Nutri-San

The need for integrated, sustainable, solutions to global climate change and disease resistance is urgent.  Most animal feeds contain synthetic antibiotics and growth promoters which, on entering the food chain, contribute to antimicrobial resistance and have negative consequences for health.  Emissions from livestock (methane from cattle) and nitrate run-off (poultry) contribute to a range of environmental problems.  

Nutri-San's seaweed feed supplements offer a solution that not only results in increased production but also: promotes health in animals; reduces the need for antibiotics / synthetic additives in feed; lowers methane emissions in livestock and mitigates the effects of nitrate contamination.

If scaled, our solution has the potential to:

• Impact health outcomes for people, animals and our planet at a global level. 
• Contribute to the development of a regenerative aquaculture - providing employment opportunities, especially for women, within marginalized coastal communities and promoting the restoration and preservation of marine and coastal ecosystems.

Our solution seeks to solve the problem of how communities can sustainably protect, manage and restore their local ecosystems.  Nutri-San's solution aims to preserve and restore marine and coastal ecosystems with sustainable and responsible seaweed harvesting and farming.  With careful stewardship, seaweed aquaculture has the potential to make a highly positive contribution to economic, social and environmental sustainability, and resilience, globally.

Seaweed itself sequesters carbon and well-managed harvesting has positive impacts on local industries such as fishing and tourism in areas where there is an over-abundance of seaweed.  'Green tides' of seaweed can bloom in shallow coastal waters, harming marine life and damaging fragile ocean and coastal ecosystems; disrupting the fishing and tourism that communities rely on for income. 

Nutri-San's seaweed biomass is harvested by communities that have a long tradition of seaweed management.  This local knowledge can be leveraged together with cutting-edge science to build a restorative industry which preserves marine and coastal biodiversity.  We currently work with seaweed suppliers in South East Asia and have plans to cultivate seaweed on Zanzibar, in partnership with Royal Agricultural University, UK.  Our team for the Zanzibar project has over 15 years' experience working with communities and local authorities on the island.

Nutri-San produces 100% natural animal feed supplements from a blend of brown, green and red seaweeds.  The seaweeds used in our products are harvested from sustainable sources across South East Asia (Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam).  We are planning to cultivate the 'methane busting' seaweed asparagopsis taxiformis in Zanzibar, Tanzania.  

We select seaweeds rich in the nutrients required for animals to flourish.  Even at extremely low inclusion rates (<5%) our supplements deliver a broad range of demonstrable health benefits to animals and replace the need for synthetic feed-additives and antibiotics.  Carefully chosen for their micro and macro ingredients, the seaweeds used in our portfolio of blends are a concentrated source of natural bioactive compounds, vitamins, minerals and anti-methanogenics.  

By supporting gut health and promoting the development of a healthy microbiome, Nutri-San seaweed supplements strengthen animals' immune systems and promote health and well-being.  We currently have formulas for cattle (dairy and beef), swine, shrimp, poultry, equine and pets.  In addition, we are developing a product for methane reduction in cattle.  As a potent greenhouse gas, methane has a warming potential 28 times that of carbon dioxide.  Globally, methane emissions from livestock enteric fermentation make up c.8-10% total greenhouse gas emissions (CGIAR, 2020).

At the macro level Nutri-San's solution is targeted at serving the broadest possible population.   We take a 'One Health' approach and the interrelated nature of animal and human health, together with the 'health' of our shared ecosystem, is at the heart of our understanding of 'whose lives' our solution is working to improve.  

Our immediate clients are feed manufacturers and livestock producers but those whom we ultimately serve are to be found at the very end of the value chain:  global consumers.  Each one of us is increasingly impacted by the threats posed by climate change and disease resistance to antibiotics and we are committed to addressing the needs of all consumers.  

In the developed world - where more people have the luxury of choice - consumers increasingly want to know about the provenance and 'story' of their food:  where it comes from, how it is produced and whether these processes are ethical and environmentally sustainable.  Some can afford to chose to buy organic or sustainably produced food.  However, in developing countries the majority of consumers are underserved and do not have the economic means or the opportunity to exercise an entitlement to look for options that are sustainable over low-cost.  

The key upside of Nutri-San's solution is that it is cost effective within the food chain; allowing food consumption by consumers in both developed and developing countries to be more sustainable without impacting on ability either to purchase food, or to look for cheaper, less sustainable, alternatives.  

