, is on this mission to do just that.

Megan Luedke
So stay tuned because in this episode, we'll dive into the deep end of the ocean and learn more about Florence, interests in geosciences and the environment, and his passion for crafting stories to make positive change in our world.

Jens Bringsjord
Before the ocean called, Florent Beauvoir found solace and joy in his childhood pursuits, immersing himself in a world of Lego and attempting to capture his imagination through drawing.

Florent Beauverd
I didn't really become good at drawing by any measurement, but, But I think I always like to focus on something and like to create something.

Megan Luedke
The journey into the realms of creativity took a turn towards visual storytelling. During Florence high school years, photography became a medium of exploration. Now with a definitive career path in mind, but as a natural evolution of his creative inclinations.

Florent Beauverd
And I think the real spark for creativity or for what led into a content, career was, was, when I started experimenting content creation and in videography in the realm of action sports.

Jens Bringsjord
And so we found Florence skiing in the Swiss Alps. It was here in the heart of the action sports world, at the spark of creativity ignited into a flame the desire to document, to tell stories and to express themselves through the lens began to take hold.

Florent Beauverd
At that time, I picked up a camera and I was like, okay, I want to. I want to create, you know, stories. And I want to follow what we're doing here in the mountains. And then I really started to pick up the camera. I was like, okay, this this is a good tool for me to express myself.

Jens Bringsjord
The path was set and the lens became Florent Baba's gateway to a world where creativity and storytelling would soon collide with a greater purpose. His journey with the Ocean Cleanup Project.

Megan Luedke
Florence journey towards becoming an environmental scientist traces back to his formative years in Switzerland. Born and raised with an inherent appreciation for the natural world, Florence early experiences fostered a deep connection to the environment. This connection motivated him to pursue higher education at the University of Luzon, where he dedicated himself to the study of environmental science. Florence delved into various disciplines encompassed by environmental science, gaining a comprehensive understanding of the intricate relationships between ecosystems, human activities, and the broader impacts on the planet.

Megan Luedke
His time at the University of Louisiana not only equipped him with a theoretical knowledge, but also instilled a sense of responsibility and urgency to address environmental challenges.

Florent Beauverd
For me, I'm a marine scientist and then I creative director and my in my head space. I'm I'm really curious about, you know, when the scientific team's going to go something, do something that you go on a research expedition and I want to read the entire, you know, plan they have and understand everything that they're about to do.

Florent Beauverd
And I'm very curious about the actual subject, you know, like, creating content around that is kind of like, it's kind of a pleasure on top of being involved with that, you know, like, right when I started with the Ocean Cleanup, it was back in September 2016.

Jens Bringsjord
Florence landed the role not only in part due to his killer creative skills, but because he had a keen interest and background in the environmental sciences. He vividly remembers the application process to land the position at the Ocean Cleanup.

Florent Beauverd
Of course, I was like, I sent an application saying like, okay, I'm I'm your guy for this because I have mechanical engineering background, you know, environmental science background. and I'm, self-trained videographer and content producer. They said, okay, we want you flow first. First assignment, we have this, this team gonna do the research team is going to do, what we call the aerial expedition.

Florent Beauverd
We're going to take a research airplane, fly, 300 meter high above the, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. And we're going to try to, remote sense with aerial sensors, how much plastic there is in the ocean. And I was like. And they said, like, can you go there and create content with about this? And I was like, yeah, sure.

Megan Luedke
With his job secured at the Ocean Cleanup, he was immediately confronted with the enormity of the task at hand.

Florent Beauverd
So I arrived there, I knew nobody, I arrived in California. I was like, okay, in two days there's this airplane coming. And, and the whole research team was trying to kind of write the protocol of how they were going to, run the surveys about, kind of counting pieces of plastic and stuff. And at first I arrived there and they were like, oh, there is the video guy.

Florent Beauverd
And no, you know, there's he just he's just going to be in our, you know, in our way. And so that the research team at first I kind of had to gain their confidence that their trust, you know, like that they were actually going to gain something from me being there. And, and so the first flight, there was a test flight we did, and I was not allowed in the plane because I was not, you know, I was not like in the team, the research team, the the core team.

