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[Got Waste Shark?] Richard Hardiman, Founder and CEO of Netherlands-based RanMarine Technology, discusses his innovative approach to cleaning up water born plastics. The “Waste Shark” is an autonomous water vessel that gobbles up unwanted contamination from the surface of oceanic, river, lake, and marina waters.
ABOUT RICHARD HARDIMAN & RANMARINE TECHNOLOGY
Richard, whose father is an engineer and whose mother is an artist, embodies the combination of creativity and technical precision that is so essential to innovating solutions for ecosystem restoration, environmental clean-up, and planetary healing. In addition to collecting and consolidating plastics for proper disposal, the Waste Shark is also capable of collecting unwanted algal blooms as well as critical environmental data from the marine environments it patrols (turbidity, acidity, oxygenation, etc.). With cellular, GPS, satellite connectivity and top-mounted LIDAR imaging technology capable of capturing images in 360 degrees around the vessel, the Waste Shark is also an important autonomous data gathering node in the global webwork of environmental monitoring devices. The technology can also be used in the vicinity of wind farms and other offshore energy infrastructure to monitor for a variety of environmental impacts.
Under Richard’s leadership, RanMarine is developing a larger Mega Shark device, and is also developing oil-spill cleanup capabilities for its robots. The company provides its technology solutions to municipalities, state departments, hotels and golf courses, and even customers like Disney and Universal in Orlando, Florida to help clean up the debris from their daily fireworks shows.
And, speaking of Florida, the technology is also useful in the cleanup of hurricane aftermath and other environmental catastrophes that release even greater amounts of plastics and other pollution into the world’s rivers, lakes, and oceans.
Richard Hardiman is the founder and CEO of RanMarine Technology, a Netherlands based USV (Unmanned Surface Vessels) company. A graduate of the GSB, Cape Town, Richard has been involved in a number of businesses, both as startups and scale ups since graduating in 2009. In 2016 Richard embarked on his most ambitious project yet, developing a water-borne drone that harvest plastic waste from the world’s ports, harbors, rivers and marinas in an effort to reduce the effects of plastic pollution on the Earth’s oceans.
Richard’s company, based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands now produces the WasteShark, which has been exported globally to USA, UAE, India, Germany and South Africa. Added to the WasteShark’s ability to collect waste, RanMarine has now also pioneered the collection of live data from water-borne drones, to measure water heath quality.
Not only has RanMarine Technology been able to disrupt the largely staid and closed environment of Maritime industry and has been able to use its technology to increase awareness around data in the sector. While it has by no means been a linear journey to success, Richard and his team have managed to create a business around new environmental innovation and at the same time be both commercially and environmentally successful; Richard believes this is one of the team’s greatest achievements, commercial success based on doing good for the environment globally.
Richard divides his time between Cape Town, South Africa and Rotterdam, The Netherlands as the business expands into new markets.
Richard is a former journalist, broadcaster and Tedx speaker. Recently Richard became the recipient of the international AACSB Business Schools most Influential Leaders Honoree award in the category of CSR and Sustainability.
LINKS, RESOURCES & RELATED EPISODES
Podcast Episode #94 – Tom Chi, At One Ventures
Podcast Episode #65 – Eric Lombardi, Social Enterprise & Protecting the Commons
Podcast Episode #52 – Emilie McGlone, Peace Boat US
Richard on TedX Capetown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raYsXOJf8fc
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/ranmarine/
Facebook –https://www.facebook.com/RanMarineTechnology
Twitter – https://twitter.com/RanMarineTech
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/ranmarinetechnology/
YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUggTYkPKwEaKKbC_IE8iTw
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