ESA title

Satelligence Biomass

Data Segment
  • Data Analytics, Insights & Applications
  • Data Processing & Visualisation
Cycle
  • Product Development
Multinationals around the world, active in soft commodities, have committed themselves to net-zero commitments through initiatives like the Science-based targets initiative. The Satelligence Biomass service helps corporates understand the part of their emissions that is most difficult to measure: emissions due to agriculture and land use change.
Objectives of the Product

Satelligence Biomass will be a platform-based solution that helps companies understand their scope 3 emissions and where the biggest issues occur in their supply chain. The service will show changes in aboveground biomass for different supply chain levels (from farm to aggregators like mills and suppliers) to be able to make more targeted sourcing decisions. Satelligence Biomass will be a new module / feature on our existing solution platform. The information can be used as part of Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTI) reporting or internally to make sourcing / investment decisions. For SBTI reporting, additional information on scope 1, 2 and other scope 3 data needs to be integrated through partners or our clients, hence dissemination should be also flexible (API, exporting capabilities etc.). We already have developed our carbon (above ground biomass) algorithms for a number of regions and landscapes in pilot projects with corporates like Mondelez International, Cargill and Rabobank, but more work is required to make this a scalable off-the-shelf solution. With Satelligence Biomass we can service all multinationals that have net zero commitments with reliable, science-based results.


Customers and their Needs

The key customers segments targeted by our service are fast moving consumer goods companies and large-sized traders active in soft commodity supply chains (e.g. palm oil, cocoa, soy).

Satelligence Biomass offers companies active in soft commodity supply chains a better understanding of their scope 3 emissions due to land use change and agricultural expansion. This allows our customers to make better sourcing decisions and report progress towards compliance and reporting frameworks.

We have identified the following key pains:

  • Not being able to account for and report on scope 3 emissions towards stakeholders;
  • Being at risk of unexpected carbon emissions due to forest loss in the supply chain;
  • Being at risk of unexpected exceedance of emission rights;
  • Having to compensate for unexpected carbon emissions in the supply chain;
  • Not being able to account for scope 3 on emission related statements and metrics (third party verification).
  • And the following key gains:
  • Access to carbon risk and storage potential data of the supply chain
  • Being able to prioritise resources for net zero commitments based on all scopes
  • Insight in the spatial distribution of the risk of emissions over the sourcing landscapes.

Targeted customer/users countries

Our target customers and users operate globally. Monitoring mainly happens in the (sub)tropics because of our commodity focus.


Product description

The functional blocks of the Carbon estimation model that need to be developed are:

  • 1.1 Satellite data processing: Landsat & Sentine1, 2 (already developed)
  • 1.2 Satellite data processing: GEDI data processing & filtering
  • 1.3 Satellite data processing: ICESAT data processing & filtering
  • 2. Allometry selection and application module
  • 3. Auxiliary data processing and look up module
  • 4. Analysis Ready data module
  • 5. AI carbon estimation training, tuning & prediction module
  • 6. User interface module
  • 7. Scaling: carbon estimation at global scale

The model builds on results of the already operational satellite image distributed processing framework (DPROF).

The main (functional) modules are described in the table below. The modules can be separated into three main categories: 

  1. Extension of existing (data) models, storage and interfaces
  2. Development of new modules that will compose the Carbon estimation pipeline
  3. Designing and building end user products

Innovation versus the market:

  • Available solutions to measure net-zero commitments are models of consultancies.
  • Available solutions to measure carbon by satellites often focus on the offsetting market (carbon credits) due to supply chain complexities.
  • Many companies providing carbon services don’t have market access with corporates like Satelligence has.

We can bring together those elements and have a first-of-its-kind solution on the market.

Show the product/system architecture (on a high level), highlighting the main system building blocks (on a high level).

(The image above is an example.)


Added Value
  • Access to carbon risk and storage potential data of the supply chain
  • Being able to prioritise resources for net zero commitments based on all scopes
  • Insight in the spatial distribution of the risk of emissions over the sourcing landscapes

Current Status

Satelligence Biomass had its kick-off on 6 July 2023.

 The Satelligence team had several meetings with demonstration partners. Next to that, Satelligence also had a full day session with a consultancy to discuss a potential partnership.

We also started with setting up an approach to sell Satelligence Biomass, including pricing options. These will be tested in the coming months. For the near term we already have one potential paid project opportunity.
The Requirements Review is planned for early October in Frascati, Italy during the EO for Carbon Markets Forum. We are on track with all deliverables, demonstration prototypes etc. No delays or risks are expected or foreseen at this point.

Prime Contractor Company
Satelligence
Netherlands Flag Netherlands
Contractor Project Manager
Name
Nanne Tolsma
Address
Maliebaan 22, Utrecht, The Netherlands
ESA Technical Officer
Name

Current activities