Dr. Henry Lovejoy is the president and founder of EcoFish Inc., the only seafood distributor in the world that sells only environmentally sustainable seafood. Along with his wife Lisa, they have striven to set an example for corporate America by aiming for the triple bottom line—operate a profitable business that is also socially and environmentally responsible. Learn more about the Lovejoy story and EcoFish at ecofish.com

Tell us a little bit about how you got started as a seafood entrepreneur.

I’ve been in the seafood industry for over 20 years. Right out of college I started a lobster exporting company. That gave my wife and me the opportunity to travel around the world and get to know the global seafood trade more intimately. We weren’t comfortable with what we learned. It’s basically a pure commodity-driven industry. It’s all about price and not about quality. I got so disgruntled with it that I thought I should pursue a new career. Then I thought maybe the best thing I could do was use a business model as leverage for change. So I went to Harvard Business School and got an MBA.

What was the initial impulse that led you to create EcoFish?

When the organics market started to explode in the late ’90s, we saw it as an opportunity to build a seafood company in this market. In 1999 we launched EcoFish and pioneered sustainability within the seafood category. Since then we’ve built a retail brand and are in over 3,000 grocery stores across the country.

Read the rest of the interview with Dr. Lovejoy by clicking on the pdf at the right.

Paul Parker has been working with Cape Cod fishermen since 1997 to restore depleted fish populations while bringing back profitable fishing businesses and communities. He is currently the director of the Cape Cod Fisheries Trust, a program of the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association.


Paul Parker has been working with Cape Cod fishermen since 1997 to restore depleted fish populations while bringing back profitable fishing businesses and communities. He is currently the director of the Cape Cod Fisheries Trust, a program of the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association.
Can you share with us your approach to establishing sustainable fisheries?
I’ve expended my career on three things: policy-based work to lobby government regulators, developing a model of community (co-op) harvesting, and reconnecting local communities back to the natural resource through permit banking. The Cape Cod Commerical Hook Fishermen’s Association is a 501 c3 that aims to protect the environment and business. The goal is to realize the triple bottom line: social, economic, and environmental benefits.
What triggered the inception of the Association?
We are a non-profit founded in 1991 in response to a crisis: fish stocks were plummeting and all types of fishing, from big industrial draggers to small skiffs, were being managed in the same way. So some modes of fishing were destroying the future viability of the resources, and we (the small scale community) were getting wiped out as a result of a lack of fish. The association came together to give voice to these small scale fishermen.

Can you share with us your approach to establishing sustainable fisheries?

I’ve expended my career on three things: policy-based work to lobby government regulators, developing a model of community (co-op) harvesting, and reconnecting local communities back to the natural resource through permit banking. The Cape Cod Commerical Hook Fishermen’s Association is a 501 c3 that aims to protect the environment and business. The goal is to realize the triple bottom line: social, economic, and environmental benefits.


What triggered the inception of the Association?

We are a non-profit founded in 1991 in response to a crisis: fish stocks were plummeting and all types of fishing, from big industrial draggers to small skiffs, were being managed in the same way. So some modes of fishing were destroying the future viability of the resources, and we (the small scale community) were getting wiped out as a result of a lack of fish. The association came together to give voice to these small scale fishermen.

Read the rest of Paul’s interview by clicking on the pdf image at right.



After serving as an assistant professor of biology at the University of Connecticut Marine Laboratory, Dr. Mark Powell moved full-time into conservation work. As both an independent consultant and throughout his 9 years with Ocean Conservancy, Dr. Powell’s work has emphasized building productive solutions to vexing natural resource problems. We sat down to ask him some questions about his work.

How did you develop your philosophy around sustainability?

When we started in 1999, we had pretty good national law, but we had many fisheries managers that, from a conservation perspective, were dragging their feet. They were good at indentifying the fisheries that were in trouble, but the solutions looked intractable.

What was the problem?

Fundamentally, the problem was that most fishing fleets were too big, and there was too much pressure on the stocks. But there was no single solution that didn’t hurt someone, and managers have a hard time implementing regulation that puts someone out of business—especially when they have to choose who goes out of business.

Read the rest of Mark’s interview by clicking on the pdf image at right.

What was the problem?
Fundamentally, the problem was that most fishing fleets were too big, and there was too much pressure on the stocks. But there was no single solution that didn’t hurt someone, and managers have a hard time implementing regulation that puts someone out of business—especially when they have to choose who goes out of business.
So the managers didn’t want to look like the bad guy?
Right. It was just easier for them to let attrition pick the losers, even though this wait-and-see tactic meant that everyone was ultimately harmed to some extent economically, and more and more damage was ultimately done to the marine environment—which, in turn, meant less stable and healthy fisheri

We found ourselves a little behind schedule in November. We had hoped to be wrapping up Phase 1 of the project and getting prepared to present the final findings the week before Thanksgiving.

Instead, the discovery group research team (which consisted of a journalist and two academic environmental researchers) realized that there was much less information available online than we’d originally thought. So then it became necessary to increase the number of interviews, especially off innovators and entrepreneurs, areas where we needed much more information. As a consequence, we ended up conducting more than eighty interviews, with each one requiring additional work to turn into useful content that could be shared.

Download a list of all the people we profiled in our final Phase 1 report.

The Squiggle is a visual tool that helps you keep track of where you are in the design process. The big mess on the left is where most projects start: uncertainty with a bit of chaos. The smooth line on the right is where you eventually want to get to: clarity and focus. Click on the video at right to see how we applied the Squiggle to Future of Fish.

What happens when you combine a powerful design process with entrepreneurial thinking in an attempt to solve one of today’s biggest environmental challenges?

When Central, a process design firm, paired with Ashoka and the Packard Foundation to tackle the growing problem facing sustainable fishing, it began a unique collaboration; the outcome of which stands to impact billions of people—from the fishermen at sea, to the families who rely on fish for sustenance and livelihood, to the myriad individuals and companies in between.

This is the story of how the project was born, what progress the groups have made as they seek answers to fixing a broken industry, and the kind of thinking that goes into tackling such a monumental issue.

Still in the first phase, most of October had us gathering research through interviews and secondary research. We tapped into Ashoka’s Social Entrepreneur’s database to talk to people from around the world about local or international solutions, as well as people who’d been highlighted in industry or media.

Because so much data had been gathered, it was becoming possible to spend more time on the pattern recognition stage of this project, where we were looking for commonalities and similarities in how people had identified problems, barriers or overcome them. While sophisticated software might be useful here, we opted for using a team of exceptionally smart people to continuously question what we saw and shape it into clear patterns and insights.

Watch a short video on Cheryl Dahle explaining creating a Discovery Framework.

The first phase (of three) began on Wednesday, September 3rd with a kick-off meeting at the Packard Foundation. Internally known as Tuna, this phase was led by Cheryl Dahle and her Discovery Group at Ashoka. At the meeting we ran through the phase goals and explained the proposed calendar for the next 3-4 months.

Although much of this had been covered by the grant applications submitted earlier in the year, we were able to set up the review and working sessions so the Packard Foundation could participate in our initial research.

A majority of September’s work was focused on the interviews and research we did to gather information within the three main areas of our interest: Consumer, Fish Buyers and Fisheries.

Our plan for the end of the month was to begin creating the frameworks for each of the three areas, and then field test them in the following few weeks in October.