 Everyone's different here at the Canopy Workspace, different organisations, projects and specialisms. But here inside the Entopia building there's also a common goal that brings us together. There's a collective desire to accelerate change and sustainability is at the heart of it. The Canopy is all about collaboration, a community sharing and learning from each other's experiences. And this is Canopy Connect, a podcast where you can get to know your fellow members at the Canopy. This time on the podcast. Hi, I'm Olga Tutubalina. I've worked at Gentian as a remote sensing analyst. So, let's connect. Gentian does remote ecological surveys. We use artificial intelligence models and the state-of-the-art satellite imagery with very fine detail at 15-30 cm resolution. So, our maps are much more detailed than what is usually available. They are very close in quality to ground ecological surveys and what we actually offer is to replace those ground surveys. So, our models learn initially from high-quality ecological survey data and then we expand to similar habitats. We've been mapping a lot around the UK so far. And this was to help developers to assess potential sites for biodiversity net gain. Also for urban authorities to look how many green roofs they have in the city, what types there are, intensive extensives, so how much planting is there, can they retrofit more roofs with green roofs, what are those potential buildings, and can they put solar energy there. Also, they asked us to count trees in private gardens in London because they contain a lot of carbon that they want to quantify as well. So, all sorts of green infrastructure in cities, but also rural habitats. And it's not only maps at the moment, but also monitor sites at very high detail, but much cheaper and more efficient than ground surveys, about 10 times cheaper, I think. At the same time, our maps have been verified by our customers in the UK and we were very proud. It was about 97% accurate in the classes they asked for. So, Gentian is a startup. It's about three years old. And we have a brilliant team because it combines so many different people with different expertise. So, we have world-renowned ecology experts, green roofs. This is Dusty Gedge and also Gary Grant, who is an environmental ecologist. We have a very good artificial intelligence team, which is developing the tech and also remote sensing expertise. So, alongside me, we have a couple of experts from University of Oxford. And actually, originally I did a degree here in Cambridge. So, it was a PhD in polar remote sensing. I was mapping vegetation in the Russian Arctic and I still work with the University of Cambridge. We also have a really good business team who are actively developing potential markets. So, Dan White, our CEO is a Syrian entrepreneur and he had several successful startups. And he's great. So, it's really fun working at Gentian. I started in March and I really enjoy the variety of people you work with and it's really friendly. And we're doing good things, working to map biodiversity and help big companies and authorities to protect it and monitor it. It gives a great feeling. So, our UK customers had problems like there's around enough ecologists to do the work in a timeline they want or a site could be inaccessible. It's behind the wall, behind the fence. Sometimes, for example, they need to assess area around the highway and to do a ground survey. It will mean to close a part of the highway, which is very expensive and not practical. So, really, this biodiversity crisis, the need for this detailed service is rising. So, we simply don't have enough people on the ground. So, the idea is to learn from the best of their experience and to expand it. And then also we can provide a repeat service at really very small cost. So, it's like a subscription. They want to look at sites for property development in the UK. And at the earlier stage, they have to decide which site to buy. And so, they can't access it before they buy. So, they want to know what biodiversity they are currently. So, they can access the cost. What would it be to increase the biodiversity in the framework of biodiversity net gain? So, they will come back to us with new sites as they go along, as they develop more. We also work with London borrowers. And they want to know what is currently in their wards, how many trees, how much carbon they store. And they want us to do repeat service because they have to develop the net zero strategies. And the vegetation is going to change because of climate change. So, they will need repeat monitoring. So, we are hoping to have a subscription model. And we are seeing ways to develop a software as a service on a platform. So, people can log in on the platform and upload the outline of the area. And we'll cost it and we'll do the service they want. This is really important to be accessible and talking about biodiversity. Because many people don't realize that biodiversity is in crisis. And it could be potentially even bigger than carbon crisis. And they actually go hand in hand. So, we still have a challenge of explaining how important it is. We lost so many species in the last 50 years. And it is going to have a negative impact on everyday life. As well as climate change because of the carbon, because of the greenhouse effects. These explanations are really important. And we need to give examples to people. And it has to be accessible because we need to have support from everyone. One example which I hope to develop into a product one day. When we had a really hot summer the year before, there have been so many grasslands that had been on fire for the first time in history. Remember, we have to monitor this, we have to look at the droughts. They are coming because of climate change. It's really unusual for the UK, which is always thought as a rainy country. And once you had the fire in that grassland system, so much fauna has been killed, so much needs to be restored. So, we really need to look into preventative approach, like assessing the level of moisture in the grasslands. And we can do it with satellite imagery. We can look at the series of images and see that this year is becoming unusual and the areas are becoming too dry. And we can do something about it. For me as a tech person, BSI workshops have been really, really educational and engaging. So, I'm learning more about the business side of things, the product market fit. And that makes me rethink the technical solutions. I really enjoyed meeting people, the fellow startups who are on the program. Also, people from other startups that come to events in Canterbury. There will be one on clean tech today, I hope to attend. Generally, it's a great meeting place. Cambridge is very rich, I think, in environmental startups. And it's a great opportunity here, just by being here, having coffee with people to meet someone interesting. I really like to connect to a few startups in Canterbury because we can do great things together. So, we can start with the website of gentian. gentian.io. They can also message us on LinkedIn and contact via website. And I'll be very happy to meet them in person in Canterbury workspace because I'm local in Cambridge. So, I usually come in on Tuesdays or Thursdays. And I can always arrange a meeting in advance. We'll be very happy to talk to any member of the Canterbury. I'd like to say that currently we are hiring. We are looking for a full stock developer to develop our online platform. So, I really like to meet people with computing skills and also good salespeople who can help to promote biodiversity mapping products. But also, generally anyone working in the field of sustainability, nature reporting, nature conservation, nature monitoring, we'd love to meet all of those. Thanks for checking out this episode of Canopy Connect. Log in to your office R&D profile to connect with your Canopy neighbors. Just head to the members page and find them. This is a Canopy podcast made by New Allotment. The Canopy is part of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. Thank you for listening.