The ocean-literate organisation: what changes in practice?
In my previous article, I discussed how the ocean remains largely absent from discussions about systemic risk.
The next challenge is understanding what this means in practice.
What does an ocean-literate organisation look like? How might ocean literacy influence the decisions shaping our future?
Seeing dependencies
Much of our current decision-making remains organised around separate categories of risk. Climate risk, nature risk and now ocean risks are often discussed as though they are distinct issues. Now people are waking up to the importance of the ocean (better later than never, I suppose). As humans, we like to categorise and put things in boxes, but organisations do not operate in silos. We all operate within one interconnected Earth system, but it seems mostly without a broader understanding of planetary dependencies.
Every organisation depends on the environment in some way because it creates the conditions under which economies function. Food production depends on rainfall patterns, global trade depends on functioning maritime routes, insurance markets depend on assumptions about environmental stability and coastal economies depend, among other things, on healthy marine ecosystems. Many of these conditions are influenced directly or indirectly by the ocean. Once we pay attention to those connections, decisions begin to change.
A useful example comes from the seafood industry. In 2016, some of the world's largest seafood companies came together to form SeaBOS (Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship). These companies recognised that overfishing, illegal fishing, and marine ecosystem decline represented material risks to the long-term viability of their businesses. The response was collective action on traceability, fisheries governance, and sustainability commitments. This came from recognising that healthy ocean ecosystems were fundamental business infrastructure rather than an external environmental issue.
Better questions, better decisions
Ocean literacy helps people ask better questions. How might changing ocean conditions affect this investment? Could disruption to maritime trade routes affect supply-chain resilience? How exposed are our assets to changing coastal conditions? What happens if marine ecosystems that support food production continue to decline?
The recent disruption to shipping through the Red Sea provides a useful example. Many organisations had treated global maritime transport as a stable background condition. When attacks on commercial shipping forced vessels to reroute around southern Africa, transit times increased, costs rose and supply chains experienced disruption. For many businesses, the event exposed a vulnerability that had previously received little attention. The ocean is suddenly part of business continuity planning. The difference with an ocean-literate organisation is that it does not wait for disruption before recognising these connections.
Finance and investment
Perhaps the most interesting developments are emerging within finance. For many years, sustainable finance focused primarily on carbon emissions, climate disclosure, and ESG reporting. That conversation is evolving, and investors are becoming increasingly interested in resilience, adaptation, and systemic risk. Regulatory and supervisory developments are also accelerating this shift as financial institutions are asked to assess climate- and nature-related risks within investment portfolios.
As attention turns towards resilience, adaptation and systemic risk, an obvious question follows: where does the ocean fit?
One of the challenges is that the ocean influences climate regulation, coastal resilience, food production, global trade, and infrastructure, but traditional investment analysis does not really join the dots. This creates a gap between growing expectations around environmental risk assessment and the capability needed to recognise ocean-related vulnerabilities and opportunities.
The ocean is beginning to appear within discussions around resilience and long-term portfolio performance. This is particularly evident in sectors such as coastal infrastructure, shipping, fisheries, food, and tourism, where ocean conditions can influence both risks and opportunities.
The Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (ORRAA) was established because governments, insurers, investors, and development banks recognised that ocean degradation creates financial consequences. Coral reef loss, coastal flooding, and marine ecosystem decline affect insurance markets, infrastructure resilience, and economic stability.
One of the most cited examples is reef insurance in the Mexican Caribbean. Following severe hurricane damage, innovative insurance mechanisms were developed to fund rapid reef restoration after storm events. The rationale was pretty straightforward - healthy reefs reduce wave energy, protect coastlines and lower economic losses from storms. The reef was therefore recognised as a protective asset. Recognising the ecological function of reefs, alongside increasing climate-related storm risk, changed financial decision-making.
Some investors are also beginning to examine exposure to coastal assets, shipping, fisheries, and marine infrastructure. The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) has published guidance encouraging investors to consider ocean-related risks and opportunities within investment portfolios. This remains an emerging field, but it signals where attention is turning.
Ocean literacy does not replace disclosure frameworks or risk tools. Rather, it helps organisations interpret what those frameworks are telling them and connect that understanding to strategy, governance, and investment decisions.
Operational resilience
Ocean literacy can also influence how organisations think about operational resilience.