At another level, our solution serves those communities where our seaweed biomass is harvested and processed.  By providing employment in our harvesting, cultivating and manufacturing locations we seek to make meaningful improvements in the lives of indigenous people - often in the most marginalized areas; those areas which have suffered most from climate change, damage to local ecosystems and the decline in biodiversity.  

Significantly, women tend to dominate the seaweed sector.  In Zanzibar for example, the seaweed industry has historically been a vital source of employment and at its peak in 2019 employed 23,000 islanders; 90% of them women.  Today the industry on the island has been decimated by climate change:  warmer oceans and increased acidification have had disastrous effects.  

It is no small irony that seaweed itself can play an important part in reversing the effects of climate change - not only by permanently sequestering carbon (up to 20x more carbon per acre than land forests), but also when processed into a methane-reducing animal feed supplement.  By reinvigorating the seaweed industry in Zanzibar - where Nutri-San plans to cultivate and farm the anti-methanogenic red seaweed asparagopsis taxiformis  - our aim is to provide an important, durable, economic opportunity with the potential to provide livelihoods for all and to improve gender inequality and self-sufficiency for women in particular.

When deciding on a suitable location to farm seaweed we take a number of factors into account that combine 'best production' and 'regeneration' dimensions with engagement:

1.  Access to sufficient coastline (with the necessary backing from local authorities) and a marine environment that is conducive to the growth of the seaweed species we require.  It is important to note that we use native species avoiding potentially negative impacts from introducing non-native species within fragile local ecosystems.

2.  An adequate supply of labor at a cost that is affordable - ideally in parts of the world where income-generating opportunities for impoverished communities are most needed, particularly by women. 

3.  Engaging women (and other excluded groups) e.g., by having plans in place which enable them to exercise their entitlement to work.  In the case of women this may include childcare considerations / timing of work / educational opportunities for themselves and household members. This includes creating opportunities to hear women's voices and take into account their opinions and needs.  It is by listening to women that we will understand how we can work in partnership to facilitate their ability to work.

Nutri-San uses natural seaweeds sourced from marginalized coastal communities in developing countries.  Global demand for Nutri-San's products will promote economic activity in these communities, regenerate the  seaweed industry and address income gender inequality in local populations. Nutri-San ensures that its seaweed supply is harvested in a sustainable manner, that improves marine life and supports the fragile ecosystem.  A 'virtuous circle' is created whereby sustainable harvesting allows greater volumes of seaweed to be collected; resulting in improved income levels for local communities.  Harvesters are incentivized to work sustainably in order to maintain the resilience of their environment and source of income.

Nutri-San was established in 2017.  

Since then the company has: 

• Established a fully operational factory outside Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
• Developed commercially viable and proven formulations for cattle, swine, poultry, shrimp, equine and pets.
• Created sustainable supply chains across Vietnam, Indonesia and The Philippines.
• Sold product to customers in Hong Kong, Thailand and China.
• Formed unique partnerships with world-leading universities (RMIT, Australia; RAU, UK), as well as with commercial and non-commercial organizations that share our vision such as Kelpi, a company that produces bioplastics from seaweed, and the Safe Seaweed Coalition.
• Been accredited as a dot eco company and applying for Pending B Corp status.
• Established Nutri-San UK as a vehicle for Non-Asian operations.
• Undertaken successful small-scale trials yielding very positive results and sales. 

Nutri-San is currently seeking Series A funding to complete more extensive scientific trials, further develop the core business in Asia and initiate the Zanzibar project.

Nutri-San's solution takes a highly innovative approach to commercializing and scaling seaweed technology at the volume and consistency required to deliver meaningful benefits globally.  As well as conducting rigorous scientific validation and commercial trials, Nutri-San places equal emphasis on the development of a sustainable supply chain in order to procure the quantity and quality of seaweed biomass required for the products within our portfolio.  

The use of seaweed to deliver health improvements is not new.  There is a history of small-scale seaweed production in indigenous coastal communities around the globe.  Recently, science-led companies have taken a 'lab and tank' approach to product development; focusing on developing 'secret formulas' and cultivating seaweeds in tanks.  Such endeavors have been limited by their scale and inability to bring animal supplements to market in a commercially viable way.

In contrast, Nutri-San's uses wild seaweed, sourced throughout Asia and harvested by communities where this is a traditional industry.  These communities have the know-how and technology to work sustainably with the environment; carefully managing the marine ecosystem to deliver seaweed at volume.  

