The annual accolade, created by ONE°15 Events Management and powered by Gen.T and Tatler Singapore, recognises individuals making a positive impact on ocean and coastal conservation
“Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much,” said Helen Keller.
That was the prevailing emotion on the evening of November 4 at the Blue Water Heroes Awards. The inaugural Awards that recognises and celebrates those advancing the quest for marine and coastal conservation was part of the Blue Water EduFest 2022, which took place from November 3 to 6. It was created by ONE°15 Events Management and powered by Gen.T and Tatler Singapore.
The event is the brainchild of Arthur Tay, chairman and CEO of SUTL Group, which owns ONE°15 Marina Sentosa Cove, and was conceived with the objective to raise awareness about the urgency to take action against climate change.
The Blue Water EduFest was conceived as a means to garner strong support to advance the “Blue Water movement”, as Tay termed it, “in close collaboration with the governments and industry partners in the region”.
Changemakers of today
The Blue Water EduFest featured a two-day Ocean Collective Summit headlined by conservationist and filmmaker Fabien Cousteau, who is the grandson of the legendary Jacques Cousteau. There were also nightly networking cocktail events and a marina clean-up on the final day of the four-day event that saw at least 100 volunteers taking part. The marina clean-up was an annual affair by ONE°15 Marina Sentosa Cove as part of its efforts to protect the environment, but the activity was put on pause for two years due to the pandemic.
The Blue Water Heroes Awards, which was powered by Gen.T, was held on the second night of the Blue Water EduFest. From across Southeast Asia, 10 young conservationists—from scientists and academics to non-profit founders—dedicated to conserving our waters and the lives they support were selected as finalists for the Awards. They were picked as the top contenders through a quantitative grading process that gauged the scope of their work, research and data procured, reach and scalable impact created, and vision for the future.
They were the Philippines Marine Science Institute's Deo Florence Onda, the Earth Observatory of Singapore's Kyle Morgan, Bawah Anambas Foundation's Marcellinus Jerry Winata, MareCet Research Organization's Dr Louisa Ponnampalam, Myanmar Ocean Project's Thanda Ko Gyi, Bye Bye Plastic Bags' Melati Riyanto Wijsen, Seastainable's Samantha Thian, St John's Island National Marine Laboratory's Dr Neo Mei Lin, the Philippine Reef and Rainforest Conservation Foundation's Dave Albao and Thresher Shark Indonesia's Rafid Shidqi.
Their applications were reviewed by a panel of judges, which included Tay, Gen.T’s Chong Seow Wei, as well as industry leaders in sustainability such as the National University of Singapore’s Dr Toh Tai Chong, WWF-Singapore’s Uma Sachidhanandam, Citi Private Bank’s Harlin Singh, Nanyang Technological University professor Benjamin Horton and City Developments Limited’s Esther An.
