The Prince of Wales picked up some mementos for his Princess of Wales at home and talked about seaweed, one of his favourite topics, as he concluded his visit to Cape Town.
Prince William, 42, took home some earrings for the Princess of Wales as he joined innovative local seaweed businesses at a coalition roundtable at Portside Tower, overlooking the city.
The South African company SeaTree Emporium made the accessories out of beach cast kelp.
Photo: © Chris Jackson/Pool/Shutterstock
Earthshot CEO Hannah Jones and Vincent Doumeizel, Founder of the Global Seaweed Coalition, Senior Advisor at UN Global Compact for Oceans, and author of ‘The Seaweed Revolution’, welcomed the Prince, who was dressed in a blue blazer from a local vintage shop in London and stopped at each stand to talk.
When presented with the French children’s book “Comment les algues peuvent sauver le monde” (How Seaweed can save the world), William remarked, “That’ll sort out my children’s French.”
“What’s seaweed jelly?” he asked co-founder Nancy Iraba when he stopped by Seaweed Café. and sniffed soap from Mwani, a plant-based skincare company that uses macroalgae.
The Prince was also reunited with Pierre Paslier, co-founder of Notpla, a company that makes food packaging made from seaweed. He told him, “I was bigging you up last night” and added that he was “proud” of him.
“He’s actually been really interested in helping the whole ecosystem grow, and one of the things that has been helping us is getting stadiums to adopt more sustainable packaging,” Pierre said of William in a post-event interview.
Photo: © Ian Vogler/Pool/Shutterstock
“We’ve worked closely with Compass Group’s stadium division, Levy, to implement seaweed-based packaging that is free of plastic.”
“Aston Villa, Chelsea, Tottenham, Twickenham, the Oval, and his favourite, the O2, are all using our packaging, which is really exciting. Right now, we are in 50 venues throughout the United Kingdom.”
“Thanks to this, millions of single-use plastics have already been replaced. Additionally, the Prince always wants to know how things are going on that front whenever we get to catch up with him.”
“So it was really nice to make that connection again, especially because British Airways is a new member of the global alliance, so we’re starting to work together.”
Among the companies at the coalt was Coast 4C, a finalist for Earthshot 2024.
Photo: © Chris Jackson/Pool/Shutterstock
Along with Earthshot finalist Coast 4C, William was also introduced to Sarah Halse, Research and Sustainability Manager at Abagold, which produces seaweed to improve its sustainability, and Daniel Hooft of Kelp Blue, which harvests cultivated kelp to produce ingredients for agriculture, textiles, and pharmaceuticals.
Before departing, William told Vincent: “What you’re doing here is fantastic. I’m looking forward to your next book.”
