How Digital Disruption Shapes Natural Capital

What are green cubes?

The cube is multidimensional and it’s a way to introduce a sponsorship model for the forest, and why industries and the corporate market and the financial market can now absorb carbon is because it’s a unit. So can we create the unit also for biodiversity and something that people easily can understand and the result of that as we are moving multidimensional not just 2D which you get from a satellite. We go fully multidimensional. We start with 3D, and that means cubing the rainforest in cubic meters. So, if everyone can go in and start to sponsor these biodiversity hotspots of the planet in cubic meters with the price that range between 5 to 10 cents, that means one krona here in Sweden, that sounds very cheap. But if you look at that full volume, then you will out beat palm oil and agriculture, which is the alternative for the local farmers. They would opt and start to cut down this forest because there is zero value to conserving it. So, with this type of way, we can fly over where there are today – two national parks, for example – and it’s a biodiversity corridor in between, but it’s (also a) commercial force, and we can then give an option to the forest owners to opt into green cubes.

With the amount and variation of data that you’re dealing with, what are the types of challenges have you faced?

The challenge when you deal with a lot of data is that it takes time to process it. So, we wish that we could win in a switch, turn on the AI, and say this is what happened, but there are additional layers that you need to do and since we can go from 1000 square kilometers down to a few centimeters, that’s processing like, how do you get your customers, in this case, the government and the authorities, the level of information that they need, but at the same time being ready to support them for that down-to-centimeters accuracy. So that means we are introducing streaming services where they have an online portal and see their overall mapping and everything. All the data points that we have, and then when they click – a little bit like ordering more information – and then we have to go with our special systems and the software to process exactly what they’re looking for.

From a technology and data management perspective, how ready does one need to be before initiating a venture like (R-evolution)?

Do and document, because the challenge that we all face is that when you step into something new, you easily step into analysis paralysis. You start to analyze what is the market? What is the impact? So, I would say execute, because there is nothing more powerful than actually coming back to say we did something, then you maybe learned and you failed and you need to pivot or persevere. That is the recipe for success here. Most companies would say after three years they are still in the analysis paralysis phase and while we have all these projects up and running.