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The Sustainability Incubator is an independent source of forward-shifting work on stewardship in business.

Founded in 2012 in Honolulu, we are known for risk-reducing due diligence policy, curricula and training in supply chains and across government agencies. We also help our clients to ground business deals and decisions with local engagement, rigorous scientific research and strategic planning.

Our track record is reflected in the decisions and actions taken by our recent clients: ASEAN, US seafood industry, governments of Indonesia, the Philippines and Fiji, Freedom Fund and Humanity United, IOM, FAO, GLOBEFISH and projects we’ve co-hosted with dozens of ocean producers including Sym Pac International and the Hawaii Seafood Council.

Policy & Curricula

Regional Ocean Policy

In 2025 we assisted the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to prepare a significant update in regional ocean policy by closing gaps that left millions of ASEAN citizens out of sight. We completed a major review of the 11 members’ ocean economic development policies and laws on labor, OSH, fishing and enforcement via primary research with authorities in each country. We set out a practical pathway for members to move forward together and assisted with next steps to increase public-private co-operation, editing for example the Guidelines on the Placement and Protection of Migrant Fishers for livelihood security.

Curricula & training to reduce risks at sea

We produce and deliver curricula to the private and for the public sector under our flagship Labor Safe ScreenTM.

Since 2018 we have trained over 85 suppliers to detect forced labor in their supply chain and to help prevent it by performing human rights due diligence. We prepared curricula after writing the draft guidance for social responsibility in the fisheries and aquaculture sectors for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and published a practical version in Marine Policy, a peer-reviewed journal.

We have also produced 20 experiential and interdisciplinary training packages with coordination and referral protocols that are now used inside supply chains and mandated for use at fishing ports in Manado, Bitung and Tegal ports in Indonesia and General Santos City, the Philippines where shortly after it was implemented the protocol was used to apprehend traffickers and rescue 13 young female victims.

The Labor Safe ScreenTM has been used by businesses and governments to learn conditions in over 500 supply chains. Its digital application in traceability software won the Partnership for Freedom Grand Prize for tech to eliminate modern slavery in 2016.

We have published the methodology in Science Advances for others to use and improve on and make some of our curricula freely available to use:

IOM-Training-Manual-for-Fishing-and-Seafood-Enterprises_Thailand-FinalDownload

IOM-Training-Manual-for-Fishing-and-Seafood-Enterprises-Indonesia-FinalDownload

SAFE-Seas-Training-Manual-for-Port-Inspectors_PhilippinesDownload

SAFE-Seas-Training-Manual-for-Port-Inspectors_IndonesiaDownload

Fishery Improvement Projects

Since its founding in 2012, the Sustainability Incubator has been the industry leader in Fishery Improvement Projects, where seafood suppliers invest in fisheries sustainability as part of a sales access agreement with supermarkets. We have supported fishing companies implement over 30 projects worldwide since for tuna, swordfish, crab, scallops, snappers and other seafoods. Our clients currently are SYM PAC International, Fong Hsiang Enterprises and Sprouts Farmers Market. We’re known for pragmatic arrangements backed by industry and community strength.

Research to Adapt

Some of our research has been highly cited in decisions by courts and governments to reform trade policy to eradicate illegal fishing and forced labor at sea (44 policy citations for example for our 2011 paper in Marine Policy, Estimates of illegal and unreported fish in seafood imports to the USA).

Original Research: When Supermarket Prices no longer reflect Wholesale Prices, what are the Consequences for Producers?

After supply and demand started balancing our in 2022, a very large price gap emerged between growing consumer prices and falling producer prices and the gap continued to grow inexplicably through 2025. We looked at the whole picture of prices, costs, earnings and conditions at every level of the supply chain to learn more about how shrimp and tuna are being made today – as the two seafoods we eat most often. We asked, who is winning and losing on price? What were the human consequences for shrimp farmers and workers as prices fell lower than shrimp costs to make? Who was behind the widening gap?

Ecolabeled Supermarket Tuna: Results & Press

Is tuna ecolabeling causing fishers more harm than good?

Published by Nature Ocean Sustainability

Press

The article, database and footnotes can be found here and here.

Questions about this report? Please contact us at The.Sustainability.Incubator@gmail.com.

Supermarket Shrimp

For supermarkets, sure (margins have never been higher). Consumer prices are sky high. Inflation? Actually, since 2022, wholesale prices for producers have been in free fall which may have become a death spiral. To understand the picture for shrimp, we collected prices, costs, earnings and interviews from over 500 shrimp producers and workers across Asia by partnering with field organizations in Viet Nam, Indonesia and India and by tracking the products through to supermarkets.

When More Means LessDownload

Press

Laboring for lessDownload

The Viet Nam report initiated a dialogue with the government of Viet Nam that led to the addition of new information provided by the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP). The report was updated on September 12, 2024.

Questions about the shrimp reports? Please contact us at The.Sustainability.Incubator@gmail.com.

Contact us at the.sustainability.incubator@gmail.com. Mahalo.