We specialize in easily deployable systems that mitigate coastal flooding and protect communities against the threat of sea-level rise and climate change.
Winner of The Clinton Global Initiative Greenhouse Award
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Winner of The Clinton Global Initiative Greenhouse Award •
Introducing The Wavebreaker
Patent-Pending Technology to fight climate change.
How It Works
The Wavebreaker uses patent-pending technology to reduce the height and velocity of waves to mitigate damage to life and property on shore.
The Wavebreaker is a composite steel structure that is tethered to the bottom of the ocean floor with custom proprietary anchors. The force from the wave hits the Wavebreaker, the structure bears the brunt of the force of the wave and the wave dissipates as it rolls over the grooves.
We are currently working on adding wave energy and sensors to The Wavebreaker.
Winner of the Harvard President’s Innovation Challenge
2022 Ingenuity Award
There are 320,000 miles of coastline around the globe.
More than 600 million people (approximately 10% of the world’s population live in coastal areas that are 3.5 feet above sea level). Most of these people will be affected by sea-level rise and climate change in the next 50 years.
Our Story Began in 2012
Our Founder was featured on Women-led ventures at The Harvard Innovation Labs
Alex Berkowitz (Harvard Graduate School of Design, Class of 2023) is Founder and CEO of Coastal Protection Solutions, Inc. which specializes in coastal flood mitigation through easily deployable systems. Coastal Protection Solutions has developed two systems: 1) “The Wavebreaker,” which works as a wave speed bump, decreasing wave velocity to the shore , and 2) an artificial floating marsh system that builds the coastline up and outward to protect the shores against sea-level rise. Participants in the i-lab’s Venture Program in Spring 2022, Coastal Protection Solutions’ systems can be adapted to different scales, from individual properties to small towns and major cities across the globe.
Originally from Rockaway Beach in Queens, New York, Berkowitz saw her community devastated by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, so for her, this work is personal. Berkowitz remembers seeing street after street of homes—including the block she grew up on— totally demolished and thinking about how she could mitigate the damage that the waves caused. “Here was something I could do that would be useful,” Berkowitz says, “After seeing my community suffer from the storm surge and loss of life, I vowed to find solutions so that communities like mine would never have to experience the trauma and heartbreak of climate change.”
What are your recent wins?
“It’s an exciting time for us! Being accepted into the Venture Program at the i-lab has been tremendously helpful and supportive, and we’re officially incorporated! Coastal Protection Solutions also just won the i-lab’s Ingenuity Award.
Right now with The Wavebreaker, we’re in the testing phase of iterating the design and materials in physical and 3-D models; we’re working to find the sweet spot between form, function, and toughness for the demands of the ocean. We’re incrementally scaling up the testing of The Wavebreaker and looking forward to having a 100 foot prototype deployed off the coast of Massachusetts in Fall 2024.”
What problems can we solve when we work across silos, disciplines, and areas of expertise?
“I do a lot of reaching out to experts across the Harvard and MIT communities, along with the private sector, to bounce ideas off of people and get feedback on our innovations. People want to help and be involved, and we’re blessed to be surrounded by passionate experts. If we are going to solve the issues of climate change that are quite literally threatening our species, we must work in a global, but targeted manner. It is imperative that we be agile and work across disciplines. We need scientists, engineers, designers, architects, the business sector, and researchers in the humanities to work closely together and have a space for a free exchange of ideas. This ‘all hands on deck’ structure is the development model we are using at Coastal Protection Solutions.”
What collective experiments do we run now?
“Climate change is an emergency. It’s the biggest threat to our existence and every report that comes out keeps getting worse. We should be gathering the brightest minds to co-develop solutions on initiatives for climate change.
You can only go so far developing major solutions to climate change in a vacuum of your own discipline. The time for rapid, international concept and development is now, and collaboration is key. I envision that this kind of collective problem solving can be broken down into more manageable pieces and addressed through smaller, targeted manners to allow different groups of experts to focus on specific issues. This level of international, interdisciplinary collaboration can help us make incredible strides in solving future issues for continued human survival on Earth. This collective problem-solving process doesn’t have to be elegant, but it must be effective.”
