Albo is Leveraging AI to Improve Access to Carbon Credit Markets — I’m Happy to Join as an Advisor
It is my great pleasure to announce that I have joined the advisory board of Albo Systems, a TechStars-incubated, Tel Aviv-based start-up that uses high-resolution satellite imagery and cutting-edge AI technology to help human civilization meet the challenge of climate change.
Albo leverages Israeli prowess in AI to rapidly assess the carbon sequestration capacity of a broad range of ecosystems — everything from forests to grasslands to wetlands to oceanic kelp farms — and to identify methane leaks from pipelines and processing facilities.
With burgeoning corporate demand for carbon credits based on Nature-Based Solutions (e.g., forestry, land-use, and habitat preservation projects) from companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, and even BP, carbon credit project developers have struggled to keep up.
The root cause for the supply constraints is painfully obvious. Namely, the validation and verification of the sequestration capacity of NBS projects for carbon credit issuance is stuck in the 18th century — with foresters and farmers physically surveying land using tools like tape measures, augers, paper, and pencils.
It’s no wonder carbon credit markets are severely supply-constrained and why smaller landowners are largely unable to participate.
Albo’s algorithmic analysis of carbon sequestration capacity replaces the manual methods presently used, allowing real-time monitoring and greatly reducing costs.
I believe Albo’s automation will allow huge scaling opportunities. This means wider participation in the carbon credit markets among smaller landowners (including municipalities), more reliable and trustworthy credits, and many fewer supply-side frictions.
Albo’s solution is differentiated in that its AI algorithms are trained to analyze high-resolution radar satellite imagery. Using the wavelengths they do, they can make both above- and below-ground measurements — and even measurements of the growth of ocean kelp.
At present, Albo’s process requires “ground truth” measurements to make sure that Albo’s AI is correctly calibrated to the ecosystem being imaged. As Albo gathers more and more data, this ground truth step will be able to be skipped, opening up the possibility of 100% automatic validation and verification.
The wide variety of ecosystems Albo is training its AI to analyze means that owners that have been unable to sell credits into the market will now find it much easier to do so.
The farmer or rancher who is improving the carbon content of his soils can receive revenue based on his efforts. A municipality that choses to keep local wetlands undeveloped can receive revenue based on the aggregate land area they agree to preserve. An entrepreneur farming kelp offshore can sell carbon credits to supplement her revenue from processing the kelp.
Another exciting application of Albo’s combination of remote sensing and AI technology is the time-series measurement of methane emissions from landfills, pipelines, and processing facilities.
With the amount of news coverage methane leaks have garnered recently, we believe the owners of methane-producing assets will come under increased regulatory scrutiny to measure and manage methane emissions — Albo can help them do that.
Albo’s team is small, scrappy and brilliant. Co-founder and CEO, Dr. Jacques Amselem, has a vision of billions of landowners the world over using Albo’s technology to participate in the kinds of land use improvements that will help our civilization out of the deep hole we have dug for ourselves.
The past few weeks has seen an enormous amount of activity for Albo and in the next few weeks, you’ll see how much momentum has been building. I’m looking forward to sharing news about Albo’s first commercial deals, a major university partnership to protect a UNESCO site, and its first round of seed funding since its graduation from TechStars.
Jacques and the whole team at Albo knows, as I know, that we have limited time to make fundamental changes to the paradigm on which we operate if our civilization is to thrive and survive into the next century.
Intelligent investors take note.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
