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

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. ---Episode Sponsor: GeoawesomenessRead their 2023 Global Top 100 Geospatial Companies List---About Mila:LinkedInRabobankShownotesNote: Links to books are Amazon Affiliate links. I earn a small commission if you buy any of these books.RabobankProject AcornAcorn methodology for Quantifying Carbon BenefitsBook & Podcast RecommendationSteve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson (Affiliate Link)Jay Shetty PodcastTimestamps(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 - Support the podcast on Patreon- Website- My Twitter- Podcast Twitter- Read Previous Issues of the Newsletter- Edited by Peter Xiong. Find more of his work