Our plans to farm seaweed off the coast of Zanzibar (and potentially in disused salt pans on the island) involves a high degree of innovation.  In partnership with British Wool, we are developing a new technology to replace the polypropylene typically used as rope on which seaweed is cultivated, with wool.  If successful, we aim to replicate the 'Zanzibar model' in other geographies.  This replication has the potential for significant impact on livelihoods.

In order to answer this question we need to distinguish between those whom we are directly and indirectly serving. 

Nutri-San is directly serving coastal communities across The Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam.  Currently harvesters and workers in our collection and manufacturing hubs amount to a figure in the hundreds.  In one year we anticipate that this number to be in the thousands.  In five years and with the potential to expand and scale, we would anticipate this figure to be in the tens of thousands.  

If we take Zanzibar as an example, we know that at its peak in 2019 the seaweed industry employed 23,000+ islanders and that 90% of these workers were women.  If we then consider the number of household members - in particular children - who benefit from the employment opportunities generated by our solution, the number increases exponentially.

If we consider the indirect population whom we serve, and we use the lens of the entire value chain as the optic through which we view it, we have the following:  from seaweed harvesters through to feed manufacturers and on to livestock farmers, food manufactures and retailers until we finally reach consumers.  As we move through the value chain we gain increasing opportunities to serve people.  And as we start to sell product we will have a meaningful impact on many more lives.  Therefore we believe from year one to five we have the potential to transition from serving millions of people in Y1, to tens of millions by Y5.

To measure progress towards goals, a range of indicators is required e.g., 

G3  Good health  By measuring mortality rates in under fives and neonatal children.  In communities we serve in Vietnam, antimicrobial resistance has passed from mother to child; reaching levels at which critically ill infants and hospitalized neonatal children are not responding to antibiotic treatment.  Improvements in mortality rates for those treated with therapeutic antibiotics would indicate less antimicrobial resistance in the community.  There is evidence that the source of antimicrobial resistance in Vietnam is medicated feed in pig and poultry (Nguyen et al, 2016), and aquaculture (FAO and Van Long, 2017).

G8 Decent work for all  By measuring average hourly earnings of female and male by occupation, age and persons with disabilities.  

G13 Climate change  By measuring the number of less developed countries and small island states that we work with, specifically building capacity to manage climate change through regenerative seaweed aquaculture, providing opportunities for women and marginalized people.

Specific indicators also include:

• Measuring methane and nitrate emission reduction per animal after using Nutri-San products.  This can be broadly extrapolated onto general farming population.
• Measuring amount of carbon sequestrated as a result of cultivating seaweed.

G5 Gender equality By measuring the number of women employed directly and indirectly by Nutri-San.

G12 Responsible consumption By measuring the proportion of worldwide feed using Nutri-San's solution.

G14 Life below water  By measuring biodiversity improvements / reduction in plastic contamination resulting from new wool technology in areas where Nutri-San cultivates seaweed.

Full-time staff:  3  (Chief Executive Officer, Chief Finance Officer, Communications Director).

Part time staff: 8  (4 Academic team + 4 Advisors)

Others:  15 (Part-time team in factory Vietnam)

Supply chain partners:  Hundreds (2 Country Leads + teams of hundreds of harvesters).  

Our team has the skills, background and experience that uniquely position us to deliver our solution.  

The team has strong technical skills:  manufacturing and engineering experience; animal husbandry, veterinary and nutritional expertise; financial and legal expertise; strong academic credentials and business skills and acumen.

Nutri-San CEO, San Chau is a chartered engineer with 10+ years' experience in the seaweed sector.  San has worked as COO and CEO for a competitor where he developed an innovative technology to pellet and process seaweed.  He has a deep knowledge of seaweed harvesting communities across Asia and has visited these communities repeatedly for over a decade; establishing strong working relationships with our harvesters.  San is an experienced deal-maker with extensive experience in bringing together stakeholders and inspiring teams.  

He is supported by Andrew Vallis, a highly experienced CFO who has a legal as well as financial background and acts as key business partner and advisor.  Andrew is based in Vietnam, where Nutri-San has its manufacturing center. Our Communications Director, Dr Michelle Marin Chau, has an academic and business background and has lived and worked in developing countries across the globe from Cuba to Vietnam.  She has a background in ethnographic research at the community level.

