Brave New World

Not for glory or gain, but a brighter future for all. Marking the 10th anniversary of our annual 40 under 40 list are these inspiring, unconventional and fearless young achievers from the class of 2020.

- Annabel Tan

THOMAS PEACOCK-NAZIL, 32

Founder of Seven Clean Seas

Based in Singapore since 2013, former financial adviser Thomas started Seven Clean Seas as a side community project doing educational beach clean-ups in 2018 after encountering alarming amounts of marine pollution on his travels. About a year later in June 2019, he decided to dive into his passion project full-time and built it to become the world’s first Ocean Plastic Offsetting provider.

Today, Seven Clean Seas helps eco-conscious businesses reduce their impact on the planet and has recovered over 50,000kg of marine plastic waste to date. That is about the weight of 10 African elephants, he says, adding: “I am immensely proud to know that this plastic won’t ever go on to tangle, clog, poison or kill any marine life.”

Seven Clean Seas is currently working with global efforts like the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the 3R Initiative to further develop the solution into a market ready platform, like carbon offsetting. The organisation is also venturing into regional waste management infrastructure and plastic recovery technology to prevent plastic from entering the oceans and, when it does, recover it at scale. Says Thomas: “I consider myself the luckiest human in the world to be living my passion as a career and I encourage everyone to chase passion and purpose over profit – they will be amazed at how good it feels!”

ABIGAIL HAN, 31

Artist, Programme and Content Curator