Using data from space and drones, Irish business Treemetrics is powering the emerging forest carbon certification market.
Cork business Treemetrics, with support from the European Space Agency, has launched a transformative new platform to enable climate-smart forest management and forest carbon certification
The forestry data analytics pioneer has successfully developed a unique platform for forest owners to support the easier adoption of forest certification and more transparent auditing of management practices.
“The system will help many stakeholders along the forest value chain”
The two year development which was supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Enterprise Ireland delivers ‘state of the art’ satellite and drone imagery processing to provide new levels of trust and transparency for forest certification and the rapidly emerging forest carbon certification market.
Consumers globally are demanding products that are sourced from producers and suppliers that work in harmony with nature. Forest certification has been an especially important initiative over the past two decades to promote better forest management.
Space data takes root
“Forest Carbon offsetting is a rapidly emerging process that forest owners and large enterprises are utilising, to help reduce the levels of carbon in the Earth’s atmosphere. Investors are demanding quality carbon offsetting projects with new levels of data integrity,” explained Treemetrics founder and CEO Enda Keane
“The new platform leverages Treemetrics precision measurement system to reduce investment risk and increase overall adoption of this important mechanism.”
“Satellite imagery and analysis tools have a major role to play in building trust in both forest carbon and sustainable forest management certification processes. Our goal was to deliver a technology solution to enable increased climate-smart forest management adoption. The system which was released today will help many stakeholders along the forest value chain,” said Keane.
The leading global forest certification standard PEFC Global supported Treemetrics to ensure the system meets the needs of their certificate holders internationally. PEFC.org currently certifies 790 million acres of forestry across the globe.
Joe Madden, Manager Company Research & Development, Enterprise Ireland, said: “This is a great example of how an Irish company, supported by Enterprise Ireland and the European Space Agency, can perform world class R&D and bring an innovative product, ensuring forest sustainability and quantifying forest carbon, to global markets.”
The innovation was welcomed by Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail, Damien English, TD, who said: “Treemetrics are a fantastic example of an innovative Irish company using digital space data, that is freely available to all people living in Ireland through our membership in the European Space Agency, to ensure the sustainability of raw materials on earth.
“The recent report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which found that harmful carbon emissions have never been higher, highlights the urgency in developing innovative technologies to tackle climate change. It is heartening to see Irish companies like Treemetrics playing their part in helping to reduce greenhouse gases by utilising space-data innovation for forest owners in tackling carbon emissions.”
Main image: Joe Madden, manager Company Research & Development, Enterprise Ireland, with Treemetrics CEO Enda Keane and Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail, Damien English, TD
