JAVIER BARDEM HOOKED ON HELPING SAVE THE OCEAN

Bardem made a surprise appearance at a Spanish port to meet Chivas Venture alumnus Sea2see and local fishermen to see how they’re making waves in the global fight against ocean plastic waste.

Bardem made a surprise appearance at a Spanish port to meet Chivas Venture alumnus Sea2see and local fishermen to see how they’re making waves in the global fight against ocean plastic waste.

Social startup Sea2see – the Spanish winner of the 2017 Chivas Venture – upcycles ocean plastic waste collected by fishermen at Puerto de Blanes on the north-east coast of Spain and transforms it into luxury eyewear. The Oscar-winning actor and Chivas Regal ambassador jumped on board and headed out to sea with the fishermen and See2see founder, Francois Van den Abeele, to witness first-hand the threat plastic waste has on our oceans.

“I first heard about Sea2see last year at the Chivas Venture Global Final when they represented Spain in the $1m competition – it’s such a simple business model that on average is clearing an incredible one tonne of plastic waste from the ocean every day. So not only are they helping to protect our oceans, but Francois and his team are creating something beautiful out of trash. It’s pretty inspiring.” – Chivas Regal ambassador, Javier Bardem.

The Chivas Venture is a competition run by Chivas Regal that gives away $1m in no-strings funding each year to the most promising social startups from around the world. On May 24, this year’s 27 global finalists will head to TNW Conference in Amsterdam to battle it out for a chance to pitch for a share of Chivas Regal’s $1million fund. The grand finalists will have just five minutes to impress the expert judging panel - which this year includes tech entrepreneur will.i.am - with their innovative ideas and deliver the pitch of their lives.

“Social and environmental issues often seem too big to tackle, but the Chivas Venture has shown me that through passion and generosity, we can help change the world for the better. Witnessing first-hand the scale of plastic waste in the ocean has made it even more real for me – we’re all so hooked on plastic, but we can all make small changes to our lifestyle that could make a really big difference.” – Chivas Regal ambassador, Javier Bardem.

After fishing plastic bottles, bags and food containers from the sea, Javier and Francois headed to a local bar to seek out one of the worst plastic waste offenders – the plastic straw, up to an estimated 8 billion[1] of which line the world’s coastlines. In addition to supporting startups such as Sea2see, Chivas runs a number of initiatives designed to safeguard the water that is so important in whisky production, including its ‘#BarStraws’ campaign - through which it pledges to stop using single-use plastic straws and stirrers in over 100 countries, and calls on bars and cocktail lovers around the world to do the same.

Find out more about the Chivas Venture and the #BarStraws campaign at Chivas.com