Florent Beauverd
So I was like, okay, I'm going to mount GoPros everywhere so that I recorded. And then as the the relationship between me and the research team started growing, they were like, oh, wait, you're it. Yeah. Environment scientists. and and at some point in the mission, they were like, they were short of some somebody they were short of somebody to actually do the research.

Florent Beauverd
So, the, the research lead back then was like, you know what? You're going to do this, instead of doing your creative scope, you know, and I was like, okay, sure. You know, and so and from that point, I understood, like, hey, I am part of this team not only to create stories from an external point of view, but I have to invest myself and try to like, help in whatever way my scale allow me to.

Florent Beauverd
and, and so it was a really good starting point from, from that point on that was like always saying like, hey guys, you know, like I also understand what you're doing.

Megan Luedke
From the moment he recognized that his contribution extended beyond external storytelling, a new chapter began not merely an observer anymore, Florent embraced the notion that his skills could be a vital thread in the fabric of the team's mission. This shift in perspective marked the beginning of a journey wherein he not only told stories, but actively invested himself to support the cause.

Megan Luedke
Florent found a sense of purpose and unity with the team fostering a collaborative spirit within the research team at the Ocean Cleanup.

Jens Bringsjord
In the heart of the Ocean Cleanup project lies a relentless pursuit fueled by a profound sense of purpose for Florence. Waking up each day with an unwavering enthusiasm for the mission at hand has become more than a routine. It's a testament to the value of being part of a cause larger than oneself.

Megan Luedke
The Ocean cleanup it's more than a name. It's a call to action, a mission, and a vision to restore our oceans to a state free from the suffocating grip of plastic pollution. But why this relentless focus on cleaning the vast expanse of our oceans? It's a question that demands an answer rooted in the undeniable evidence of the havoc plastic wreaks on our environment and human health.

Megan Luedke
The Ocean Cleanup operates at the intersection of science and technology, conducting groundbreaking research to understand the depths of the problem. The data generated by marine biologists and environmental scientists serves as a beacon guiding engineers to develop innovative solutions.

Florent Beauverd
It's a scientific and technology organization, right that there we conduct research and science to understand the problem, on one side, to know how to best tackle it. So it's an organization that has a big research department with a marine biologist, environmental scientist, these kinds of profile, you just try to answer questions about plastic pollution that are not answered yet and that this data can serve, you know, the engineers to develop the right solutions.

Megan Luedke
The Ocean Cleanup believes in solving the plastic pollution problem through technology. Innovative solutions designed to remove both legacy pollution in the form of garbage patches and to stem the flow of new plastic entering our oceans through rivers around the world. These strategic initiatives form the backbone of the organization's efforts. Why the relentless focus on cleansing the oceans? The answer lies in the vast negative impacts plastic inflicts upon our environment.

Megan Luedke
Wildlife, economies and tourism. Therefore, plastics have a number of negative impacts that justify the effort to try to remove it from even some of the most remote areas of our planet.

Florent Beauverd
So we do need people to care about this particular problem. We need people to pay attention to this particular problem, and then, obviously to start caring about it and also, start trusting our organization to be the right one to tackle it or to tackle part of it. so we want to create, you know, this, this level of care or love for, you know, this mission and this level of trust for our organization.

Florent Beauverd
and also, we want to create a sense of inspiration. Hope, you know, that that makes that people are actually turning their eyes onto our activities. So that's kind of more on the emotional side of, what emotion we're trying to generate so that people start to support us. Of course, because we're a nonprofit, one of the big one is funding is, you know, attract, the funding that's needed to, to do this.

Florent Beauverd
and then attract the talent. So the people that we need to, figure out these, these problems into the researchers, engineers, so we want to attract talent, we want to attract funding, and, yeah, we want to also indirectly, we want to raise awareness, inspire people to maybe do something of their own or other, participate in other initiatives where they can be more hands on.

