18th Jun 2024 Gemini 1.5 Pro
Robbie Schingler, co-founder of Planet Labs, discusses the company's mission to build an Earth data platform using daily satellite imagery. This platform enables the development of real-time decision-making tools across various sectors. Schingler highlights a key partnership with the Norwegian government, where Planet provides access to cloud-free monthly forest images for tropical countries participating in the UN's REDD+ program.
This example illustrates the power of shared data and common operating pictures to address global challenges. Schingler emphasizes that Planet aims to shift behavior towards regenerative activities, such as sustainable forest management, driven by real-time planetary insights. He argues for a move beyond simply stopping harmful practices towards actively promoting positive change.
And so that one use case can go proliferate all the way through what happens when you have a real-time access to information about the entire planet.
Schingler details Planet's unique approach as a publicly traded company structured as a Public Benefit Corporation. This designation allows Planet to prioritize stakeholder value, including public benefit, alongside shareholder interests. He contrasts this with traditional corporate social responsibility initiatives, which often remain confined to marketing departments.
Schingler underscores the importance of embedding public benefit into a company's DNA, influencing product development and corporate values. Planet's commitment is evident in its ethics committee, which proactively considers the societal impact of its technology and ensures responsible data use.
Schingler acknowledges concerns about the potential misuse of Planet's data, citing deepfakes and the weaponization of information as serious threats. The company remains vigilant against the manipulation or misrepresentation of its imagery, striving to provide a trusted baseline of facts for public discourse.
But then also, to add to the misinformation on the planet, we actually want to quell that with baselines of facts that then allow for reasonable people to disagree or argue or debate on top of that instead of currently what the public discourse is.
He emphasizes the importance of equitable access to information, particularly in conflict zones, where power imbalances can be exacerbated by technological advantages. Schingler highlights Planet's commitment to addressing these challenges through ethical data governance and a focus on public benefit. He views the company's technology as a tool for promoting transparency, accountability, and informed decision-making on a global scale.
Schingler details Planet's role in addressing the climate and ecological crises. Beyond counting trees, the company provides data on soil moisture, surface temperature, and other crucial planetary variables. This information enables applications in agriculture, urban planning, and disaster response.
He emphasizes the importance of collaborating with the scientific community to develop rigorous standards for measuring and monitoring environmental indicators. Schingler highlights the acquisition of a forestry-focused team to scale up forest carbon measurement capabilities, showcasing Planet's commitment to providing actionable data for climate action.
And that's the pivot point to then allow developers to just query through that and they can suck up the answers to what they're actually looking for.
Schingler emphasizes the power of daily imagery to track changes over time, creating a critical feedback loop for ecological coordination. This data-driven approach enables verification of regenerative practices, such as reforestation or sustainable agriculture, and supports compliance monitoring. He sees Planet's data as a key building block for enabling market mechanisms that value natural capital.
Schingler proposes a future where companies maintain a "natural capital balance sheet" alongside their financial balance sheets. This framework would account for a company's impact on natural resources, encouraging a shift towards regenerative practices by making the true cost of resource use transparent.
He uses the example of a farmer transitioning from monoculture to regenerative agriculture, illustrating how a natural capital balance sheet could incentivize more sustainable practices. By accruing natural capital through carbon sequestration and reduced environmental impact, farmers could offset potential yield reductions and contribute to a more sustainable food system.
And so like a medium term vision is, you know, if you're a company or you're a country, you know, you have a budget to balance and you have a balance sheet to report your assets and your liabilities, how much money you made, how much money you spent. I think you can take that same discipline of accounting when you can now measure nature and your impact on nature for having a natural capital balance sheet. how much assets you accrue, and how much you spend.
Schingler acknowledges the challenges of valuing nature and the risks of commodification. However, he argues that incorporating natural capital into economic decision-making is crucial for driving a transition to a regenerative economy. He envisions a system where companies can retire their environmental liabilities, such as carbon emissions, by investing in projects that generate natural capital. This approach, he believes, can incentivize sustainable practices and foster a more equitable distribution of value.
Schingler advocates for debt swaps for nature as a powerful mechanism for accelerating the transition to a regenerative economy. This approach involves forgiving developing countries' debts in exchange for commitments to protect and restore natural ecosystems. He cites successful examples, such as a debt swap that facilitated the creation of a national park in Barbados.
So I almost would like wipe that away and just think, okay, no speculation to the future. Like for a company, uh you retire it when you buy it right and uh and so it that means that you know you're a big company on on the west coast of of the united states you buy a whole bunch of carbon credits directly from a thousand different small holder farmers and it's retired that year that means that they're incented to keep those forests intact for the next year because then they can sell the same thing again and again so that
Schingler sees debt swaps as a way to address the global economic imbalances that often incentivize environmental degradation. By aligning financial interests with conservation efforts, debt swaps can unlock significant funding for nature-based solutions and empower local communities to become stewards of their natural resources. He calls for greater collaboration between governments, financial institutions, and philanthropists to leverage this mechanism for systemic change.
Schingler envisions a future where debt swaps become a cornerstone of a regenerative economy, fostering a more equitable and sustainable world where natural capital is valued and protected for generations to come.
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