Cooling the Planet with Cutting-Edge Technology

At TREEO, we leverage advanced technology to ensure every single tree we plant is tracked and monitored for its carbon capture. This digital transparency starts right from the initial land analysis using satellite imagery. From the moment a seedling is planted, we measure its growth and the amount of CO2 it captures until one ton of CO2 is sold to a balancer (how we call our carbon customers) and recorded in the public carbon registry.

Birds eye’s view architecture

TREEO’s tech stack is huge yet carefully designed to optimize every step of the carbon capture process. Here’s a closer look at the key components:

TREEO App: The farmers’ tool

An offline-first Android-based mobile application, the TREEO App is tailor-made for farmers and tree monitors in remote areas. Through the TREEO App, our tree-planting partners can map their land, monitor their tree’s survivorship and growth, and estimate their sequestered CO2. TREEO App measures the tree diameter through image processing, calculates the biomass with tree specific allometric formulas, and therefore provides accurate data about the CO2 captured by every single tree once a year. Built with a range of technologies like Kotlin, C++, Android Studio, Google Firebase, MapBox, and OpenCV (including SIFT, RANSAC), the app is built to work in the harsh tropical forest environment in multiple local languages.

TREEO Cloud: The forest management view 

This is the central hub where all data from the TREEO App is stored and managed. It supports the organization in controlling and optimizing tree planting projects. Developed using Google Cloud Platform (GCP), PostgreSQL with PostGIS extensions, TypeScript, Python, Golang, NestJS, React, and Vite, TREEO Cloud ensures transparency, data integrity, and real-time insights.

TREEO Scoring Engine: 

This semi-automated toolset is crucial for verifying data before it’s approved and submitted to auditors, the carbon registry, and the Impact Dashboard. It forms an essential part of TREEO’s internal control system, ensuring data accuracy and compliance. TREEO tech-team plans to implement GenAI algorithms such as Stable Diffusion and LLMs to improve the data quality and detect frauds.

TREEO Impact Dashboard: Our balancers “CO2 bank account”

A customer portal that offers transparency to carbon removal customers (TREEO calls the customers “balancers”). Running on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) with Cloud Run, PostgreSQL with PostGIS extensions, MUI, and MapBox, it provides validated data about carbon capture performance and the number of trees growing. 

TREEO Finance and Carbon Reporting Service

The TREEO Finance and Carbon Reporting Service organizes verified data for the needs of the Carbon Registry and balancers (customers) reporting. Here we will establish a full Carbon Accounting system.

GIS & Satellite Data Analysis

Our tech is not just limited to TREEO’s own apps and cloud services.  TREEO foresters use commercial ArcGIS and open-source QGIS to perform advanced mapping and remote sensing operations. Our due diligence process for planting begins with a land eligibility assessment to assess the suitability of potential tree-planting partners for TREEO projects. We use satellite imagery to verify the monitoring efforts on the ground qualitatively. 

Cross-cutting technology

Some technology and science elements span across TREEO’s architecture and include:

Carbon modeling

Estimating the amount of carbon that can be captured requires extensive modeling, known as ex-ante, and measuring actual performance, known as ex-post. The carbon models depict different tree species, growth models, planting patterns, and many more parameters. This involves complex mathematics for tree allometry and is supported by tools like Google Docs with LaTeX extensions, Google Sheets with scripting, and R for statistical analysis.

Data & Machine Learning

With thousands of tree measurements collected every day, round the year, TREEO sits on top of millions of structured and unstructured data, this not only gives TREEO’s data science team an exciting opportunity to interact with first-hand, live ground truth data to address daily challenges, but also enables the team to experiment with latest trends and technologies in the area of machine learning. With TREEO’s unwavering commitment to enhancing the mobile application and TREEO Cloud for user experience, conducting intricate assessments of ground truth data using simple python scripts to complex machine learning algorithms, leaves endless challenges for our Data Team to apply machine learning, deep learning and generative AI concepts, coupled with a strong sense of purpose for the betterment of the environment. 

To make sense of the vast amounts of data in TREEO Cloud, our data science team uses GIS, Python, Jupyter Notebook, PyCharm, Tableau, and (of course all fashioned) SQL. TREEO consistently aims to remain at the forefront of technology by adopting the latest advancements in the area of Machine Learning.

Agile Development 

TREEO employs agile methodologies, specifically the Scrum framework, to develop and refine its technology in a two-week sprint. It is known for its efficiency and adaptability with the following ceremonies:

• Sprint Planning on Monday’s: Estimating and selecting tasks from the product backlog.
• Daily Standup: Aligning team members and addressing obstacles.
• Backlog Refinement: Prioritizing and updating tasks from the product backlog.
• Sprint Review on Friday mornings: Demonstrating completed work and gathering feedback from stakeholders
• Sprint Retrospective on Friday afternoons: Reflecting on the sprint to improve future iterations.

Using tools like GitHub, ZenHub, VSCode, Android Studio, and JetBrains, our development team ensures that TREEO’s technology remains at the cutting edge, delivering high-quality solutions that drive real impact.

Conclusion

At TREEO, technology is at the heart of everything we do. It’s what enables us to plant trees more efficiently, monitor their growth more accurately, and provide unparalleled transparency in carbon capture. By combining advanced tech with a commitment to environmental sustainability, we are not just planting trees—we are building a better future for the planet. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to innovate and lead in the ClimateTech space.