As a small business we have built an advisory team around our core executives and developed strategic scientific and business partnerships to increase our skill-set and enable us to deliver our solution.  Team members have lived/worked in developing countries and our own backgrounds are representative of those we serve.

We are committed to the core values of equality, diversity and inclusion.  As a team we represent a diverse background in terms of gender, ethnicity, race and cultures.  Wherever possible, we take decisions collectively and after consultation, and we treat each other as equals and with integrity and respect.  

Our approach to building a leadership team is echoed throughout every part of our business.  As we expand and scale, we are committed to recruiting more women and people of diversity to our team - be that on the basis of ethnicity, age, race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability or ancestry.  We have a target of 50:50 parity for men:women by 2030.  As an equal opportunities employer we value the contribution that each individual makes and celebrate the strength that comes from diversity.

We acknowledge indigenous people as guardians of their ecosystems. At the earliest opportunity and within the next five years, it is our goal that they should be represented within our core team.  

We are privileged to work with communities who have a deep knowledge and understanding of their environment.  We acknowledge traditional practice within harvesting and cultivating seaweed and value ancestral innovations and technologies equally with 'new science.'

Our Feed.Flourish.Future philosophy underpins our mission to provide safe and natural feed ingredients enabling animals and humans to flourish while protecting our planet now and for the future.  The idea of 'flourish' relates to our own team:  to flourish we must be diverse, equitable and inclusive. 

We would welcome funding but what inspired us to apply to Solve is Solve's ability to broadcast the message of our solution to a wide yet highly relevant audience.  Nutri-San's message is summarized by our 'feed-flourish-future' philosophy and our aim to bring impactful health and environmental feed solutions to market at scale, creating new livelihood opportunities in harmony with the natural environment and enabling people, animals and our planet to flourish now and in the future. 

As a 'for profit' business we aim to deliver value to shareholders.  We also believe passionately in the need to address the problems our solution intends to mitigate.  We believe businesses can, and should, combine sustainable and profitable prosperity with environmental and ethical purpose to deliver impact whilst turning a profit.  Neither is more important, but to achieve one without the other would be to 'achieve' without success.  To do both, requires visibility at the international level.  

Solve would provide a platform and a network of support that would enable us to scale at speed and with the right partners.  From the beginning, we have 'punched above our weight' and have been privileged to attract advisors of the highest caliber to our team and to partner with world-leading organizations.  We need to continue this trend to 'go big.'  Solve would enable us to do so.  To scale our business and expand we will require further funding together with the continuing creation and development of new and existing partnerships at the national and global levels.

We particularly need support in monitoring and evaluating.  We recognize that in order to assess the impact of our goals, as well as the efficacy of our solution, we need to monitor and evaluate our solution's impact using appropriate quantitative and qualitative tools together with scalable and verifiable monitoring and data collection.  This is essential for us to track ecosystem conditions (e.g., biodiversity; carbon stocks etc.,) as well as productivity gains in livestock and environmental benefits (e.g., methane reduction; mitigation of nitrate contamination) delivered by our products.  In addition, monitoring societal and environmental factors as per our SDG impact indicators is key.     

Additionally, with a view to product distribution, we hope to gain traction and acquire clients in North America in order to expand our business in this key global market.  Again, we anticipate that Solve could help as to facilitate this we need to partner with organizations that can assist us both in developing our network and distributing our product.  Our strategy is to focus initially on the North American market, but with a view to expansion throughout the Americas.  Commercial partners and distributors are vital for us to serve clients across the region - and globally.  Solve would enable us to position ourselves favorably with potential partners and gain access to networks in regions where we currently do not have relationships or traction.  

We are keen to establish a scientific research partnership with MIT.  We have developed partnerships in Europe/Africa with The Royal Agricultural University (UK) and in Asia/Australasia with The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT).  We would now like to conduct large-scale scientific trials in North America to validate results we have obtained in smaller-scale farm trials in other regions of the world.  In addition, we would like to explore new product development opportunities.  To engage clients in the region and build credibility it is important that robust trial results are available for Nutri-San products that have been undertaken by an organization recognized as a global center of excellence and a pioneer in sustainability.  There is no better organization in this respect than MIT and we would be privileged to form a scientific partnership with faculty.

We are also extremely interested to learn from the experiences of the broader Solve Members team community.  By understanding how other solutions have scaled, and the challenges and opportunities that they have encountered at a similar stage in their businesses development, we believe that our own solution could be advanced e.g., Green Keeper Africa and Eesavyasa are Solvers from whose experiences we believe we could learn.

