After representing Morocco in the World Surfing Games in California (1996) and Portugal (1998), Saad Abid moved to Canada to attend university and discovered snowboarding. His love for the outdoors led to a passion for protection. Back in Morocco in 2010, Saad founded the Bahri Association, a non-profit working for coastal protection and educating future generations. He was behind the launch of the first Moroccan e-bike waste collector, and helped organise Morocco’s biggest beach clean-up operation in Casablanca.

International exposure inspired Saad to pay it forward. He was part of the Moroccan delegation to COP21 in Paris, and represented Moroccan civil society at the Our Ocean Conference, where he met President Barack Obama. In 2017 he was in the Founders Group of the Climate Action Leadership Network for key decision-makers to deliver immediate actions for the climate, at the 72nd UN General Assembly. Saad was honoured with the ‘IVLP Alumni Decade of Social Innovation & Change’ award in 2021, and earlier this year won first place in the OceanLove Innovation award for his ‘Chbika’, a tool to capture micro-waste from beaches. Find out more on his website, or follow him on Facebook, Linkedin and Instagram.