What exactly is One Ocean Planet?
One Ocean Planet Education is an international education and action platform that helps connect people — especially younger generations — with the ocean and the climate challenges we face today.
We work across schools, universities, communities, and public campaigns to transform ocean awareness into real action. Through our programmes, we aim to make the ocean something personal, tangible, and empowering for people of all ages. And the most importance is the path of awareness to action.
Our work is built around three main pillars:
- Generation Blue: bringing ocean literacy and climate education into schools through workshops, curriculum integration, and project-based learning.
- Hero Kids: supporting children and teenagers to create and lead their own environmental projects, proving that leadership has no age.
- University Challenge: connecting university students with real-world sustainability challenges to develop innovative solutions with impact.
Today, our initiatives have reached schools and communities across multiple countries, helping young people understand that protecting the ocean is not only about science — it is about culture, identity, wellbeing, and the future of humanity.
What does the project mean to you personally? What are your motivations?
Personally, education has always been at the centre of my life and purpose. I studied Physical Education and worked for eight years in schools, where my main goal was never only sport itself, but using sport as a tool to teach values, resilience, teamwork, and life skills. I always believed education had the power to shape people far beyond the classroom.
Five years ago, I moved to Spain, and my path changed completely. I entered the world of ocean conservation and climate action, taking on new roles connected to environmental impact and sustainability. Then, around two years ago, we began building the educational side of One Ocean Planet, because one thing became very clear to me: education is one of the most important pathways for real change.
Being able to develop this work on so many different levels has become something deeply personal for me. Education has always been what moves me, and I truly believe it is one of the strongest tools we have to create meaningful transformation — especially today, when protecting and restoring our planet is more urgent than ever.
We have tried many approaches as a society, but we still have not invested enough collective effort into education as a driver for environmental action. I once heard the phrase "education is not soft", and it stayed with me because it is true. Education is not something passive or distant for the future; it is one of the most powerful tools we have to act right now.
It is not simply knowledge that children may use one day when they become adults. It is about creating action, responsibility, and connection in the present, because every generation — including young people today — has a role to play in caring for and recovering our planet.
What difference has the "ocean tribute" Award made to the project?
The "ocean tribute" Award gave us not only international recognition, but also momentum to scale our work even further.
It helped open doors to new collaborations, schools, organisations, and conversations in different parts of the world. Since receiving the award, we have continued expanding our educational and youth-led initiatives internationally, and today our programmes and projects have reached almost 10 countries.
The recognition also gave credibility to the importance of ocean education and youth action, helping more people understand that education can play a central role in climate and ocean solutions.
Most importantly, it motivated our community — especially the young people involved in our programmes — by showing them that their voices, ideas, and actions truly matter on an international stage.
How do you use the prize money from the "ocean tribute" Award?
The prize money is being used to directly support and expand our educational and youth-led initiatives.
One of the key developments has been the creation of a collaborative educational app designed to support teachers implementing ocean and climate education in schools. One of the biggest challenges we identified is that many educational programmes provide inspiration and initial structure, but long-term follow-up and support are often missing.
Through this platform, teachers will be able to stay connected with one another, share experiences and resources, communicate directly with expert teams, and upload student projects so they can inspire other schools and communities around the world. Our goal is to create a living network of collaboration where educators feel continuously supported rather than working in isolation.
The support from the 'ocean tribute' award has also helped us expand our Hero Kids programme internationally, which has already had impact across six countries. Through the programme, children and young people are not only developing their own environmental projects, but are also participating in talks, workshops, campaigns, and public events, helping amplify youth voices in ocean and climate action.
In addition, we have expanded our University Challenge initiative by opening a new hackathon category focused on real-world sustainability challenges. The first edition took place at University College London and was a great success, bringing together students from different disciplines to collaborate on innovative ocean and climate solutions.
Our goal is always to transform awareness into action, and the support from the 'ocean tribute' award has helped us continue building practical, collaborative, and youth-driven solutions for the future of our planet.