Florent Beauverd
but the primary goal is, is this really, make people care about this problem and trust our organization to solve it?

Jens Bringsjord
Plastic pollution has become a pervasive issue across various regions of our planet, identifying the precise sources of contamination can be a challenge, but in many instances, urban areas lacking robust systems for responsible plastic disposal play a major role. Consequently, a substantial amount of plastic waste from these cities finds its way into rivers, ultimately entering the oceans. While it's essential to recognize that no single country bears sole responsibility for the current crisis in oceanic plastic pollution, a notable proportion of this issue stems from developing nations that grapple with insufficient resources for effective waste management.

Florent Beauverd
I've been more shocked by location like Guatemala, like the Dominican Republic. I've been to Malaysia, to Indonesia, to to the place that we were trying to understand where to place technology and priority. And in some of those places it was like, okay, this is there is also a very big systemic problem here. And now that hopefully we can kind of, tackle some of it, but it's, it's just so, sometimes the scale of the problem is very scary to see.

Florent Beauverd
Yeah. And so you're in the middle of nature and it's basically you're walking on only trash as far as you can see. And so, yeah, these things kind of like hit you pretty hard because you're like, if you love nature, I mean, everybody loves nature. It's not it's not special to me that I like nature or the I like mountains or the ocean or beaches.

Florent Beauverd
I mean, it's devastating to see places that should be just beautiful, rainforest that are just, like, covered in trash, you know, and, and, and so that realization happened to me. Different places, different moments. and, I think another thing that also hit me hard is when I saw wildlife being directly affected by it, and that happened once in Malaysia.

Florent Beauverd
I was kind of worried again, I would I was with the scientific team back then. They were doing drone surveys to try to, map the plastic pollution in the river. And then I was like, I saw that there was kind of, a lot of trash coming through a little tributary of, of the river. And I was kind of I had a big zoom lens, so I was like, I want to check what's going on there.

Florent Beauverd
And I zoomed in and then I saw that there was kind of one of these big lizard, kind of like crawling, but it was crawling in just pure trash, like nonstop. And I was at first I was like, oh, cool. I get this great shot, you know, like, that's my, you know, stupid creative reaction. Okay, I'm going to I'm going to get a great shot of a lizard and in the trash, you know, and and then I put down my camera, I was like, wait, what what what were you just taking a photo of is like, is.

Florent Beauverd
So it is just it's just so this lizard is, it's just living in this environment is eating this stuff. It's like so I don't know, sometimes you all of a sudden you start to have empathy for, this lizard and be like, oh, no, this is really a terrible situation that it is. And, and I was never expecting to have empathy for a lizard, you know, like, that wasn't in my my plans, but that's really on the river side.

Florent Beauverd
Really on, on on land. You see, trash comes from not that far away. It's here. Kind of like, you see, it's very direct relationship between people misusing and plastic mismanaged, you know, waste.

Megan Luedke
And this is just Florence perspective from the oncoming plastic pollution and waste that is entering our oceans from the hundreds of rivers around the world. However, once these plastics enter the vast expanse of the ocean, the challenge intensifies significantly. Factors such as water currents at varying depths and unpredictable sea storms compounded the complexity of the situation. The enormity of this task becomes apparent when considering the immense scale required to detect and locate plastics in the ocean, gather them quickly and subsequently transport the collected waste back to land for recycling.

Florent Beauverd
It ends up there. You're like, okay, we can do something about this out there in the ocean. when I went to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, that's that's something that you save five and a half day to get there. You know, it's five and a half day of nothingness, five and a half day of. There's nobody. There's not a shop, there's not a there's not a source of plastic anywhere nearby.

Florent Beauverd
and then you end up, you start arriving to the kind of the hotspots, which, you know, it's not a mountain of trash. It's not an island of trash. Nothing like the few. The naked eye. It's just blue ocean. You know, if you don't pay attention, it's it's perfectly fine. But then you start to see one piece in one piece, in one piece in one piece, and it's all, all around you, you know, like, you know.

