Appointed Ambassador for Project Zero

In a major collaborative effort to bring its work in marine conservation to our town, Project Zero has appointed MICHELIN Chef Massimo Falsini as an Ambassador. Massimo is the Chef-Partner of Caruso’s Restaurant at the Rosewood Miramar Beach. He has proven to be a dedicated environmentalist, taking that commitment into his kitchens with sustainable sourcing and respectful repurposing of food waste throughout his career in the culinary arts. At Caruso’s, he has maintained one MICHELIN star and one MICHELIN Green Star since 2022, with the restaurant receiving multiple sustainability awards, including Smart Catch Ambassador, FishChoice, and Ocean Wise partnerships. Falsini joins a growing group of diverse ambassadors including Shark Lab Director at CSU Long Beach Dr. Chris Lowe,surfer Laird Hamilton, founder of the Green Teen Team, Princess Theodora of Liechtenstein,andmarine biologist at the Great Barrier Reef Jacinta Shackleton.

The announcement and ocean info-celebration were held at Caruso’s on Friday, October 18 at a private event. Here, the caviar and champagne were second to the important conversation I had with Project Zero’s CEO Michele Clarke, for our readers. Project Zero was founded by Mick Jagger’sson James Jagger, Keith Richard’sdaughter Alexandra Richards, Ronnie Wood’s son Tyrone Wood, along with their board members – Kendall Conrad, John de Neufville, Michelle Edelman, Samuel Horne, and Jeremy Lindblad. 

Project Zero creates revenue streams to fund scientists and organizations that protect and preserve ocean and marine life via celebrity and luxury brand collabs to raise awareness. One of its first brand fundraisers was in NYC 2017, with luxury skin care line La Mer and 54 celebrities who created ocean wave sculptures placed around NYC’s five boroughs. The sculptures were auctioned at Paddle8 with funds directed to La Mer’s Blue Heart Oceans Fund x Project Zero. Artists included Julian Schnabel, Cara Delevingne, Bruce Weber, Sienna Miller,and Vivienne Westwood.

I asked Michele Clarke how it all started. She explained, “What happened was, I had a production company in NYC doing advertising. We were working on a major project for Heineken all over the world. While we were in Ho Chi Minh City, I saw a researcher I knew who said he was working on ocean conservation. What he told me made me aware of the issues, and scared. I then worked with scientists to find out how a non-marine biologist person [me] could help. Project Zero came out of that, with two major insights; I was not alone in my lack of awareness about the issue, and of the total global philanthropy, 3% goes to the environment, and ocean conservation gets 6% of that, so it’s critically underfunded. We created an organization that looked and felt like a brand, creates ambassador experiences people enjoy, and gives us a platform to have those discussions and get resources to the people doing the work [scientists]. The Coral Collective [started] because I got an email from the United Nations about 18 months ago saying they love what we do, coral reefs are in crisis, and we need to engage the public. The Coral Collective is a multi-year campaign of Project Zero through 2030. Its funding goal is $5 million by end of 2024, and $100 million by 2030. We will host a series of art exhibitions and a concert movie – timed with the next 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice – to raise funds for the U.N. Fund for Coral Reefs, the G-20’s Coral Research and Development Accelerator Platform, and the International Coral Reef Initiative. Combined, we are the largest collective to preserve coral reefs.”

Following our conversation, the event program commenced with Chef Massimo. He talked about his concerns for the environment and in food service, how fortunate he is to be supported by Rick Caruso so he can buy food for the menu from local fishermen and small farms who use sustainable practices (see video of his speech on the MJwebsite with this story).

Rebecca Albright, PhD, Assistant Curator of Invertebrate Zoology at the California Academy of Sciences, presented a video and talked about her work on coral reefs. In her science lab, she was able to simulate the natural habitat for coral reef propagation, becoming the first lab in the U.S. and the second globally to do so. Her team just set up in Honduras where they can re-wild the coral reefs grown in the lab. Albright was followed by Clarke, who thanked the guests for their support, and Kendall Conrad shared, “Bringing the Coral Collective to Santa Barbara marks an important step in uniting key communities with a shared purpose of saving our coral reefs, and represents the power of communities coming together to make a real difference for our oceans.” 

Seen at the private event were David Cameron, Nathan Turner and Eric Hughes, Jordana Brewster, Belle Hahn and Richard Scibird, Mark and Alexis Abrahams, Jennifer Smith, Lisa Lloyd, Paul and Jane Orfalea, and Kenny and Elizabeth Slaught.  

411:Social – @coral_global
www.weareprojectzero.org