Andi Cross, expeditionist and ocean conservation storyteller

Going to the Edges

I believe in building a life where your expertise and passion converge, where you can contribute to causes that matter while becoming deeply skilled. You don't have to compromise on either.

I spent a decade working in corporate New York. After moving to Western Australia to become a professional diver, I started documenting what I was seeing on the frontlines of the climate crisis. Throughout this transition, I never quit my day job I worked so hard to build. Instead, I learned how to blend my passion and profession, and that's where I found my purpose.

Endorsed Ocean Action UN Ocean Decade · 2024
Water Athlete Alliance Protect Our Winters · 2025
Flagholder The Explorers Club · 2024
Sponsored Athlete Scuba Schools International · 2023
Business Member 1% for the Planet · 2023
MPA Ambassador Marine Conservation Institute · 2023
Climate Contributing Writer UN High-Level Climate Champions · 2024

The Expedition

Edges of Earth

A self-funded, multi-year, global expedition finding the true outliers who are solving our biggest environmental challenges. We find the communities, entrepreneurs, scientists, conservationists driving impressive change. They just need resources, access, and funding to achieve their long-term goals. That's where we come in.

See Expeditions

My Story Expanded

Looking back at what I was most passionate about as a child, I was obsessed with fish. Marine life and the ocean were my first love. And yet, throughout my career I had abandoned that passion.

By 2017, it was impossible to escape my newsfeeds showing doom and gloom—a planet in decline. I felt it was my calling and duty to do something about it.

In order to take action, I believed I needed to get closer to the natural world. Learn as much as I could. To me, the best first step was to become a scuba diver (and to learn to properly swim!)

Six years after making that choice, and a move around the world to Western Australia, I became a sponsored, technical diver, exploring the world as part of a consulting and expedition team that I founded with my partner, Adam Moore, in 2023. We called it Edges of Earth.

This catalytic shift was not something that happened overnight, and has been far from graceful. This has been the most fun journey, all about embracing the beginner mindset and what it takes to follow a calling. All while being ok with the unknown. Today, I'm bringing my worlds of strategy and exploration together in a way that has not been done.

Underwater photograph of diver in center of massive sardine baitball forming circular pattern, Moalboal, Philippines

About My Business

In 2023, I co-founded Edges of Earth. It's equal parts global expedition and consulting business, built on a single idea: how can we prove that doing well and doing good go hand-in-hand?

The consulting side works with well-funded, mission-driven startups and nonprofits that are advancing real solutions to our most pressing environmental challenges. The expedition side works with grassroots teams and communities solving those challenges on the frontlines.

The consulting work funds the expedition work, allowing us to redirect resources, such as funding, knowledge, access and expertise, directly to grassroots teams that wouldn't otherwise have access. This model—using corporate revenue to fuel grassroots impact—is why we're proud members of 1% for the Planet, committed to giving back at scale.

Over three years we've traveled to 53 countries across six continents, partnered with more than 250 field experts, and published 375+ original case studies about our time in the field. We've sailed on research vessels, slept in fishing villages, and put ourselves in front of communities that had been solving environmental challenges long before the rest of the world started paying attention.

The revenue from consulting engagements puts us on boats, in the water, and in front of the communities doing the hardest, most critical, work on the planet.

Andi Cross on glacier expedition in Iceland, Arctic Adventures, wearing orange helmet and holding ice axe

My Philosophy

My work is built on a well-established concept called positive deviance: finding the outliers in communities who succeed against the odds—not because they have more resources, but because they think and act differently.

Think seaweed farmers in Argentina, coral gardeners in Indonesia, oyster restoration practitioners in New York. People doing extraordinary things with limited resources, simply by thinking bigger than themselves and embracing a scrappy, resourceful mindset.

The dominant climate narrative is broken. So much of our newsfeeds are filled with doom and catastrophe, burning people out faster than building support for the movement. I continue to choose a different path: amplifying solutions. Showing people blueprints for what's possible instead of catalogues of what's been lost. Case studies collected from the most remote to the most densely populated edges. Stories of positive progress I believe you will feel in your bones.

The Journey

Creative Operations & Product Development

Victoria's Secret · New York

Focused on trend forecasting and the future of business

Business Development & Strategy

Ogilvy & Mather · New York

IKEA, Smartwater, Time Warner Cable

Head of Strategy

Axcess Worldwide · New York

Coca-Cola, Fanta, Rolls-Royce, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Las Vegas Sands Corp

VP Strategic Growth

Huge Inc · New York

Leading cross-functional teams across a global business development unit

Strategist in Residence

H/L Ventures · Global

Advising historically underserved founders, working with over 50+ high-growth, impact startups

Co-Founder & Strategist

Wildpalm · Global

A consulting business that works with agencies, venture capital firms and thought leaders in politics

Co-Founder & Strategist

Edges of Earth · Global

Bringing the climate crisis to the boardroom through in field expeditions, helping impact for profit businesses and well funded nonprofits scale

Sponsored Professional Divemaster

SSI · Global

First-ever appointed sponsored diver with a 50-year old scuba diving agency for work in expeditions and extreme diving

Where It Leads

Whether you need an impact strategist who has actually been to the frontlines, a keynote speaker who has lived the transformation she talks about, or a creative partner with a global perspective and 15 years of brand experience, I would love to hear from you.

Work With Me