Spotlight on strategic philanthropy – interview with Eric Berseth

The ocean: from “free infrastructure” to critical asset
The ocean is often treated as free infrastructure - absorbing carbon and heat, enabling global trade, feeding millions, and powering homes through offshore wind. It covers 70% of the planet, contributes around 3% of global GDP, and underpins logistics, food systems, and coastal protection. Warming waters, acidification, overfishing, plastic pollution, and bleaching coral reefs threaten both ecosystems and economic stability.

At the same time, blue bonds, restoration funds, technological innovation and startups are turning ocean protection into investible opportunities.

Investment context: volatility, opportunity and a blind spot
In his opening remarks, Andre Portelli, Head of Investment & Client Solutions at EFG International, pointed out that the ocean is rarely considered as an investment system in its own right despite the fact that it covers most of the planet and generates trillions of dollars in economic value. Protecting the ocean is therefore not only an environmental imperative but also an economic one, given its role in livelihoods, logistics and global trade.

Portelli linked this to EFG’s long-term partnership with Team Malizia, describing it as a “double bottom line” venture: a racing team that competes to win, while simultaneously collecting ocean data, supporting science, and engaging schools and communities. This combination of performance, measurement and impact exemplifies how finance can support both returns and resilience.

Team Malizia: measuring the ocean to unlock capital
Keynote speaker Holly Cova, Team Director of Team Malizia, showed how ocean racing can be leveraged for science, education and climate action. The team operates two vessels:

• Malizia 4, a cutting-edge offshore racing yacht equipped with an “ocean pack” - a laboratory that continuously measures salinity, CO₂, pH and temperature, including in remote regions such as the Southern Ocean.
• Malizia Explorer, a research vessel carrying scientists, communicators and activists to places like Antarctica and Greenland, enabling deeper data collection and storytelling.

Cova emphasised that the ocean absorbs 26% of excess CO₂ and 93% of excess heat generated by human activity, making it the world’s largest carbon and heat sink. However, data already show worrying trends in acidification and warming, suggesting a potential tipping point beyond which the ocean’s stabilising role could weaken.

Her central argument: “You cannot protect what you cannot measure, and you do not invest in what you do not know.” By improving data coverage - Team Malizia’s track has already made global carbon models about 10% more accurate - science reduces uncertainty, communication translates findings into public understanding, and capital can then follow with more confidence.

Partnerships: scaling impact through capital
Cova also underlined the importance of partnerships, notably with EFG International. Through joint initiatives such as the My Ocean Challenge education programme and a mangrove restoration project in the Philippines (now reaching around five million mangroves planted), the team has been able to expand both scientific and social impact.

These projects demonstrate how capital can support nature-based solutions that simultaneously create jobs, protect coastlines, restore ecosystems and capture carbon - a practical example of climate action translated into capital solutions.

Panel discussion: from ocean science to investible opportunities
A high-level panel with Melanie Beyeler (Global Head of Sustainable Investing at EFG International), Jessica Smith (Head of Nature Programme at UNEP Finance Initiative) and Alfredo Giron Nava (Head of the World Economic Forum’s Ocean Action Agenda) then explored how to connect this science and mission to mainstream finance

Making the invisible visible for investors
Beyeler used an ocean metaphor to describe investment behaviour: markets focus on the “waves” (news, short-term price moves) while often ignoring the “currents” (slow, structural changes). She called for innovative solutions: infrastructure that is both engineered and ecological, or technologies that reduce maintenance costs and accelerate permitting. For investors, the challenge is to distinguish between where to look (structural needs and constraints) and where to invest, which requires rigorous analysis of costs, savings, adoption rates and portfolio fit.

Where the money is - and where it needs to go
Smith outlined the current state of ocean finance. The global ocean economy already accounts for around USD 2.2 trillion in market activity, much of it still harmful to nature and climate. UNEP FI’s Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Principles and detailed sector guidance help financial institutions identify:

1. Activities to excludedue to high regulatory and stranded-asset risk
2. Activities to transition, by challenging clients to adopt standards and best practices
3. Activities to seek out, where capital can support positive impact and resilience

She stressed that nature is now emerging as a top concern for major banks and insurers, and that new tools - such as an atlas of nature and climate risk - are helping integrate nature into climate risk models. Insurers, in particular, are becoming a “sleeping giant” on nature, sending price signals that reflect both risk and resilience.

Transition opportunities and emerging pipelines
Giron Nava pointed to the rapid growth of key ocean sectors, such as offshore wind and green shipping, and the increasing recognition by governments that environmental performance must be part of tender criteria. He described the World Economic Forum’s work in mapping three main areas: Sector-specific opportunities; ticket sizes and capital needs; where catalytic capital and co‑investment are already active.

He also referenced the 1000 Ocean Startups community, now close to 1,000 companies and 70+ investors, where co‑investment and corporate interest are accelerating. Examples like underwater communication technologies show how early-stage innovation can mature into strategic assets for large industrial players.

Looking ahead, Giron Nava expects artificial intelligence to play a growing role in internal capital allocation and client engagement on sustainability, including in the ocean space.

Closing reflections: from “Blue Mind” to Blue Markets
EFG International CEO Giorgio Pradelli and EFG Gamma Foundation Chairman Andrea Beltratti closed the conference by reinforcing three key messages:

1. Capital must be measured, not just flows.
   Traditional metrics like GDP capture activity but not the state of the underlying capital - natural, social or physical. Without measuring ocean capital, incentives will not change and opportunities will be missed.
2. Data is the foundation of markets.
   From Team Malizia’s measurements to global risk atlases, data is essential to pricing risk, designing instruments (such as carbon pricing for shipping), and enabling the “invisible hand” of markets to allocate resources more efficiently and responsibly.
3. Finance has a central role to play
   With the ocean acting as both stabiliser and economic backbone, and with a historic wealth transfer underway to younger generations who are more attuned to sustainability, significant capital is poised to flow into the blue economy. Innovation and clear frameworks can ensure this capital supports resilient, profitable and regenerative ocean-based activities.

Held on the shores of Lake Geneva, the conference underscored a simple but powerful idea: the ocean is not just a climate story; it is an economic story. As science makes the invisible visible and rules of the game become clearer, the blue economy is emerging as a major arena where climate action and capital solutions can - and must - meet.

Watch the full event here