Helping The Ocean Cleanup scale-up operations

Ridding the oceans of plastics requires multi-disciplinary collaboration

Large swathes of our oceans have turned into plastic soup. At Deloitte, we feel we have a role to play in cleaning up this mess – a task of truly Herculean proportions. So, when the Ocean Cleanup asked us to help professionalise and scale-up its operations, we supported them with our full breadth and depth of services. Find out how our specialists are helping deliver real-world impact and rid our oceans of plastic.

Helping The Ocean Cleanup scale-up operations

Since 2017, several teams of specialists have helped The Ocean Cleanup prepare for the largest environmental cleanup in history. Our involvement is across a broad spectrum of activities. From devising a go-to-market strategy, to ensuring tax law compliance and helping The Ocean Cleanup improve its cyber security posture and resilience.

Founded in 2013 by Boyan Slat, The Ocean Cleanup is a non-profit organisation based in Rotterdam, that builds scalable cleaning systems for oceans and rivers. In 2021, they have deployed their System 002 to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a vortex of trash the size of France. System 002’s second six-week test-trip provided valuable learnings for launching a market-ready model fit for scale-up.

Since its inception, The Ocean Cleanup has grown from a small group of idealist and go-getters, to an organisation that employs about 95 people worldwide: engineers, researchers, oceanographers, but also legal staff, financial specialists and system administrators.

Our involvement is across a broad spectrum of activities. We developed a comprehensive model to calculate the global economic impact of plastic pollution, concluding that it comes with a hefty price tag, both financially and environmentally.

One of our teams developed a go-to-market strategy for The Ocean Cleanup’s river Interceptor, aimed at operationalising cleaning systems in 1000 of the most polluted rivers, within five years from scale-up.

Currently, our Tax team is helping The Ocean Cleanup consolidate its business operations by ensuring that its various commercial activities are compliant with EU and non-EU tax laws and can be carried out without tax and legal setbacks.

To improve its cyber security posture and resilience, Deloitte assessed the security of The Ocean Cleanup’s public and administrative websites. The Deloitte Impact Foundation’s Hacking for Charity team performed two web application security tests and recommended actions to terminate the vulnerabilities that where discovered. Additionally, six phishing campaigns measured the awareness and cyber-readiness of the Ocean Cleanup and its employees.

At Deloitte we are committed to helping our partners shape their business operations in a responsible way. To make a positive impact on the environment and the future of our oceans. Together with The Ocean Cleanup.

Curious about how we can help make your business operations more sustainable? Let’s connect for impact.

Our specialists who made this possible

Jorg Schalekamp

Partner