Eat Your Way to a Cleaner Ocean: How Social Innovation Can Make Sustainability an Everyday Habit

Have you ever stopped to think that the small, everyday habits in our lives are intimately connected to the health of our oceans? In Taiwan, where food is deeply woven into the culture, if we're willing to start making small changes at the table, we can not only satisfy our appetites but also give the ocean a fighting chance to breathe and thrive.

Since 2017, the Small and Medium Enterprise and Startup Administration (SMESA) under the Ministry of Economic Affairs has been running the "Social Innovation Products and Services Procurement Incentive Program," bringing together nearly a thousand social innovation organizations (hereafter "social enterprises") that build their business models around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

To encourage the public to embrace SDG 12 — Responsible Consumption and Production — SMESA created the "Responsible Commerce" curated brand, selecting 80 products and services annually and promoting them to consumers through the Social Innovation Selection Catalog. Among these selections are many social enterprises driving sustainable action under SDG 14 — Life Below Water. This series will take you from everyday purchasing choices to local experiences, sharing how the products and services of these social enterprises can support marine conservation.

This time, let's start with food — here are four social enterprises closely tied to our daily eating habits.

Thirsty on the Go? Just Open the App: Giveway (奉茶行動)

We've all been there — you're out and about and suddenly need to hydrate. Even if you've brought your reusable bottle, it's often hard to know where to refill it, and before you know it, you've ducked into a convenience store for a bottle of water because it's just easier.

But did you know that bottled water doesn't just generate mountains of plastic waste — it also wastes water resources and poses health risks? According to Giveway (奉茶行動), producing a single bottle of water consumes roughly 10 times the water it contains; compared to tap water, bottled water contains 22 times more microplastics; and the plastic bottles left behind take an average of 400 years to decompose.

Compared to many countries, Taiwan is already relatively easy to find water refill points. Giveway takes this a step further by digitizing information on over 13,000 water stations across the island into a map-based app. Beyond aggregating locations, the app incorporates interactive design elements to make drinking water feel rewarding — collect points for perks, earn points by checking in at different refill stations each day, and watch your environmental impact translate in real time into carbon reduction and plastic reduction data, making every eco-friendly action feel tangible.

Beyond the app, in 2024 Giveway also launched the "RF100 Initiative," aiming to partner with 100 companies before 2026 to eliminate 10 million bottles of bottled water. Through its sustainable water station program, companies can watch their bottle-reduction numbers tick up in real time on their office water dispensers, while also supporting the installation of Giveway stations in rural communities.

Giveway also promotes a "Zero-Trace Hydration Service," now a regular feature at music festivals, stadiums, and corporate events, setting up bulk-water refill stations to prevent large-scale single-use plastic waste from being generated at events.

So next time you're out and feeling thirsty, don't rush to grab a bottle — open the Giveway app, find your nearest water station, and drink your way to less plastic. Every sip counts.

Inspired by a Straw, Growing a Sustainable Path: WonderGreener (玩艸植造)

The harm caused by microplastics has spread from marine ecosystems into our own food chain. These microscopic particles are everywhere — research has even suggested that the human brain may have accumulated as much as 7 grams of microplastics. Facing this silent health crisis, we urgently need to reduce plastic use at the source.

Spotting the need for a plastic straw alternative, WonderGreener (玩艸植造) developed a 100% natural cattail grass straw. This straw doesn't just replace plastic — after use it can go straight into the food waste bin for composting, achieving 100% natural decomposition from field to end of life. On the strength of these qualities, the cattail straw has won fans not only in Taiwan but has also successfully entered markets in Europe and the Americas. To meet international demand, WonderGreener built an automated factory in Vietnam last year, scaling up production and bringing this sustainable product to a wider global stage.

WonderGreener's ambitions go well beyond producing eco-friendly straws — the company pushes the concept of circular economy to its fullest. By revitalizing idle farmland and growing cattail grass with zero pesticides, they protect terrestrial biodiversity and enhance the land's carbon sequestration capacity. The trimming offcuts generated during the straw manufacturing process are also repurposed into "grass mats." In the future, these mats will be used to "shade coral reefs," helping to restore coral bleaching caused by rising ocean temperatures. This initiative extends sustainability's reach from land to sea, allowing a humble cattail plant to create value far beyond what anyone might have imagined.

To attract more farmers into cattail cultivation, WonderGreener also offers a "Cattail Field Adoption Program." Companies can support farmers at rates better than traditional rice procurement prices, drawing in both young and veteran farmers. Under this collaboration model, every hectare of cattail field delivers 400 tonnes of carbon sequestration while protecting terrestrial biodiversity through eco-friendly farming — giving corporate sustainability efforts genuine environmental, social, and economic triple value.

