In 2022, PADI’s partner, The Reef-World Foundation, launched Green Fins Hub, a digital platform enabling every dive operator on the planet to access tailored guidance and materials to support a more sustainable marine tourism industry. 

Check out the 35-minute Green Fins Hub demo to learn more about all the tools and opportunities available to you. One of the features you can access within the Green Fins Hub is the Community Forum. 

The Green Fins Community Forum is a space dedicated to industry discussion about environmental challenges and solutions. 

It is designed to facilitate connections between eco-conscious dive professionals and enable peer-to-peer learning 24/7, 365 days a year. 

Prior to the launch of the Green Fins Community Forum, the only way that a PADI Professional could discuss sustainability ideas with other like-minded eco advocates in the diving space was to attend events. 

Chloe Harvey, Director of The Reef-World Foundation, explains where the idea for the Community Forum came from, “For years, we were hosting sustainability sessions at big dive events like DEMA and ADEX. The sessions would come to an end, and dive professionals would always ask us, how can we continue this discussion? After some thought, we landed on the idea of an online forum and are proud to see it now come to life and be used by dive professionals all over the world.”

Keep reading for the top ways you and your team can benefit from the Green Fins Community Forum…

1. Connect with like-minded eco-conscious dive professionals from all over the world, 365 days a year

Head to the “Introduce Yourself” category and share who you are, what you do and where you’re based. You’ll find many other eco-conscious dive professionals who have already posted from as varied destinations as Germany, Thailand, Australia, United Arab Emirates, Malta, Bermuda, Mexico, USA and The Cook Islands. 

Even at major dive shows like DEMA, BOOT and ADEX, networking opportunities tend to be somewhat limited to the broad catchment of Asia, Europe/Middle East/Africa, and the Americas/Caribbean. What’s more, it’s hard – in between all the scheduled sessions – to identify the individuals who are pioneering sustainability solutions and connect with them. 

The Community Forum overcomes both of those hurdles by attracting a group of experienced dive professionals from all corners of the globe who have already demonstrated their passion and engagement in sustainability solutions. The perfect opportunity for eco-conscious networking, available via your laptop or smartphone from wherever you are, and not just for a few manic days each year. 

2. Share your environmental successes with the global industry

Visit the “SHELLebrate” category to introduce your successes to the community, and share personal stories and case studies. 

Katie from Silent World Diving Center in Florida posted “Hi everyone! We are super excited to share our NEW conservation tower. Filled with Green Fins/PADI AWARE graphics, this is a hit with our customers!”

Meanwhile, Kathleen from Al Mahara Diving Centre in Abu Dhabi posted “I must say I’m super proud of our 2 PADI Jr Divemasters – Xander and Paulina. They helped to organize and do the full logistics and briefing and invited their youth diving community for an underwater clean up. 14 youth divers and 77kg of trash was collected in Abu Dhabi waters. I encourage everyone to work with their youth community. It’s really amazing to see their continuous efforts throughout the year. #youthleaders”

Over in Switzerland, Annick from TSK wrote “We have participated in over 25 dive against debris diver courses in 2022 and taught roughly 44 students about the importance of making every dive a clean up dive.” while others come together in a discussion started by Nic from Fifth Point Diving in the UK to celebrate the achievement of PADI Eco Center and connect as a global community of environmental industry leaders. 

3. Get help from the wider Green Fins community on implementing sustainability initiatives

To address difficulties and hear how others are handling the same environmental challenges as you (or see what everyone else is tackling), check out the “Action Plan” category.

Some of the most popular issues and solutions discussed include:

Ideas for replacing Nitrox stickers or tape
Ideas for food offerings on the dive boat
How to address a reef-safe sunscreen only policy OR no sunscreen allowed
Control of Co2 emissions and pollutant gasses from the dive center’s boats
Alternatives to toxic antifouling for wooden hulls
Mooring buoys and how to get governmental approval

With the Community Forum at your fingertips, never again do you have to face an environmental challenge unassisted. There’s a whole community of others who have faced – and in some cases – overcome the very same challenges. 

Scott from Seattle Dive Tours advises “Learn from everywhere, don’t just think about the dive shop down the street, great ideas are worldwide and across multiple industries. The Green Fins Community Hub has become a fantastic and accessible center point for the sharing of different environmental ideas.”  

4. Easily share your innovative new solutions with an engaged audience

The “Solutions Library” category is another place where you can find tried and tested solutions that have already become standard practice in other dive businesses around the world. 

For example, Sabine from Germany started a feed to share what her team are doing to recycle old wetsuits, “Our ideas so far: donating (super hard here in Germany), notebook protection cases, bottle coolers and using pieces to patch other wetsuits or for Equipment Specialist courses where divers learn how to patch up holes.”

A bunch of others jumped in to share their solutions, like Scott from Seattle, “We ship our older neoprene to a company in San Diego called Suga 2 that upcycles them into Yoga Mats.” and Nic from the UK, “We also donate to our local seal hospital as they turn them into makeshift mammies for the baby seals!”. Martin from Port Douglas added “Here in Australia, we send our retired wetsuits to a company that turns them into a rubber “crumb”, that then gets put into our roads.”

Thanks to all the new ideas, Paul in Florida was inspired to make a positive new connection, “Just wanted to say that thanks to this feed we contacted our local Turtle rescue and rehab center and they were desperate for the used wetsuits and were so keen to take them off of us and reuse them to help protect the turtles in transport and rehab. So thanks for the amazing idea!”

5. Collaborate with Trusted Experts from the industry

The Trusted Experts are Green Fins partners from different NGOs, institutions, and agencies in the diving and conservation sector with whom you can discuss, consult, and ask for advice about ocean conservation issues, initiatives, and solutions. There are Trusted Experts from PADI, COBSEA, DAN that have engaged and helped the community to find solutions to their environmental challenges.

Who can access the Green Fins Community Forum? 

Every PADI Dive Center, Resort or Liveaboard who becomes a Green Fins Member has access to the Community Forum. 

As the Dive Center Manager/Owner, once you’ve registered for a Hub Personal Account and added your operation, you will receive instant access to the Community Forum. Then, you can invite the rest of your team to join you on the Hub (Instructors, Divemasters, admin staff etc.) as long as they have registered for a Green Fins Hub personal account.

Any individual dive professional can register for a Hub Personal Account. To get started with a Team Member account, register for a Green Fins Hub personal account then ask the Hub Manager at your workplace for an invite. To do this, the Dive Center Manager/Owner should log in to the Green Fins Hub, click “Edit profile and teammates > Manage Team”, and then add the email address of any registered staff member to the “Invite Other People” section. 

When/if a Team Member moves on to a new position, you will be able to unlink your account from your previous employer and relink with your new dive shop, provided they are registered Green Fins Members. As a Dive Center Manager/Owner, this means you can always keep your team up to date on the Green Fins Hub. 

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Conservation, AWARE, community, Green Fins, PADI Eco CenterPADI Pros