We believe that we are qualified to for this prize as we assist in creating safe and sustainable livelihoods for some of the most marginalized communities around the world - particularly in coastal areas - and for those who are most marginalized within these communities.  We are committed to equitable and inclusive practices that enable each and every individual to flourish.   

If successful, we would use this prize to assist with the cost of funding of scientific trials and to enable us to invest in supply chain development in our harvesters' communities.

Our solution is targeted towards improving the lives of women in some of the most marginalized coastal communities globally.  Seaweed harvesting and cultivation has traditionally been a source of employment for many indigenous women.  In Zanzibar 90+% of harvesters are women and this pattern is repeated in other areas e.g., Vietnam, The Philippines and Indonesia.  In partnership with British Wool, Nutri-San is developing a new technology which enables us to replace the polypropylene ropes on which seaweed is typically grown with ropes made of wool.  As a natural marine-safe and biodegradable material, wool is a good candidate as a replacement.  In addition, it is cheap - wool prices for 'mountain wool' are low (c. GBP 0.15 per kg in UK).  

This innovative new technology will directly impact women.  It combines new science with the traditional practices and knowledge of natural materials used in the cultivation of seaweed before the advent of plastics.  In addition, memories of the richness of the marine ecosystem prior to degradation by modern practices have been handed down and are held by the women within coastal communities.  These indigenous understandings should inform our work today.  The voices of women seaweed harvesters are an important source of knowledge within this project and critical to its success. 

We would use this prize to contribute to the cost of scientific trials and prototype trials in Zanzibar.  If we are successful we have the potential to reinvigorate and industry on the island that can employ over 20,000 women. 

Seaweed has the ability to capture and store carbon through the process of sequestration.  Globally seaweeds are estimated to sequester nearly 200 million tones of CO2 every year and when the macro-algae dies, much of the carbon locked up in its tissues is transported to deep oceans.  Moreover, no fertilizers, pesticides, fresh water or land are used in its production processes.  It is our belief that seaweed technology is central to enable us to achieve net zero.  At Nutri-San we use a range of seaweed species to produce 100% natural animal feed supplements that improve animal health and well-being (and as a consequence, human health) and deliver methane-reducing benefits to livestock production.  Ruminant livestock can produce 250 to 500L of methane per day per animal.  Globally cattle produce c.80 million metric tons of methane annually - a major contributor to global green house gasses.  A type of red seaweed asparagopsis taxiformis is known to reduce methane emissions in livestock by c.82%.  Our seaweed technology has a triple win effect:  it reduces methane emissions in ruminants that contribute to GHGs; it replaces the need for synthetic antibiotics in animal feed thereby mitigating antimicrobial resistance and by cultivating seaweeds we sequester carbon.

Nutri-San's business model involves scale and replication.  We aim to replicate best practice and connect the seaweed producing communities we work with to develop, share, replicate best practices for Carbon absorption and decarbonization.

We would use the The ServiceNow Prize to enable us to fund further scientific trials.

Nutri-San's solution provides an innovative and sustainable approach to tackling some of the most pressing issues in local communities.  The coastal communities we serve have seen the fragile ecosystems (coastal and ocean) on which they depend for livelihoods and for resources decimated by problems that originate at the global level:  climate change, increasing acidification of the ocean, contamination from run-off and plastic pollution that harms marine life.  The effects of these problems have not been limited  to the environment.  They have also impacted economic well-being and security; contributing to poverty where livelihoods in aquaculture, fishing or tourism have been decimated.  Nutri-San recognizes the interconnected nature of these issues aims to provide a sustainable solution that will enable ecosystems and local economies to thrive.  

We provide communities with safe, sustainable, employment in a sector which has traditionally been at the heart of coastal livelihood strategies:  seaweed harvesting and cultivation.  Across South East Asia and on in Zanzibar we work with local producers who provide the biomass Nutri-San requires for the production of seaweed-blend animal feed supplements.  In order to cultivate seaweed without contributing to the problem of plastic pollution we are developing a technology in partnership with British Wool to replace the polypropylene ropes on which seaweed is typically grown with an alternative made from wool (marine safe, biodegradable and a safe habitat for marine life).  We would use the prize to continue this research; particularly to conduct prototype trials in Zanzibar.  We intend to replicate this technology throughout our operations.