Key Takeaways

• Seaweed has the potential to become a transformative crop, addressing sustainability challenges by delivering environmental benefits such as rapid carbon capture, improved ocean health, and methane reduction, while requiring no land, fresh water, or fertilizers.
• Growing consumer demand and regulatory pressures for environmentally friendly solutions are strong catalysts for the adoption of seaweed across diverse applications, from food, textiles, and cosmetics to packaging and plastic alternatives.
• Despite cost and regulatory hurdles, higher-margin seaweed products like biodegradable inks and non-flammable textiles show promising investment potential.

Watch the webinar recording here.

Summary

Motivation: Against a backdrop of rising temperatures, ecological deterioration, and growing food and water insecurity, the need for sustainable products and farming practices is becoming increasingly important. John Soukas, CEO and co-founder of Boston-based Norfolk Green Ventures, explains how seaweed can serve as an innovative tool to tackle these challenges while providing attractive investment opportunities.

Findings:

• Seaweed grows without land, fresh water, fertilizer, or pesticides, making it an appealing crop from a land use and resource efficiency perspective.
• The environmental benefits of seaweed are substantial: it can sequester carbon 50 times faster than terrestrial plants, improve ocean health by absorbing excess nutrients, and cut livestock methane emissions by up to 90% when used as feed.
• In addition to being a food source, seaweed can be used for textiles and cosmetics, as a replacement for single-use plastics, and for various other applications, such as creating ink.
• Regulation, such as product sourcing requirements and plastics restrictions, as well as increasing sustainability concerns among consumers, are likely to drive demand for seaweed in the coming years.
• Barriers to developing seaweed-based goods include optics issues, the capital-intensive nature of farming, and regulatory grey areas. Compared with traditional products, seaweed is not yet cost-competitive for most use cases.
• Biodegradable ink, non-flammable textiles and bioplastics and packaging developed from seaweed stand out as particularly attractive investment opportunities, given their higher margins and sustainability benefits.
• Pension funds, with their long-term horizons, are natural partners for financing sustainable innovations like seaweed and can benefit from its growth potential as early-stage investors.

Q&A Highlights:

• Historical analogues: Soybeans provide a useful precedent: once niche and culturally “foreign,” the crop scaled after processing breakthroughs and cost declines. Seaweed may have even broader applications.
• Where to participate first: Focus on products with compelling functionality and margin while supply scales (inks; naturally flame-retardant textiles). Look for demand pull from large brands and retailers.
• Role of regulation: Expect momentum from microplastics restrictions and changes to flame‑retardant rules; government procurement and local‑content policies can de‑risk early markets.
• Standardization and trading: With thousands of species, raw biomass is hard to commoditize. Intermediate derivatives (e.g., alginates) could become the tradable units as volumes grow.
• Geography: Asia leads today, but opportunities exist in Alaska/BC (ocean farms) and in land‑based systems linked to industrial nutrient streams. Indigenous partnerships can ease access and align incentives.