Niels Wielaard on Fighting Deforestation with Satellites, Sustainability via Startups, and Landing Your First Customer - E28

Niels Wielaard is the Founder and CEO of Satelligence, a satellite-based forest, agriculture, carbon and water monitoring service provider based in the Netherlands. Founded in 2016, Satelligence has over 60 clients and partners, including Mondelez, Unilever, Bunge, the World Wildlife Fund, Rabobank, Robeco, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and others. Satelligence aims to aid stakeholders in agricultural commodity production in their progress towards sustainability commitments, transparent agricultural sourcing and better investment decisions. Niels has been working in tropical forest landscapes for over 20 years and is also an expert on Monitoring Reporting Verification systems for REDD+. He was an invited member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil Working Group on Greenhouse Gas Emissions and technical advisor to the European Commission on satellite monitoring issues related to the implementation of the EC Renewable Energy Directive. Niels received his MSc in Forestry with a specialization in Remote Sensing from Wageningen University in 2003. A retired competitive swimmer, he enjoys exploring the forest with his kids, cycling, and snowboarding. Shownotes at https://www.jeremyau.com/blog/niels-wielaard You can find our community discussions on the podcast episode at https://club.jeremyau.com/c/podcasts/28-niels-wielaard-on-fighting-deforestation-with-satellites-sustainability-via-startups-and-landing-your-first-customer