Building a Startup and a Brand to De-Risk Ocean Plastic

Building a Startup and a Brand to De-Risk Ocean Plastic

Championing the clean-up of vulnerable waterways from canals to coastlines. Oceanworks helps divert plastic from the oceans and enables brands to transform it into sustainable and socially conscious consumer goods.

The Oceanworks founding mission is to remove the tons of plastic currently polluting our oceans and repurpose that global resource by using it in new product development. Aly Khalifa, a co-founder of this leading ocean-plastic marketplace, scoured the planet for ocean plastic supply chain partners and greatly expanded the global pool of ocean-plastic-ready manufacturers by working closely with them to customize and test systems and machinery.

Working directly with consumer brands, Positive Company helped Oceanworks source, design and manufacture verified ocean plastic material into finished products, replacing virgin plastic with recycled and removing it from its path to the ocean.

YKK Zippers from Ocean Bound Waste

Most colored ocean plastic PET doesn’t make it into the textile supply chain. Most zippers are dyed black or brown…we helped YKK to incorporate this new opportunity into their product line.

Outerknown’s Tiny Button with a Big Impact

Positive Company developed circular-economy-ready buttons from ocean plastic for Outerknown’s most sustainable trousers. The buttons include molded-in material year and coordinates to signify where it was harvested. 

CPI and the First Ocean Plastic Credit Card

Positive Company and Oceanworks worked directly with the visionaries at CPI to concept, engineer and overcome key technical challenges to manufacture the first credit card incorporating ocean plastic.

De-risking Ocean Plastic for Consumer Brands

VERIFICATION & MONITORING

Developing one of the first draft standards for ocean plastic verification
Aly Khalifa led a verification program and developed one of the business world’s earliest draft standards on ocean plastic verification, leading to his participation on the 3R standard. This standard enables monitoring material content and chain of custody from collection through final product, and provides brands the assurance their product is made as specified and ethically harvested and handled.

 

OCEAN PLASTIC PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Feasibility, Design, Material Selection, Engineering, Supply Chain Development, Production Support.
Designbox led the Oceanworks product design and development efforts internally and for clients. This development is complex, multi-faceted, and requires collaboration and relationships with sustainability and materials experts around the world. A few examples of projects we fostered are shown above.

THE STORYTELLING OF SUSTAINABILITY

Providing marketing and communications support to fit into existing brand and business goals

Designbox developed the Oceanworks brand strategy and brand assets and usage guidelines for customer use. These marketing pieces allowed customers to add their ocean plastic commitment and efforts to their brand story without having to rework their existing brand. Oceanworks marketing included a dedicated place for supporting brands on the Oceanworks website, informational product tags, messaging, photography and infographics.

Positive Company directed and developed the initial start-up Oceanworks brand strategy, story and messaging, brand assets and usage guidelines.

Positive Company directed and developed the initial start-up Oceanworks brand strategy, story and messaging, brand assets and usage guidelines.

We also developed a co-branding program for customers to use to celebrate their positive environmental impact and use of Oceanworks Ocean Plastic in their own marketing programs.

  • Brand identity and standards
  • Logo and business cards
  • Messaging and voice
  • Website Design and writing
  • Brochures design and writing 
  • Infographics
  • Google Slides Presentation Master
  • Google Suite Docs Masters

Brochures, Presentations & Information Templates

Infographics & Icon Design

Web Design & Development

Full Suite of Services

    • Strategy, roadmap and feasibility consulting
    • Product engineering and design for performance and circularity
    • Qualification and support for nominated suppliers
    • Full turn-key product development of new products
    • Quality control management and reporting
    • Branding, communication and marketing for company and product launches