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Impact has a measurement problem 😕.

It can be hard enough when you’re counting litres or kilowatts, but measuring your impact when you’re restoring the ocean is next level.

A coral reef is different to a kelp forest is different to a mangrove. So how do you standardise impact so it’s easy to package up and present to funders as valuable, measurable and verifiable?

That’s where the name Seatrees was born.

One Seatree is one unit of impact that can be applied to any marine ecosystem 🪸 🐟 🐠 🐡 🦀 🐋 🪸.

One planted mangrove seed is one Seatree 🌱.

One transplanted head of coral is one Seatree 🪸.

On square foot of kelp is (you guessed it) one Seatree 🥬.

Along with exceptional storytelling and a brand new real life ‘experiential home’ called the Sea House, being able to explain Seatree’s impact in simple, relatable terms has led the nonprofit to be one of the most successful of its size in the USA.

Co-founder Michael Stewart tells the story in S2E6 of The Goodtrepreneur Podcast. 

Tune in to learn:

📚 How the Seatrees idea began

🧭 The importance of storytelling in the TikTok age

👩‍💻 What it takes to restore an ecosystem from the ground up

🎭 Why Michael’s beanie is such a crazy bright shade of pink

Then go grow a Seatree at 👉 www.seatrees.org

We gave AI a listen and here's what it had to say:

Kelp forests don’t just sit there looking pretty. They build underwater cities that lock away carbon, shelter marine life, calm coastal waters, and quietly support jobs and communities. When they vanish, the loss ripples through everything, from sea lions and whales to dive shops, fisheries and weekend camping trips that depend on a healthy coast.

I’m joined by Michael Stewart, surfer, conservation entrepreneur, and co-founder of Seatrees, to unpack what’s happening beneath the surface and why it can change so fast. We dig into the Northern California bull kelp crash, the “warm blob” marine heatwave, starfish wasting disease, and the brutal simplicity of the cascade that followed: fewer predators, more purple sea urchins, then kelp eaten down to rock. Michael explains why this is a biodiversity crisis and a climate change story at the same time, and why “nature’s infrastructure” is a better frame than abstract ecology.

Then we get into solutions you can picture. Divers removing urchins. Kelp seeding to rebuild a living seed bank. The Sunflower Star Lab working to return a missing top predator without introducing new risks. We also talk about the Seatrees model: telling the stories well, raising serious funding, and using a clear unit of measurement, the Seatree, so impact can be counted, verified and trusted across kelp restoration, mangrove restoration, coral reef restoration and more. That leads into biodiversity credits, the challenge of moving capital at scale, and why Sea House in San Diego aims to bring ocean culture, science and community action together in real life.

If you care about ocean conservation, kelp forest restoration, biodiversity, and practical climate solutions, this one will leave you with a clearer map and a bit more hope. 

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