Florent Beauverd
So then you're like, hey, wait, wait. We are like five days away from everything. And there's there are all these things around us. and but but still it is still like, okay, you know, it doesn't look that much if you don't start to make calculation of how much it is in this entire environment. And I think we really started to realize it was a real problem when basically at the same time that the technology started working, when we could actually accumulated and, you know, extract it.

Florent Beauverd
When you see that, okay, we extract a big pile of trash, then, you know, okay, this was here. I couldn't really see it, that it was this pile of trash until it was like dumped on this vessel. The realization of how bad the situation, out there in the ocean is really is tied to the fact that we're extracting it at that moment.

Florent Beauverd
You're like, okay, wait, that's a lot of trash.

Florent Beauverd
And then obviously, when we launched our new system that was launched last summer. So it's like, okay, we are going to have to have the moment that this really starts working. We're going to want to document this as, as as well as possible. So we have these these clips. I mean, I love, of course, getting this footage of these extraction week after week.

Florent Beauverd
You know, it's kind of a repeated thing now. And we're very I'm very focused in trying to film every extraction. It's really when you put them one after another that you realize how much there is, you know, like it's one extraction. Okay, well that's bad. Another one. So there is a real, real value in showing it and showing, of course, the positive impacts that we're having.

Florent Beauverd
But the positive impact that you're showing is also kind of showing how bad the situation is. You know, I think this is by far the most impactful project I've been on. I mean, I've, I've been blessed in participating in other great things before. it's funny because I'm still thinking we're at the very beginning of the impact that we can have for the organization.

Florent Beauverd
So I'm like, this is it always feel like it's just the start.

Megan Luedke
As previously highlighted, plastic pollution often eludes the naked eye when one finds themselves amidst the vastness of the ocean.

Jens Bringsjord
In the initial stages of the ocean cleanup, the team had to meticulously craft hypotheses delving into the intricacies of plastic behavior within the ocean. Their efforts were concentrated on gaining a profound understanding of how plastic moves in tandem with ocean currents, a crucial aspect that required meticulous observation and scientific analysis.

Florent Beauverd
Okay, how can you you. It's all floating. Well, first, that was kind of an assumption, but we you have to make research to really to really confirm that it's all floating at the surface. How how far deep do you need to kind of sweep the ocean to actually have a substantial impact? Because, yeah, if you if you remove what's on the surface, but there's still so much like two meters below you like, and you haven't got that, you haven't had any impact.

Florent Beauverd
It's not about fixing it completely because yeah, that would if you put yourself those objectives, then you just don't start anything. But it's about how much impact can you have and where can you have the fastest impact. And so obviously floating plastic big debriefs are, you know, are a good place to start. Because if you remove a big debris that's eventually going to become a lot of smaller degrees, it's it's a better, better thing to kind of remove one big crate, then try to go after 70 dispersed little things that are already too hard to get.

Florent Beauverd
So I want to have a positive impact, a net positive impact, through what I do. So I think definitely I believe that we are having a positive impact. And, I think that the, yeah, the premises of this organization, you know, the the vision and it's it's audacious.

Megan Luedke
Since Florence inception and into the project in 2016, his team has experienced substantial growth, comprising a compact internal creative unit and an extensive network of external organizations and freelancers. The team collaborates seamlessly to handle diverse facets of production. Presently, the team includes a senior producer, a producer, a graphic designer, a copywriter, and Florent himself. This dynamic team is dedicated to creating a significant impact for the organization, raising awareness about a problem that might escape our notice due to its remote location far from the shores.

Florent Beauverd
It's about, you know, it's about going big in terms of impact. It's not called I mean, it's called the largest cleanup in history. I didn't make that line, but I signed I signed up for that. I signed up for something audacious, for something remarkable. and, and so, yes, you have to sometimes dig deep into your own belief system to, to be like, okay, we're going to get to this crazy, crazy idea of, of fixing it, like massively.

Jens Bringsjord
Upon the successful collection of plastic and its return to shore, a new challenge emerges determining how to handle it effectively. Fortunately, the Ocean Cleanup is equipped with a team of biologists, chemists, and other scientists who specialize in comprehending the nature of this material and finding appropriate disposal methods. However, tackling this issue is unsurprisingly easier said than done.

