Three, Sixty: With Sarah Cosgrove
This is an extract from Issue 84 of SDG Alpha, my newsletter that casts an Irish lens on the world of Impact Investment, Innovation, and Sustainability. In these regular features, I pose three questions on the theme of sustainability to an impact entrepreneur or innovator, to get a better understanding in sixty seconds of how they’re working to achieve the SDG targets.
For this issue, I’m delighted to welcome Sarah Cosgrove, PhD , CEO of Restore Innovation Ltd , one of the past participants in the Bord na Móna Accelerate Green Start 2024 (Spring Cohort).
On a personal level, what impacts of the climate/biodiversity crisis are you most concerned about?
The degradation of marine life and it’s knock-on effects. The marine ecosystem is one which we cannot easily assess damage to as we only have an easy visual of its surface, thus it is one that can unfortunately be misunderstood and at times, overlooked compared to our terrestrial landscape.
During my time researching various human-induced impacts on our coastal and offshore systems, from excessive land run-off causing localised harmful algal blooms to the determinantal response efforts of oil spills in areas as expansive as the Gulf of Mexico, I can say it is a system that is never easily predicted or the impacts easily quantifiable!
What concerns me most is the lack of knowledge and insight we have on ocean biodiversity to make informed decisions. I hope in time we can prioritise the need for collaborative long-term data collection efforts to establish patterns which can better guide the planning of our ocean space.
Our oceans are a powerful resource to help tackle the climate crisis through the deployment of renewable energy infrastructure, and I truly believe establishment of these operations can exist in harmony with marine biodiversity, but only if planned for correctly with a data-driven, ecosystem based approach. There is huge opportunity here, but it needs to be approached with consideration of the ocean’s incredibly dynamic nature and the diverse range of species and habitats this environment supports, many of which are gaining increasing levels of protection.
Which of the UN SDGs was Restore Innovation?established to address?
Restore Innovation addresses UN SDG 14 – Life below water. We founded Restore to support the sustainable use of our oceans for renewable energy development while identifying opportunities for ecosystem restoration and biodiversity enhancement as an integral part of the process.
The ocean is the world’s largest ecosystem, representing 99 percent of the living space on the planet by volume. Although there is increasing awareness towards the importance of protecting the ocean space and increasing funding being made available for conservation initiatives, the current efforts are not yet meeting the urgent need to safeguard this powerful, yet fragile, resource. To date, we have focused primarily on mitigating impacts but it’s time we start looking beyond mitigation to enhancement opportunities and foster?ecological synergies?that deliver net-positive outcomes for marine ecosystems.
Taking an offshore wind farm as an example, there is great opportunity within the full red-line boundary of the site from the intertidal zone to the offshore space for the integration of Nature-Inclusive Design (NID) solutions. We have seen the success of such solutions at offshore sites including the colonisation of wind turbine foundations creating artificial reef habitats and innovative technologies such as the ‘Fish hotel’ (!), providing shelter and safe foraging opportunities for juvenile fish populations. In combination with reduced fishing pressure in the area, the carefully planned integration of NID solutions at a site can create a natural refuge for marine life to flourish.
How Does Restore Innovation’s Business Model Enable a Transition to a Sustainable Future?
Restore Innovations envisions a future where offshore wind development and marine biodiversity thrive together. By pioneering data-driven solutions, we aim to empower developers to seamlessly plan for the integration of NID solutions into their projects –protecting and enhancing local biodiversity, ensuring regulatory compliance and achieving long-term sustainability goals.
How do we do this? Using multiple marine data sources, Restore’s proprietary spatial planning software carries out a site-specific assessment to:
Our goal is to support offshore developers in their early-stage decision making around NID planning and build a biodiversity-focused planning portfolio while ensuring compliance with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and future legislation. Unlike more traditional consultancy services producing static outputs, Restore’s interactive platform allows developers to stay engaged with the latest developments in NID technology, regulatory changes and compliance risks, offering adaptive recommendations to optimise environmental outcomes throughout the project’s lifecycle.
We will feel we have achieved our mission if we can help support the protection of marine biodiversity alongside the meeting of ambitious renewable sustainable energy targets and steer the global shift toward sustainable, nature-positive, and compliant offshore development - where conservation and clean energy go hand in hand.