On Tuesday 12^th September, 14 employees from our New Jersey office took advantage of one of Thomas Miller’s global CSR policies, which allows employees to undertake 3 days paid leave per year to volunteer in local communities. This forms a core part of Thomas Miller’s unique Corporate Social Responsibility programme "Be The Difference".

Billion Oyster Project

The group, made up of employees across our Thomas Miller Americas team including TT Club, UK P&I Club and UK Defence Club, volunteered for a day with the Billion Oyster Project, a non-profit organisation working to restore oyster reefs to the New York Harbor, through public education initiatives. Their mission is to restore one billion oysters by 2035, currently settling 50 million oysters into local waterways per season.

Why is the Billion Oyster Project so important?

Oyster reefs have the power to transform New York Harbor. Their positive environmental impact is vast, including by:

• providing a habitat for hundreds of species fostering biodiversity;
• filtering river water as they eat to support the marine ecosystem;
• helping shield New York City shorelines from storm damage by acting as a natural storm barrier.

The Volunteer Day

The Thomas Miller Americas team spent the day in Governor’s Island, helping to restore New York Harbor by cleaning oyster shells to prepare them for their hatchery. They also dug for any litter debris to remove them from new piles of oysters that were recently delivered from local restaurants (coupled with an unpleasant smell!).

Volunteers are instrumental to help the project reach their 2035 target, and it was brilliant to understand more about how important oyster restoration is for the future of the harbor city.

Billion Oyster Project has recently announced support from the Prince William Association,  with the Prince taking part in a similar volunteer day on 18^th September, shaped around his climate awareness initiative, the foundation for the Earthshot Prize.