For the maritime heroes of Harbor Seal Team 7 (a name our Mars Associate passengers and crew members jokingly dubbed themselves in honor of the area’s harbor seals), the mission was both professional and personal: Protect and preserve our oceans.
The team sailed aboard the research vessel, American Promise, to multiple remote islands off the coast of Maine. But the task at hand was more serious: remove trash from the waters around these islands. Next, record every bit of debris, and keep it from landfill by recycling, upcycling or sending to local waste-to-energy plants. Then, educate 5 to 17-year-olds about marine debris(Opens a new window), how it impacts human health and the environment, and inspire them to develop solutions. Last, conduct community outreach with a local business(Opens a new window) that creates art from recycled materials.
It was all part of the Mars Ambassador Program(Opens a new window), or MAP, which gives Associates the opportunity to step away from their jobs to work on a special project that puts the Mars Purpose – "The world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today" – in action.
Our MAP assignments take Associates all over the world for up to six weeks. This particular assignment involved two groups of Associates partnering with the Rozalia Project(Opens a new window), which protects and cleans the ocean using technology, innovation, solutions-based research and engaging STEM programs.
“It was the trip of a lifetime and I don’t use that description lightly,” says Robin Florio, Regional Retail Manager for our Pet Nutrition business. “We came away knowing we’d truly made a difference – for little fish, whales, harbor seals, all the marine life in the area. At a time when the planet badly needs our help, it’s rewarding to work for a company that’s taking real action.”
During the two, week-long assignments, our Associates lived, laughed, sailed and set out on their clean-up expeditions from their 60-foot floating home. And the amount of trash they collected was staggering: more than 2,000 pounds – everything from old lobster traps to plastic bottles, and even clothing.
From their crew, our Associates also learned about the extent of marine pollution globally and the ripple effect it has on people, pets, and the entire planet. For example, as much as two-thirds of the world’s fish have ingested microplastics and other toxins, which harm their reproductive systems. Meanwhile, billions of people worldwide rely on fish for food, and fish is a key ingredient in pet food. So the ingestion of harmful substances extends to us and our pets, while the fish supply is shrinking.
With a problem this daunting, “eco-anxiety” – the chronic feeling of environmental doom – is on the rise. The good news is that bringing our oceans back to full health is not a lost cause. Here at Mars, for example, we’re dedicated not only to pollution cleanup, but to rebuilding our oceans(Opens a new window), and improving our packaging(Opens a new window) so it never finds its way into the ocean at all.
“My biggest takeaway from our MAP assignment was the need to be optimistic,” says MAP ambassador McKenzie Beaver, an Associate Brand Manager for Mars Petcare. “Humans are the ones putting trash into the environment and we’re the ones who can find solutions. Change won’t happen overnight, but the more we each make an effort to learn, educate others and take action, the sooner we’ll have a healthy planet.”
