From Earthshot Prize to Restoring Coral Reefs | Sam Teicher
How entrepreneurs, innovation, and restoration businesses can help save coral reefs and build a new restoration economy, with our guest Sam Teicher.
Coral reefs cover less than one percent of our oceans, yet they support around a quarter of all marine life and provide food, livelihoods, and coastal protection for around a billion people. Yet they’re disappearing at an alarming rate.
Today I’m joined by Sam Teicher, Co-Founder and Chief Reef Officer at Coral Vita – an Earthshot Prize-winning conservation business that’s pioneering a new approach to coral reef restoration. Instead of relying solely on traditional conservation funding, Coral Vita is proving that a for-profit business can help restore nature at scale while creating jobs, supporting local communities, and protecting one of the world’s most important ecosystems.
In this conversation we explore why coral reefs matter, what’s driving their decline, and how Coral Vita grows and restores climate-resilient corals. We also discuss the Earthshot Prize, conservation entrepreneurship, the idea of a restoration economy, and whether businesses can become one of conservation’s most powerful tools. Finally, Sam shares his own career journey and practical advice for anyone who wants to make a meaningful impact for nature.
It’s an ocean conservation, conservation entrepreneurship, and restoration innovation podcast.
Enjoy.
Listen
Watch
Subscribe
You can listen and subscribe to the Conservation Careers Podcast on iTunes, Spotify or Stitcher using the following links, or search for ‘conservation careers’ and you’ll find us!
Resources
- Join CC Jobs
- https://coralvita.co/
Join our live podcast audience!
If you enjoyed the episode, please follow or subscribe so you never miss a new release – and if you can, leave a quick rating or review; it really helps others find the show.
A quick reminder – we record these conversations live with our members. If you’d like to be in the audience next time, stay on for the off‑mic Q&A, and put your questions to our guests, there are two ways to join:
- CC Jobs – our members’ community with a busy schedule of events, access to the live Pro Chats audience, resources and templates, plus our job board with 4,000+ live roles at any time.
You can compare options and join at conservation-careers.com/join
Thanks again for being here – see you in the next episode.
