Group Members:
Janice Seet Sin Yuan
Kat Soo
Amritha Vadi
Ellie Main
Migle Saveikyte
The Brief

The focus for the brief was the 'United Nations Sustainable Development Goals'.
We were tasked to choose and respond to one of the goals. We choose 'Life below water'.

Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources

The world’s oceans – their temperature, chemistry, currents and life – drive global systems that make the Earth habitable for humankind.

Our rainwater, drinking water, weather, climate, coastlines, much of our food, and even the oxygen in the air we breathe, are all ultimately provided and regulated by the sea. Throughout history, oceans and seas have been vital conduits for trade and transportation.

Careful management of this essential global resource is a key feature of a sustainable future.

Oceans cover three quarters of the Earth’s surface, contain 97 per cent of the Earth’s water, and represent 99 per cent of the living space on the planet by volume

Over three billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihoods

Globally, the market value of marine and coastal resources and industries is estimated at $3 trillion per year or about 5 per cent of global GDP

Oceans contain nearly 200,000 identified species, but actual numbers may lie in the millions

Oceans absorb about 30 per cent of carbon dioxide produced by humans, buffering the impacts of global warming

Oceans serve as the world’s largest source of protein, with more than 3 billion people depending on the oceans as their primary source of protein

Marine fisheries directly or indirectly employ over 200 million people

Subsidies for fishing are contributing to the rapid depletion of many fish species and are preventing efforts to save and restore global fisheries and related jobs, causing ocean fisheries to generate US$ 50 billion less per year than they could

As much as 40 per cent of the world oceans are heavily affected by human activities, including pollution, depleted fisheries, and loss of coastal habitats

Idea Generation

In response to the 'Life below water' goal, we went through a series of idea generation exercises. We all came up with individual responses of how we could help the cause, and then shared and added to each others ideas. In doing this, we had ended up with a wide range of different ideas, which addressed the same issue but through various different angles.

Next, we each narrowed down which 3 ideas out of everyone's we thought to be the best. These ideas we took to the 'Impact vs. Implementation' grid. The grid was designed to help us sort through our ideas, and figure out visually which were the most effective and appropriate. The 'impact' of the idea addressed how effective it would be at reaching the target audience, and the 'implementation' addressed how easy it would be to execute.

The idea that we choose fell in the 'high impact' and 'medium implementation' zone. This idea was to create school trips/events, or family based activities, that would get the participants to collect litter and clear beaches. We did have an idea to place warning labels on fish products, similarly to how warnings are placed on cigarette packages, which fell in the most desirable 'high impact' and 'high implementation' zone, however, we went against this idea as we wanted to focus on prevention of the issues rather than just awareness.

The idea we focused on was school events/trips, and family activities, so we came up with the organisation 'OCEAN HEROES'. Initially, we imagined the organisation to become a part of primary schools, and would take the children to local beaches to clear litter and trash, this way helping the environment and marine life.

For our idea, we then had to create a 'tweet', describing the focus/our aims in 240 characters, also incorporating 5 emojis. We thought it would be appropriate that we communicated our idea in the form of promotion, and make the tweet about encouraging children/schools to participate in the events. The emojis we choose were two children holding hands, a school building, muscle, trash bin, and wave; this translates to 'you and your friends, with your school, being heroes, cleaning, the ocean'.

Our tweet: