Middle East Opportunities: Restoring the Reefs of the UAE
A total of 320 organisations from more than 46 countries and regions pledged to start making disclosures based on the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) framework in September 2023. Among these 320 pioneers, seven were from Hong Kong. While six of these were big established players – Henderson Land Development, Chinachem Group, Sino Land, Swire Properties, Vitasoy and Towngas – the seventh, Archireef was just a startup at the time.
Recognising the importance of nature to sustainable economic growth and the crucial role businesses can play in conserving biodiversity, the TNFD was formed to provide recommendations and guidance on disclosures with regard to naturerelated risks and opportunities. Its remit extends to supporting the global effort to reverse degradation in the natural environment caused by human activity and climate change. Very much aligning with this, Archireef, as its name suggests, is primarily focused on maintaining, preserving and restoring the world's coral reefs as well as other degraded marine ecosystems in order to build climate resilience and adaption.
At present, wellmanaged reefs provide food for 1.2 billion people globally, generate US$36 billion from ecotourism and help save up to US$272 billion on coastal protection each year, according to The Nature Conservancy. However, studies have found that the coverage of living coral on reefs feel by around 50% over the halfcentury since 1957, while existing coral reef habitats could be entirely eliminated by 2100 due to rising sea temperatures and acidic waters.
An HKU spin-off
Archireef is an HKU (The University of Hong Kong) spinoff startup that prides itself on providing an innovative means of restoring coral reefs – the world’s first 3Dprinted reef tiles made from clay. The company was founded in 2020 by Vriko Yu, a PhD student in Biological Sciences at HKU, and her supervisor David Baker, now Archireef’s Chief Scientist Officer. The Innovative solution they developed emerged from their experience of restoring coral reefs along Hong Kong’s Sai Kung coast.
Archireef's Reef Tiles serve as new substrates for corals to grow upon. Each tile consists of a biomimicry layer that coral can latch onto while it adapts to this new environment. The tiles are mounted on 3Dprinted legs that can be adjusted to the seabed’s terrain and are deployed on the seabed by a team of divers, without the need for heavy machinery. The Reef Tiles are made from clay that will eventually integrate harmlessly in the ocean once they have served their purpose. This restoration method is four times more efficient than conventional approaches, according to Archireef. This sees it achieving 95% coral survivorship in three years and 40% biodiversity enhancement within six months.
A vital component of the solution is 3D printing technology as the size of the biomimicry layers has to be algorithmically calculated depending on the species and size of the coral. To achieve success here, the company relied on 3Dprinting techniques derived from HKU's Faculty of Architecture, which ensures that the Reef Tiles designs can be customised to match locations featureing a variety of different terrains, coral species and environments.
One of the most significant initial challenges at inception for the startup's management team was its comparative lack of entrepreneurial experience. Over time, it managed to leverage Hong Kong's comprehensive talent and commercial expertise networks as it set out to remedy this. By utilising HKU's training and mentorship programme, Vriko met her future CoFounder, Deniz Tekerek, who provided valuable business advice and now serves as Archireef's Chief Commercial Officer.
Global talent
Detailing the elements she sees as having played a key role in the success of the startup, Vriko singles out Hong Kong's access to global talent as the most decisive. Expanding upon this, she says. “Hong Kong has a strong international network and, therefore, a real ability to attract foreign talent. Within our 10strong, Hong Kongbased R&D team, for instance, we have Chinese, British, American and French researchers.”
“Overall, Hong Kong's R&D capability is really quite strong. In fact, the city is home to many of the leading universities and scholars in our field.”
In support of this, according to QS Top Universities Rankings for 2024, three of the top 10 Asian universities in environmental sciences are located in Hong Kong.
Expanding into Abu Dhabi
Global recognition for Archireef's innovative solution came quickly. In 2022, this led Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company (ADQ), an active sovereign investor driving growth and prosperity for Abu Dhabi, to collaborate with Archireef on marine biodiversity conservation, such as coral reef restoration, seawall regeneration and citizen science in the UAE.
Prior to this, in 2017, it had been reported that the UAE had lost 70% of its coral when local water temperatures topped 37oC. Of this remnant, only 4050% then survived a subsequent bleaching event in 2021. Given that both Hong Kong and the UAE have subtropical climates, Archireef's existing solution was seen as ideally suited to help remedy the problem.
Given the scale of the opportunity and thanks to ADQ's support, Archireef subsequently opted to expand its manufacturing base into the country.
Explaining the move, Vriko said: “Setting up a manufacturing base in Abu Dhabi was purely a business decision. The UAE boasts well-developed infrastructure, a business friendly environment, and favourable investment incentives. ADQ in particular has played a key role in our success, connecting us to its portfolio companies and also having referred important clients and partners, helping us accelerate our growth in the region.”
“The availability of talent in the UAE also helped make it the ideal location for our manufacturing headquarters. We have a highly internationalised team of 30 individuals representing 16 nationalities, with about 20 of them now based in the UAE. The team enjoys living and working in this highly internationalised society, which is very much like Hog Kong.”
Spelling out the other advantages offered by the facility, she said: “At present, our Reef Tiles are produced at our 500 sq. metre site in the Khalifa Industrial Zone. Manufacturing there has also helped us mitigate environmental impact from our production with a solar powered facility.”
“By producing Reef Tiles in Abu Dhabi and going straight to the project site, we have been able to reduce our carbon footprint. This is crucial as the UAE aims to achieve netzero carbon emission status by 2050.”
In 2023, during COP28 UAE, the First Abu Dhabi Bank, the UAE’s largest bank, announced a partnership with Archireef, under the expert guidance of the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi, the Middle East’s largest environmental regulator. This partnership will see the bank fund the deployment of 400 Reef Tiles across a 100 sq. metre area off the coast of Abu Dhabi, to support the recovery process and development of underwater natural ecosystem. In essence, the triparty partnership demonstrates the demand for green projects in the region is not limited to the energy and property sectors, with many large institutions now also interested in biodiversityrelated conservation projects, be in the UAE or globally.
The Hong Kong startup has gained awareness not only in the Middle East but also among top global business leaders. Vriko was one of 13 innovators from around the globe who spoke at the World Economic Forum 2023 in Davos, presenting how Archireef can play a vital role in marine biodiversity conservation.
Having attracted interest from locales as far afield as Saudi Arabia, Japan, the US and Southeast Asia, Archireef is now committed to expanding its global footprint, while proudly offering a Hong Kongsourced solution to one of the world’s most pressing marine biodiversity challenges.
In Saudi Arabia, Archireef teamed up with the KAUST Coral Restoration Initiative to test the impact of its Reef Tiles in the Red Sea. Over 90 tiles have been deployed across three unique sites on Shushah Island, with more than 500 coral fragments from KAUST's local nurseries outplanted onto the tiles, to support coral growth and ecosystem health.
Archireef also most recently announced its expansion into Singapore through a partnership with Swire Bulk in cooperation with Singapore's National Parks Board and the Reef Ecology Lab at the National University of Singapore. Together, they have launched a coral restoration research project at Sisters' Islands Marine Park using Archireef's 3Dprinted Reef Tiles to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem resilience. This collaboration highlights the power of Naturebased Solutions in urban coastal restoration.
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