Beyond the utensils we use at the table, the seafood on our plates comes not only from nearshore or deep-sea fishing, but to a very large extent from aquaculture. Taiwan's aquaculture technology is internationally renowned, and with global farmed seafood output now surpassing wild-caught production, making aquaculture more sustainable — and properly managing wastewater to prevent damage to coastal ecosystems — has become a critical challenge. Two Taiwanese social enterprises have stepped up to address this: Su Ban-zhang Worry-Free Grouper (蘇班長安心石斑) and Taiwan Good Fish (台灣好漁).

Raising the Finest Fish Through Sustainable Aquaculture: Su Ban-zhang Worry-Free Grouper (蘇班長安心石斑)

Yong'an in Kaohsiung is one of Taiwan's most important Grouper farming hubs, and within it stands a unit that places exceptional emphasis on food safety and low-carbon aquaculture: Production and Marketing Group No. 8, founded by Su Guo-zhen — known to everyone as "Captain Su" (蘇班長). In the past, the aquaculture industry often maximized profits by administering medications or cramming as many fish as possible into limited pond space. Yet this approach stunted the fish's growth and steadily threw pond ecosystems out of balance. Captain Su responded by rallying fellow fish farmers to form a production and marketing group, working together to tackle aquaculture challenges and gradually mapping out a healthier, more sustainable way of farming.

In Captain Su's ponds, the Grouper may well eat and live better than most of us do. Instead of ordinary feed pellets, they are fed whole mackerel. And the fish are said to live in air-conditioned rooms — because water quality is the key to fish farming, and Yong'an happens to host a CPC Corporation natural gas receiving terminal. During the natural gas conversion process, seawater is used for heat exchange, and the discharged water maintains a year-round temperature of 22 to 24°C — precisely the optimal range for Grouper. This stable water temperature not only supports healthy fish growth but also prevents production losses caused by extreme heat.

As awareness of food safety has grown, Captain Su has moved away from antibiotics, instead using fruit enzymes and probiotics to keep his fish healthy. This approach not only gives consumers peace of mind but also reduces pollutants in aquaculture wastewater — helping to stabilize migratory bird habitat near the Yong'an Wetlands and protecting an estimated 130 coral species in the adjacent nearshore area.

In addition, the group hosts more than a hundred fish education events every year, bringing the values of eco-friendly aquaculture into communities and schools, helping more people understand the importance of sustainable farming — and feel confident enjoying high-quality Grouper.

Protecting the Environment and Fishing Village Sustainability Through Natural Ecological Aquaculture: Taiwan Good Fish (台灣好漁)

Promoting "toxin-free ecological aquaculture" is the core mission of Taiwan Good Fish (台灣好漁). While aquaculture is one of Taiwan's key industries, it is also one that depends heavily on water resources. When water supplies run short, fishers often have no choice but to over-extract groundwater — a practice that over time causes land subsidence and soil salinization, trapping both the environment and livelihoods in a vicious cycle. Taiwan Good Fish sees not only the environmental dimension of this problem, but also the aging population and youth exodus plaguing fishing villages along Taiwan's western coast. Their goal is to pioneer new aquaculture methods that deliver lasting solutions balancing environmental protection, economic viability, and education.

Their "natural ecological aquaculture" approach has four defining features. First, to address the over-extraction of groundwater, fishers are encouraged to deepen their ponds and build rainwater storage reservoirs, achieving water conservation and storage that reduces dependence on groundwater. Second, in managing fish health, antibiotics and formaldehyde — while fast-acting — are abandoned entirely, as drug residues pose potential risks to human health and damage aquatic environments; natural rearing methods are used instead, reducing risk while being kinder to ecosystems.

Third, fish are given more space to live, lowering disease rates and keeping water quality more stable. Finally, the team applies nature's own cycles by creating a balanced multi-species pond system: water spinach grows on the surface to purify water quality; grass carp eat the vegetables and algae; black carp handle snails and mollusks; and tilapia clean up the waste left by other fish. Through this ecological chain design, the ponds maintain a healthy, self-sustaining balance — and aquaculture that truly lives up to sustainable development.

"Eating your way to a cleaner ocean" isn't just a slogan — it's something we can actually put into practice every day. Every purchase is a vote for the future you want. When you choose a cattail straw that breaks down naturally, a fish raised without toxins, or pick up your water bottle to refill it at a Giveway station, these small but consistent choices all add up to a healthier ocean.