Mary Kay Inc. recently joined the UN Global Compact’s Ocean Stewardship Coalition—an effort to bring together the private sector alongside UN agencies, academia, governments and non-governmental organizations to address biodiversity and climate change through a focus on ocean health.
 
As a current signatory of the UN Sustainable Ocean Principles, the Ocean Stewardship Coalition furthers Mary Kay’s commitment to securing a healthy and productive ocean. The Ocean Stewardship Coalition seeks to leverage private sector involvement to increase ocean awareness and develop climate-smart innovation.
 
It also calls upon stakeholders, including business leaders, to use climate-smart policies to address environmental and climate injustices as well as adopt a human-centered approach to policy solutions.

Projects Supported by Mary Kay

In alignment with the Sustainable Ocean Principles and the Ocean Stewardship Coalition, Mary Kay supported several projects this year in partnership with The Nature Conservancy to improve ocean health through the protection and restoration of critical habitats such as coral reefs, oyster reefs, and coastal wetlands, as well as to advance women’s leadership in conversation:
 

• Restoring Asia Pacific shellfish reefs in Australia, Hong Kong, China, the Coral Triangle;
• Ensuring that coral protection and restoration efforts in the Coral Triangle Countries – Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands – are supported through conservation efforts and initiatives that positively impact the whole region;
• Supporting women environmental leaders in the Pacific in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands;
• Coastal conservation and restoration in the Gulf Coast and assessing the feasibility of blue carbon markets to support long-term wetland management; and
• Improving fisheries in Mexico to empower to empower communities and women in the fishing industry.

 
“Nature-based solution projects led by women are revolutionizing the way we protect our oceans for future generations,” said Deborah Gibbins, chief operating officer at Mary Kay. “By joining the Ocean Stewardship Coalition, Mary Kay hopes to support these projects and inspire additional women to take action in their local communities.”
 
As part of Mary Kay’s ongoing efforts to increase global ocean awareness, Mary Kay is also engaging in key ocean forums such as the Economist Impact’s World Ocean Tech & Innovation Summit, hosted by Canada’s Ocean Supercluster in collaboration with the Province of Nova Scotia and the Halifax Partnership, where innovators, business leaders, thought leaders and investors convened to learn about and engage with the latest “blue economy” innovators and technologies, and identify solutions that will form the roadmap to a sustainable, thriving ocean economy.