Mila Luleva: Why Would a Bank Care About Satellite Images? (Spoiler: It's Carbon Credits) - MBM#41

Minds Behind Maps

Mila Luleva is the Head of Remote Sensing at Rabobank, the 2nd biggest bank in the Netherlands. Specifically she works on the Acorn Initiative which aims at supporting small holder farmers transition to more sustainable agriculture practices by selling carbon credits for the biomass these farmers produce. Carbon credits are a messy, complicated and often times controversial topic, all of which I wanted to ask Mila about.

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About Mila:

• LinkedIn
• Rabobank

Shownotes

Note: Links to books are Amazon Affiliate links. I earn a small commission if you buy any of these books.

• Rabobank
• Project Acorn
• Acorn methodology for Quantifying Carbon Benefits
• Book & Podcast Recommendation
  • Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson (Affiliate Link)
  • Jay Shetty Podcast

Timestamps
(00:00) - Introduction

(01:29) - Sponsor: Geoawesomeness

(02:14) - Conversation begins: Mila Describes Herself

(04:10) - Mila's Motivations

(05:50) - So why does a Bank care about Satellite Imagery?

(10:01) - Some of the Bank's Inner Workings

(12:08) - The Acorn Initiative

(16:00) - Small Holder Farmers

(17:46) - Carbon Removal Units

(20:09) - Monoculture & Agroforestry

(22:57) - The Farmers Financial Incentives

(26:37) - Scale of the Acorn Initiative

(29:15) - Biomass Estimation (the reason for satellite data)

(32:26) - External Certification

(35:51) - The Challenge of Segmenting Small Farm Parcels

(42:51) - Hiring & The Team

(45:54) - Mila's Role

(47:50) - Banks Still Need to Make Money

(53:35) - Quality

(55:52) - Navigating the Carbon Credits Scandals

(59:09) - Leaving academia

(01:02:59) - Open Source & Transparency

(01:06:28) - Slow Nature of Peer Review

(01:08:49) - Book & Podcast recommendation

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- Edited by Peter Xiong. Find more of his work