Take coffee production, for example. Yields are heavily influenced by climatic conditions linked to ocean-atmosphere interactions, including El Niño and La Niña events. Changes in rainfall patterns and temperature affect yields, prices, and supply reliability. Companies operating within global food supply chains increasingly assess climate vulnerability because environmental instability affects business performance.
The same applies to fisheries, aquaculture, tourism, and agriculture. A tourism operator in the Caribbean may depend on healthy coral reefs to attract visitors, a seafood company depends on functioning marine ecosystems, and a retailer depends on reliable shipping routes and agricultural productivity. Ocean literacy helps organisations recognise these relationships before they become operational risks.
Developing a common language
One challenge that repeatedly emerges when discussing ocean-related risks is that different professional communities often speak different languages.
Marine scientists discuss ecosystem function, biodiversity loss, and ocean circulation. Investors discuss materiality, portfolio exposure and risk-adjusted returns, business leaders discuss resilience, operations, and strategy whilst policymakers discuss governance and public outcomes. Often, they are describing different dimensions of the same underlying issue.
Ocean literacy can function as a bridge between these conversations. It provides a shared framework for understanding how the ocean influences outcomes that matter to organisations, investors, and governments.
This is important because many of the decisions shaping the future of ocean health are being made by people whose expertise lies far beyond marine science. As climate, nature and ocean considerations become more integrated within decision-making, organisations need enough shared understanding to ask better questions, recognise vulnerabilities, and engage confidently with evidence.
In many respects, this is one of the most important contributions ocean literacy can make - creating a common language through which different disciplines can understand one another and make better decisions together.
Ocean-literate leadership
Leadership today requires careful navigation through different disciplines and sectors. Climate adaptation, food security, resource pressures, and geopolitical instability do not fit neatly into organisational structures. Decisions often require leaders to interpret information from scientists, economists, investors, engineers, and policymakers simultaneously.
Ocean literacy contributes to leadership capability by creating shared language and understanding as to how these issues connect. The links between food security and ocean health, economic resilience and climate stability, investment performance and ecosystem function become clear. The point is to understand enough about the ocean to recognise vulnerabilities and opportunities that influence their organisations.
One practical test is whether ocean-related considerations appear within governance discussions. Organisational meeting agendas cover financial performance, operational risks, and sustainability targets, but how many ask:
How dependent are we on ocean-regulated systems?
Could changing ocean conditions affect our strategy?
Where are we exposed?
What opportunities are emerging?
These are the questions asked by an ocean-literate organisation.
Culture and organisational change
The most impactful changes occur when ocean literacy becomes embedded within organisational culture. This influences procurement and investment decisions as well as strategic planning.
For example, this might mean a food retailer evaluating the resilience of seafood supply chains, an investor examining exposure to coastal assets vulnerable to sea-level rise, or an insurer considering how ecosystem loss influences future claims. These are organisational decisions informed by a better understanding of how planetary dependencies influence economic outcomes. Over time, ocean literacy becomes part of how decisions are made and this is where literacy becomes capability.
From climate risk to planetary dependency
One of the themes emerging from recent discussions around climate, nature and ocean frameworks is the growing recognition that organisations depend on the environment in ways that remain poorly understood. Climate literacy helped organisations understand carbon. Nature-related frameworks are helping organisations understand biodiversity. Ocean literacy provides a framework for understanding how the ocean influences climate stability, food production, trade, economic resilience, and human wellbeing.
The next challenge for organisations is understanding planetary dependencies. The ocean is one of the largest and most overlooked of those dependencies. The institutions shaping our future need the capability to recognise where the ocean influences the decisions they already make.
Ocean literacy is about ensuring that decisions affecting society are made with a clearer understanding of the systems on which society depends.
At the Ocean Literacy Project, this is exactly the challenge we are trying to address through our Ocean Systems Literacy courses.
You want to understand how the world works? Start by understanding the ocean.
Author: Leanne Hepburn, PhD, SFHEA
References
SeaBOS (Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship) https://seabos.org/
Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (ORRAA) https://oceanriskalliance.org/
Green Finance Institute (2024). Quintana Roo Reef Protection Parametric Insurancehttps://www.greenfinanceinstitute.com/hive/revenues-for-nature/case-studies/quintana-roo-reef-protection-parametric-insurance/
British International Studies Association (2026). Red Sea Disruption: The Real Cost to African Trade in 2026https://bisi.org.uk/reports/red-sea-disruption-real-cost-to-african-trade-in-2026
Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) Ocean-related investment guidance and resources https://www.unpri.org/