Florent Beauverd
This particular plastic very hard to work with, very expensive to get out. So if you make it, put it back on the market. It's so expensive. This particular plastic that, you know, you need to do something very special with it for people to actually buy it. It's been out there for many years, for decades. You know, it's it has, contamination by by the environment.

Florent Beauverd
It can be it's very various types of plastics as well. So you have it's very, it's extensive work to bring back this into a new material that can be used. But, that, again, was one of the objectives.

Jens Bringsjord
Addressing the situation at hand is crucial, but being proactive holds even greater significance. Government agencies wield considerable influence in preventing plastics from entering our environments in the first place. They can explore a range of measures, including the promotion of alternative materials to plastics that are more biodegradable and environmentally friendly, implementing outright bans on specific plastic products is another impactful step that governments can take to stem the influx of plastic into our planet.

Jens Bringsjord
The power of governmental action lies in shaping policies that prioritize sustainable practices and mitigate the environmental impact of plastic pollution. From the outset.

Florent Beauverd
It might be that, you know, in five years time, ten years time, the organization has grown into into a place where we have and also, and what we say, a seat at the table to change things, how they, how they work. And this is actually already happening because since since a couple cents a year almost, we have like, more intense, intense focus on governmental affairs and trying to.

Florent Beauverd
Okay, okay, we found something. Our research team figured out. Something. How do we make sure the results of a study is, you know, being watched by the right people in the right countries to change it? So I think, yes, ultimately, you know, I think Boyan says that all the time. He says, like, we want to put ourselves out of business.

Florent Beauverd
You know, that's true. And he says he sees something. He says something funny, I think, is he thinks like nonprofits in general should have this goal to be to put yourself out of business. Because if you fixed a problem, then you have no reason to exist anymore. but of course, and right now, I think the fastest path to impact feels like removal and kind of interception because because of how much inertia there is to changing a system, a country, a place, a city, waste management, these things kind of have like very long response time, for, for change to be effective.

Megan Luedke
Plastics in the ocean are so important to eradicate due to the impacts it has on humanity and the wildlife. To Florent, it's a story worth fighting for because of the significance it has on our everyday way of life. We mentioned early on in this episode we can't live a day without plastic. We have grown accustomed to so much plastic in our life.

Megan Luedke
We almost don't stop to consider what happens to that waste and what should we really do about it?

Florent Beauverd
I want to be part of this story, and the only way to be part of this story is for people to actually focus on telling it.

Jens Bringsjord
So how, as creatives, can we help with such causes like the Ocean Cleanup.

Florent Beauverd
Being at the Ocean Cleanup? I've seen also so many great creatives. I've been I've been seeing what happens in so many creatives. Reach out to me saying like, how can I help you? I love your mission, how can I help? How I I'm a designer, I'm a 3D artist, I'm a graphic designer, I'm a photographer. It's like I can sense that every creative in this world wants to put their skill into a certain good purpose.

Florent Beauverd
So, and I've been also seeing that a lot of mood type of creative studio have started, like there's, there's been just studios and movements of creatives that are trying to kind of start working in the advertising industry for stuff that is kind of like not really solving anything. So I think creatives are kind of, I think at least a certain portion of the creatives in this world are trying to kind of find their way into working for a project like this.

Jens Bringsjord
If there's a valuable lesson to learn from Florence narrative, it's this even when faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges that tempt us to surrender, maintaining hope is paramount. The act of storytelling holds profound significance, capturing the attention of all. And if armed with the right creative process, one can influence daily actions by shaping people's choices and behaviors around a central issue.

Jens Bringsjord
As creatives, we have the power to convey understanding firsthand. In a world desperately in need of reduced plastic usage to foster a safer, a cleaner, and and happier, more living environment. It's a call to action, a reminder that through our creative endeavors, we possess the ability to impact positive change and contribute to the collective effort of making our world a better place.