Trivia with Treevia: The phenomenon on how SmartForest are made possible.

Climate change continues to pose a massive challenge for societies and the global economy. While there has been an ongoing effort to curb carbon emissions, activities such as poor forest management, deforestation and illegal logging are constant obstacles that get in the way of the world’s climate goals. With the world losing a third of its forest, there is a critical need to develop sustainable forest management solutions.

To overcome some of these global environmental challenges, DBS launched the Sustaintech Xcelerator — a 6-month accelerator programme that focuses on increasing confidence in Nature-based Solutions (NbS). Selected startups for the programme were judged based on their potential to tackle some of the world’s toughest social and environmental challenges.

As one of the finalists in the current cohort, Treevia Forest Technologies looks to bring together forest monitoring and sustainability by connecting forests around the world to the internet. Through its SmartForest solution — a system that uses electronic sensors to monitor forest growth in real-time — Treevia provides a single digital platform for automated management of forest operations.

Leveraging IoT technology, Treevia provides forest managers with daily strategic information and intelligent recommendations through data that are collected automatically from geographically distributed sensors.

At present, Treevia monitors over 100,000 hectares of forests and the startup is planning to monitor 1 billion hectares of forests by 2030 (one-quarter of the world’s total forest area). Treevia is also working with Eldorado Brasil, one of the largest forestry companies in Brazil, to implement the world’s largest forest monitoring project. Using Treevia’s proprietary technology and IoT sensors, the project will allow Eldorado to monitor 10,000 hectares of its forest assets. The Sustaintech Xcelerator team caught up with Treevia to discover how the company is revitalising our Earth with SmartForests to accomplish its vision for a sustainable future.

Olá Team Treevia! It’s amazing how SmartForest contributes to Nature-based Solutions! How did the idea for Treevia come about?

The idea of ​​the solution started in 2014 when we were doing our Master’s Degree abroad. That was when we realised there was a huge demand for innovation that allows for greater availability and accounting of forest assets. Thus, we founded Treevia when we took the idea to an entrepreneurial contest at the Technological Park of Sao José dos Campos in 2016.

How have Treevia’s digital forest monitoring solutions accelerated sustainability efforts?

We believe that people and great companies are realising their environmental impacts and ramping up their efforts to embrace sustainability. Having understood this, we embarked on our vision to support companies in their ambition to compensate or mitigate the effects caused by the increase in greenhouse gases. This can be done by scaling up projects and solutions based on nature, incorporating more accounting, automation, and precision while contributing to sustainability improvements in the world. At Treevia Forest Technologies, we support these efforts by connecting forests around the world to the internet for smarter monitoring and measurements.

What encouraged the team to apply for the Sustaintech Xcelerator programme, and how has your accelerator experience been so far?

Firstly, it’s the mentorship opportunities to extend our understanding of the carbon credit market and explore the global opportunities for Treevia’s expansion.

Meeting like-minded people and exchange knowledge regarding Nature-based Solutions was also an attractive factor for us.

So far, the experience has been encouraging and challenging for us, with new ideas and contrasting views being put forward by our mentors, who are guiding us to scale our operations and reach greater heights.

What is your vision for SmartForest in the next ten years?

Treevia hopes to monitor a billion hectares of forest worldwide while providing the best inventory and monitoring technologies to digitalise automated management of forest assets. We will contribute to the mission of connecting people and forests, building a more sustainable world.

What can we expect from Treevia next? Will you be expanding into Southeast Asia?

We want to increase partnerships around the world and especially in Southeast Asia. We want to understand local opportunities, potential clients and investors, and the details of the local forest market. We believe that partnerships fostered at the Singapore Hub are essential for reaching new heights in the forest carbon market and sustainability. To learn more about what we do, you can reach out to us here.

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Want to find out more? Watch the video below as we caught up with Emily, Co-founder & Director of People and Performance of Treevia Forest Technologies for a behind-the-scenes look!

Sustaintech Xcelerator x Treevia Forest Technologies: The Brains behind SmartForests

We caught up with Emily Shinzato, Co-founder & Director of People and Performance of Treevia Forest Technologies to find out more about their startup experience!

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DBS, in partnership with Google Cloud, the Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions at the National University of Singapore (NUS), Temasek, Verra and the World Bank, launched the Sustaintech Xcelerator, a six-month global virtual accelerator focused on increasing confidence in carbon credits from Nature-Based solutions (NbS). The global accelerator invites climate innovators to present tangible solutions while providing them with the expertise to accelerate their solutions for large-scale impact.