Find out why the company takes its carbon footprint seriously and how it is repairing the world’s damaged marine ecosystems

Dredging and pollutants are damaging temperate reefs and the sea floor, destroying the habitat of many sea creatures. However, ingenious artificial reef cubes from Devon company ARC Marine are providing a creative solution. Chief scientific officer Sam Hickling explains how ARC Marine is helping to repair the world’s damaged marine ecosystems and why it has made a commitment to neutralise its own greenhouse gas emissions.

Why did you ask Blue Marble to calculate your corporate carbon footprint?

It’s so important to have an idea of our total emissions as a company, not just our products. It means we can account for our carbon footprint, and allows our marketing to be watertight – no greenwashing here.

Blue Marble calculated the greenhouse gas emissions for our whole business operation, such as our office energy consumption. The ultimate goal is to neutralise our emissions, and we’re looking into that now. And of course, as fellow Devon businesses, we saw in each other a forward-thinking, sustainable company and a kindred spirit.

What are the problems affecting coral reefs? 

Coral reefs have been hit hard by ocean acidification and pollutants but, closer to home, the damage is likely to be from mechanical means. For example, scallop dredging uses metal chains to scour the sea floor and scoop up the scallops and if they go over a reef, they scrape off all soft, living organisms. Oyster reefs used to be widespread here, but have been affected by bottom-towed fishing gear being pulled along the seabed. 

What is ARC Marine’s solution?

Company founder and diver Tom Birbeck had seen the damage done by trawlers in Lyme Bay and Torbay. He looked at ways to counter this and decided the best solution was to integrate eco-friendly artificial reefs into engineering projects that would usually damage marine habitats. As an oceanographer, I was excited by the opportunity to build back nature while also creating restorative construction solutions.

What do reef cubes do?

They’re patented building blocks with passageways, which increase the surface area and provide a variety of habitat spaces. They also have innovative textures on their exteriors, with pits and grooves to enhance the complexity and benefit more species. A smooth surface might appeal to a couple of species, which would then monopolise that structure, but these cubes have the potential for lots of micro-habitats.

What are reef cubes made from?

Marine Crete, an alkali-activated material (AAM) which acts as a binder in place of cement and has less ecological impact. Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) has high global warming potential (GWP) due to the greenhouse gases produced during the manufacturing process.

Are the reef cubes working?

We took part in a trial in Newlyn with Kier (a leading UK construction and infrastructure services company) and the Environment Agency. The project had 22 reef cubes (including competitor products) placed around the breakwater. The idea was to encourage the uptake of this kind of technology.

We’ve published multiple peer-reviewed research papers on reef cubes based on our experimental artificial reef site. Our most recent paper found three times as many species inside reef cubes (when compared to controls), and double the amount of species around them. It also found greater diversity at all taxonomic levels in and around the reef cubes.

Follow-up research on this project is taking place this year in collaboration with the University of Plymouth. It will enable us to experiment and test how our reef cubes’ different design features work, and answer questions such as: What happens if we close off the bottom passageway? How does the artificial reef compare with natural features?

What are your target markets?

Our main markets are aquaculture, marine engineering and offshore energy. Current users include an offshore substation in the North Sea off Holland, and an innovative seaweed farm just down the road from us in Torbay. It’s great having something so close to us, as it means we have access to a trial site. Conditions are fairly mild, so we can go out and do sampling. There’s a wide variety of habitats and it’s a conservation zone, which makes it a good benchmark for our products. And it’s nice to bring this kind of business to the region, rather than just tourism.

Enjoyed reading about Arc Marine and want to know more about calculating a corporate carbon footprint and getting carbon neutral certification? Read more here.

Tim Kemp

Head of Technical

Tim holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Marine Biology and Environmental Resource Assessment. He initially specialised in land reclamation and remediation and later focused on Environmental Impact Assessments for renewable energy projects.