My name is Tristan Macquet, I'm 36 years old. I am the father of two sons. I am born French, spent part of my childhood in India, trained as an engineer in France at the Ecole Centrale de Lyon, specialized in environmental sciences at Tsinghua University in Beijing, and spent the last 13 years in China doing almost everything except engineering…
From bartending to working on Beijing suburban organic farms distribution networks, from running an environmental education program across 100+ schools to running a Montessori school during the zero COVID policy…
I came back to France last summer and settled on the Oléron island on the Atlantic. After more than 10 years living in a 22,000,000+ inhabitants city that never sleeps, we were looking for peace and quiet, sea and forest.
What my wife and I initially intended as just a short break is about to become much more transformative than that.
We are starting a new company and a new life here, between the sea and the forest, working towards a less warm tomorrow for our children by rebuilding oysters reefs, preserving sea meadows, growing some algae as we go and generally working on restoring marine biodiversity. We will get into it in much more details, don't you worry.
Before it gets further, I feel the need to start documenting this journey, for me certainly, for you hopefully, for my sons one day maybe. Here’s the purpose of this journal,
What you may find here :
The ups and downs of starting a new life, in a new country, in a new field…
The (hopefully inspiring) journey of creating a carbon sinking, biodiversity restoring, climate change fighting new venture
Anything and everything you never thought you'd learn about oysters… and more.
Tips and tricks about starting your own impact driven project
A few flashbacks (or fast forwards who knows?) into the education world, China, organic agriculture, F&B, India…
Some insights into the entrepreneurial world and the challenges of looking for personal balance there.
Highlights on cool projects, and people I am meeting and (re)discovering along the way
I knew you were one of the good ones ! I felt we had a connection ! Did you subscribe yet ?
Too soon ? Alright I get it. We have all the time in the world ! No rush. Button’s not going anywhere ! Pretty sure it may make another appearance further down… Just sayin’…
So now that you know you’re in for, let's dive in.
I’ve been told that it is always good to start with “why?”. So this first Journal entry will be me trying to define my “why?” in this new venture, in this new life.
I remember being in high-school and being full of drive and hope. My go-to mission was to work out “cold fusion” from Malawi and reverse the balance of power through free energy coming from the global South. You know, easy stuff…
It soon became apparent that I didn’t really have what it takes to crack “cold fusion” and I chose to focus on something I felt more tangible : water.
Water, water treatment, water distribution for all has been what drove me during my university years. It led me to Centrale, it led me to Tsinghua, it led me to volunteer with the Barefoot College in Rajasthan…
I tried to keep water as my guiding mission but fell short soon after graduation. Not feeling aligned with traditional water treatment companies, nor brave enough then to tackle this challenge the NGO or entrepreneurial way.
I had discovered the world of F&B and education in China during my studies, and felt that promoting organic agriculture, permaculture, environmental education through pedagogical vegetable gardens in schools was somehow more manageable.
One thing led to another, and, not fully realizing at the time, I found myself slowly diverging from my environmental mission. On one hand : bills, daily life, parenthood, many of the adult life challenges we all know and face. But at a deeper level, I feel I was becoming more and more cynical around the future of the world.
“Climate change is not real.”
“Climate change is real but there is nothing we can do about it.”
“There are things we could try to do about climate change but it’s too late anyway.”
“Yeah we could plant trees but there’s not enough land anyway…”
“GIEC report number 23 is offering terrifying conclusions if we don’t act now and even if we do there is not much chance it will change anything.”
“War”
“Pandemic”
“More war looming”
“Last white rhino just died”
Maybe as a coping mechanism but I had given up in a sense with a feeling of cynical powerlessness that would break the heart of my Cold-Fusion-in-Malawi-high-schooler-self…
”What’s the point anyway ? Better keep my head down, enjoy time with my family, it’s as good as it’s gonna get… ”
Three years of Chinese Zero COVID policy forcing us to try and get by didn’t help but they were only reinforcing, solidifying these feelings, not causing them.
And then we let go…
A year in advance, my wife and I started our “letting go” process, preparing our work partners, close friends, children that we were leaving after 13 years for me, 21 for my wife. It was a terrifying but liberating process. We took one year to prepare, sold everything we had, saved the rest and decided to grant ourselves at least 6 months of slow paced, no obligation, island time close to her family.
What was coming next ? We had no clue…
Staying some more ? Why not if we find something to do.
Leaving again ? So many places we’d love to explore !
We’ll figure it out.
I truly believe that this “letting go” process has helped me become more malleable. It chipped at the “doom-and-gloom” shell I had going.
And through one of the cracks, sneakily, Hope came back.
As we were on an island famous for being in the traditional heart of French oysters production, I started to learn about sea farming, met with oyster farmers, read about seaweed farming ( The Seaweed Revolution by Vincent Doumeizel was a revelation), followed online webinars, expanded my Linkedin network towards French, European and international actors of the field…
For the first time in more than 10 years, I felt we had a fighting chance not to turn Earth into Venus in my lifetime.
It was so simple that it felt wrong at first.
A single adult oyster can filter up to 200L of water a day, reducing that much turbidity, letting light in litterally, favorising the spread of all carbon swallowing vegetal life. Additionally they create natural reefs, offering solid ground for this vegetal life to grow on, with the added bonus of protecting the shore from the waves and generally offering safe harbor to a vast diversity of marine life.
In almost every corner of the world, seabeds used to covered with oysters that disappeared due to overfishing, dredging, sometimes diseases…
In many places, invisible from the surface, it is like if you had not only cut down every tree in the Amazon, digged up all the roots, and removed an additional meter of healthy soil just to be sure that nothing ever grows back ever again.
Couple that with macro algae such as kelp feeding on carbon dioxide to grow 50cm a day on hectares and hectares and don’t get me started on micro algae which in truth does all the heavy lifting but benefits from surrounding environmental conditions.
All in all, a currently heavily degraded, underestimated, nature based powertool against climate change, just here in front of our eyes, right below the surface.
So yeah… My “why” is Hope. My “why” is to preserve, restore, regrow Hope under and above the sea, for myself and everyone else.
Take that cold fusion !
In this first issue and in all following ones, I wish to also share about and highlight other projects or persons that I have found inspiring. Here are some of the ones that did the most to get me started writing online :
Naman Bajaj writing Not My Problem : making every problem his problem and highlighting clever solutions and ideas from around the world to solve everyone's problems.
Oliver Dauert writing The Wild Business Mate : fighting eco anxiety with biodiversity and putting marketing skills at the service of impact projects.
Guillaume Fourdinier writing Le Plongeoir : diving into a new sector everytime, analysing the issues in amazing depth and offering "just do it" ideas to build your company around (in French).
I promised myself I’ll start with 3 weeks of content pre-written, a detailed plan for the rest of the year, a clear value adding message for the readers for each issue, and even a well designed pitch for potential future sponsors…
I’ll be honest I’ll be making this up as I go, there is a fair chance this format evolves along with me and hopefully along with you and your feedbacks.
But for today, I’ll take pride in knowing that I started ! Please be kind and patient with me !
If you made it to the end I guess we’re in this together. You’d better subscribe so I don’t have to call you everytime I publish.
Also I’m pretty new to this whole online content game but I am under the impression that the thumbs-upping, commenting and sharing is, if not mandatory, kinda making you a better person on all accounts. Just sayin’…
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