175. Seaweed Is the New Oil: Mari Granström Builds Origin by Ocean

Episode notes

Mari Granstrom, founder and “chief executive activist” of Origin By Ocean, joins the Grow Everything podcast to explain how massive seaweed blooms, driven by nutrient pollution and eutrophication, can become a regenerative feedstock for bio-based and biodegradable chemicals. Mari shares how a career in industrial biochemistry, plus years of scuba diving and growing up near the polluted Baltic Sea, shaped their mission to transform invasive sargassum into high-performance ingredients that can replace many oil-derived inputs in everyday products. The conversation covers the scale of the sargassum problem across the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, how Origin By Ocean processes seaweed into “white powders” customers can use in cosmetics and nutraceuticals, and why the future of climate entrepreneurship needs diversity, integrity, and business models that restore ecosystems instead of extracting from them. Grow Everything brings the bioeconomy to life. Hosts Karl Schmieder and Erum Azeez Khan share stories and interview the leaders and influencers changing the world by growing everything. Biology is the oldest technology. And it can be engineered. What are we growing?

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