Partner Spotlight: Manufacturing Meets Marine Protection – Xometry’s Blue Friday Impact

In this edition of our Partner Spotlight series, we feature Xometry, a global digital manufacturing marketplace that has shown how innovation and responsibility can move in the same direction.

For the past two years, Xometry has supported Healthy Seas through its special Blue Friday initiative, dedicating a portion of revenues to marine conservation. Every order placed using a special code combined a customer discount with adonation to Healthy Seas.

The result? Manufacturing became a force for good — directly supporting cleanups and education initiatives in Korea and Croatia, while helping remove harmful plastics and abandoned fishing gear from our seas.

We spoke with Oscar Lovera, Chief Operating Officer of Xometry Europe & Asia, about growing up by the sea, ghost gear, and how circular solutions can reshape manufacturing itself.

Interview – Oscar Lovera , Chief Operating Officer, Xometry Europe & Asia

Tell us briefly about your organisation

Xometry is a digital manufacturing marketplace designed to remove friction from how the world makes things. We connect companies that need custom parts with a distributed global manufacturing network and use AI to turn what was historically a slow, opaque sourcing process into something predictable, scalable, and data-driven. At its core, we are building the infrastructure layer for modern manufacturing — where speed, transparency, and resilience are no longer advantages, but expectations.

What does the ocean mean to you personally?

I grew up in the Canary Islands, Spain — a beautiful place in the middle of the ocean — and thus, I always felt a personal connection to the coast. Most of my formative years were spent at the beach, playing football by the shore, snorkelling, swimming and exploring the coastline. I associate very closely with life by the beach.

I now live in Ireland — and I can see the North Atlantic as I write this — so it seems that I am never too far away.

Earth or Mars?

I spent much of my youth reading science fiction classics — from Asimov to Heinlein to Arthur C Clarke. I was fascinated by space exploration, alien life and universe-wide operas. Amongst these I read the Mars Trilogy (Red, Green, Blue) by Kim Robinson — which blew me away.

I do believe that we will reach for the stars in the future, but it is our choice on whether this is an escape or not. I chose Earth over Mars. We are responsible to protect our home planet collectively so that we can then catapult to the stars.

Which is your favourite place on Earth? And why?

I love cities by the sea. I grew up in one (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria) and I love the ecosystems and cultures you find there. Whether coastal Spain, the towns by the Adriatic or the Greek Isles, there is a connecting tissue between them that I relate to.

What is one small habit everyone can adopt to help reduce ocean pollution?

We need to stop thinking of things as “disposable.” Even in manufacturing, materials like plastic are essential, but we need to stop seeing them as trash. Before you use something, just think about where it goes next. If we treat materials as resources that should stay in the loop — rather than things to be thrown away — we stop the flow of waste at the source.

What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned about marine pollution?

How much of it is actually “ghost gear.” I used to think of ocean pollution as just floating bottles, but learning about these massive, abandoned fishing nets was a wake-up call. They sit under the surface, invisible, and just keep catching fish and destroying reefs for years. It is a silent killer.

What’s the most memorable thing you have experienced with/thanks to Healthy Seas?

It’s the way this partnership moves the needle from abstract “sustainability” to something you can actually touch. There is a bridge being built here: we start with a deadly net being pulled out of the water by divers, and we end with that “waste” and other being transformed into high-end ECONYL® yarn. It’s the perfect example of a messy problem finding a circular solution.

If you could send one message to the world about ocean conservation, what would it be?

There is no small room of people who are developing a plan to conserve our oceans. It is the responsibility of each one of us to take action and make choices to protect what we are handing over to the next generation.

We have to stop this “buy it, break it, bin it” cycle. We need to start seeing old plastic and nets not as trash, but as the raw materials for the next thing we build.

Can you share a moment when you felt truly hopeful about the future of our oceans?

I feel it whenever I see the next generation taking the lead. My daughter recently had an activity with her school to clean up our local beach in Ireland (Silverstrand). She was so energised by making a difference and also so committed to learning more about how to recycle and prevent this from happening again.

Educating the innate sense of responsibility of the next generation shows that real transformation is actually possible.

How has your work with Healthy Seas changed your perspective on a particular problem or challenge?

It has reinforced the idea that sustainability cannot be achieved in isolation. To solve a problem as vast as ocean pollution, you need an ecosystem of partners (divers, manufacturers, and NGOs) working together. We are truly Better Together.

If you could solve one ocean-related issue instantly, what would it be?

I would make all marine pollution visible. Much of the damage happens out of sight and out of mind; if we could clearly see every ghost net and microplastic, the world would be forced to act with the urgency the situation demands.

How do you see your organisation evolving to support ocean sustainability in the next decade?

I do not think any manufacturing company can honestly claim they will be perfectly “green” overnight. But we can definitely choose who we stand behind.

Over the next decade, we plan to build on the foundations we have already established with partners like Healthy Seas and Tree-Nation, embedding sustainability more deeply into our operations so that our growth directly amplifies our positive environmental impact.

What’s one thing you’d love to do with Healthy Seas in the future?

I would love to bridge the gap even further between the nets they recover and the parts we manufacture. Imagine a world where a company orders a part through Xometry, and it is made directly from materials Healthy Seas has pulled from the Mediterranean. That’s the kind of full-circle story I want to tell.

What is your favourite marine animal and why?

The Octopus (or Pulpo in Spanish). They have three hearts and nine brains, which is just incredible engineering by nature. They are smart, they are weird, and they are masters of adapting to their environment. I have read many times that if humans were to not be around, and given enough time, these creatures would be at the top of the list to evolve to be the next top of the pyramid on this planet.

From Blue Friday to Blue Futures

Xometry’s Blue Friday initiative proves that sustainability does not have to sit outside core business operations. By embedding impact directly into customer transactions, they demonstrated that manufacturing, digital infrastructure, and environmental responsibility can coexist — and even reinforce one another.

At Healthy Seas, partnerships like this show that ocean protection is not limited to coastal industries. Whether in manufacturing, finance, textiles, sport, or technology, every sector has a role to play in closing the loop.

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