VIDA

🐝 We’ve just gone live with two highly sought-after new datasets - Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool (IBAT)’s Key Biodiversity Areas (KBA) and the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IBAT provides the world's most authoritative biodiversity data and the KBA is specifically relevant to Appendix D of the EU Taxonomy, which calls for organisations looking to purchase or develop infrastructure to identify if they’re located in or near biodiversity hotspots. The taxonomy sets out criteria to ensure that economic activities in these regions do not cause significant harm and contribute positively to the conservation and restoration of biodiversity. Meanwhile, the IUCN Red List provides data on the conservation status of species, which organisations can use to identify potential impacts on biodiversity. It also supports compliance with a number of regulations, including the EU Taxonomy and the Habitats Directive.

We just came back from our team meeting in Cyprus, a place our European and African team members could reach easily. It was a great joy and so important for our alignment and focus. It's a privilege to work with this group of outstanding people. Feels like we can do anything. And we have our work cut out for us: to ensure our planet’s future and humanity’s well-being by changing how we build infrastructure with VIDA. Let's do it! Philippe Raisin Nabin Raj Gaihre

What is "Climate Intelligent Investing", and why can this approach transform how we think about sustainability and infrastructure investments? At its core, this method combines in-depth climate risk assessments, the latest climate data, and thorough EU Taxonomy reporting to reshape the investment decision-making process. For infrastructure asset managers, this means: 🌍 Assessing Climate Risks: Understanding how physical and transition risks associated with climate change can impact asset performance. 📊 Utilizing Advanced Data and Models: Leveraging the most up-to-date climate data and predictive models to inform investment strategies. 📋 Ensuring Regulatory Compliance: Adhering to frameworks like CSRD and the EU Taxonomy (with a special focus on Annex A), to ensure environmentally sustainable practices. But it’s not just about managing risks. This strategy also uncovers new and lucrative opportunities that might otherwise be overlooked. By focusing on sustainable projects and innovations, we can discover investments that offer strong returns while contributing to a greener future. At VIDA, we are committed to leading the way in this innovative approach. Our platform is designed to help infrastructure asset managers navigate the complexities of climate risks and regulations, ensuring that their investments are not only sustainable but also profitable. Interested in learning more about how Climate Intelligent Investing can benefit your portfolio? Reach out to me to discuss how we can work together. #climateintelligentinvesting #sustainableinvesting #VIDA #Infrastructure #Climaterisk #EUTaxonomy #CSRD #Innovation #infrastructureinvestment #infrastructure #assetmanagement #riskassessment #climateriskassessment

🇨🇾 ☀️ Hello Cyprus! Cyprus? Yes! We are all here, together for the first time, from all corners of our remote-work VIDA-verse: Europe and Africa. Cyprus is right in the middle - easy to reach, with relatively friendly visa regulations and no discriminatory LGBT legislation. And, of course, it’s beautiful. We are so excited to meet almost everyone, from everywhere, all at once, and in person, for this first ever all-team retreat (35 of us from 11 countries - phew). We have a busy programme: with sessions on strategy, customer value and team culture. But there will also be plenty of time for a sampling of delicious local food, a swim in the sea, quiz night, a boating adventure and VIDA Olympics. (And, in case you’re wondering, we’ll definitely fit in the European football championship semi-finals. Given our team composition, we are guaranteed to have home fans.) So forgive us if we’re a little quieter than usual this week. We’ll be back full force next week, ready to share some of our learnings 💪

🚀 We’re strengthening our AI team! 👋 Say hi to Enrique and Jacob who join us to build up our AI team. They bring a wealth of experience working across climate and weather modelling, LLMs and satellite imagery analytics. They’re joining our team to help make sure VIDA provides the best climate and environmental risk datasets and intuitive analytics to our users. ✨ Enrique Cornejo started out as a conservation biologist in Morocco before moving to data science and becoming a machine learning engineer. He was a co-author of research for crucial climate modeling for the World Resources Institute. This work translates climate data into a format accessible to anyone. (Check out: “Making Climate Data Accessible: Methods for Producing NEX-GDDP and LOCA Downscaled Climate Indicators”) He loves cats AND dogs (try profiling that!), was a guitarist in a band, and plays Twilight Imperium for a marathon 10 hours every year on his birthday! Also, Enrique once worked on an uninhabited island. (Which of course was then no longer uninhabited and he didn’t go there on his birthday.) 🏝️ ✨Jacob Bieker, is from Oregon and lives in London. His adventurous spirit first took him to Denmark, where he spent a year studying astronomy and computer science. Following his family tradition, he later worked at NASA, spent summers in Germany and completed his Master’s in the Netherlands. Ever the data lover, he says he traveled through 52% of Europe in one year. (Rounded and by number of countries? Or more exact and by population or geography? Or by breweries and vineyards? Leave your thoughts in the comments!) 🌍 With his experience in geospatial data and machine learning, Jacob will help us build ever more and better climate and ESG data layers for VIDA. 

🇨🇩 We’re thrilled to have the Democratic Republic of Congo’s AUTORITE DE REGULATION DU SECTEUR DE L'ELECTRICITE / RDC (ARE) (www.are.gouv.cd) as a VIDA user. ARE, the regulatory authority for the electricity sector, use VIDA to identify high-potential mini-grid sites to be tendered. Limited power grid infrastructure across the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) presents a significant opportunity for the deployment of mini-grids. Estimates suggest that some 85% of the population in the DRC lacks access to electricity, highlighting the need for clean, viable and reliable electrification solutions. By leading the roll-out of new mini-grids, ARE are playing a critical role in maturing the DRC’s mini-grid market and making universal electrification a reality for the country’s 99 million citizens. We’re proud to play our part. Nous sommes ravis d’annoncer que l’Autorité de Régulation du secteur de l’Electricité (ARE) (www.are.gouv.cd) de la République Démocratique du Congo utilise VIDA. L’ARE utilise VIDA pour identifier les sites de mini-réseaux à fort potentiel qui feront l’objet d'appel d’offres. L’infrastructure de réseau limitée en République démocratique du Congo (RDC) présente une opportunité importante pour le déploiement de mini-réseaux. Les estimations suggèrent qu’environ 85 % de la population de la RDC n’a pas accès à l’électricité, ce qui souligne la nécessité de solutions d’électrification propres, viables et fiables. En dirigeant le déploiement de nouveaux mini-réseaux, l'ARE joue un rôle essentiel dans la maturation du marché des mini-réseaux de la RDC et dans la réalisation de l’électrification universelle une réalité pour les 99 millions de citoyens du pays. Nous sommes fiers de jouer notre rôle.

🥵 Feeling hot? Several countries around the world are currently facing extreme heat warnings. India, Mexico and the UAE hit the highest ever temperature recorded in recent weeks. May 2024 was warmer globally than any previous May in datasets going back to 1940, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. A recent global study on heatwaves, defined as prolonged and consecutive periods of extended heat, found that they’re getting longer, more intense and travel further. According to Science Magazine, heatwaves have changed considerably since 1979. “The significant decreasing trends of moving speed and the increasing trends of the frequency and traveling distance are likely caused by anthropogenic forcing over the past decades,” the study found. Heat stress, along with drought and other climate-related risks, is a risk we track and show for any location in the world. Do get in touch if you’d like to learn more about what impact extreme heat might have on your assets or planned investment locations. 👉 To read the full article: https://lnkd.in/didpRqtV

💡 We support our customers to better understand and manage climate risk for infrastructure. But what exactly is climate risk? In this little video, we talk you through the equation. Assessing risk is based on understanding three key elements - hazard, vulnerability and exposure, and how they interact. Start with a location’s exposure to hazards (such as climate events that can cause damage) and factor in its vulnerability, i.e. how equipped people or infrastructures are to manage such a climate event. In other words, not all locations experience hazards in the same way: some are more resilient than others. For example, in July 2021, a slow-moving low-pressure weather system caused record rainfall and flooding in Western Europe. Germany and Belgium were severely affected, including loss of lives, and billions in damage to homes, roads, bridges, and utilities services. Meanwhile The Netherlands, which has advanced flood management systems and proactive measures, including the use of dikes and flood barriers, managed to avoid high casualties and limit damages. The good news is that more reliably understanding risk in advance means that vulnerability can be reduced, by implementing mitigating measures, such as the flood management system in the Netherlands (called Delta Works) where infrastructure is designed to protect against catastrophic flooding. This results in a high level of security for the population, infrastructure and economy.

Our London team (Sam, Jacob and Philippe) was on the EO scene last week, attending the first-ever EO Summit. Organised by Aravind Ravichandran from TerraWatch Space, its goal was to focus on users instead of providers and on applications instead of the tech itself. 🗣️ It was great to see examples of the next generation of EO tech. We saw some cool LLM demos (we’re working on this as well!) that showed how you can do geospatial analysis using natural language. 🛰️ A key topic discussed was around satellite constellations which provide daily updated imagery globally to detect changes such as floods or deforestation or industrial or crop monitoring. 🌧️ Insurance was another focus area. There were several companies working on parametric insurance - a set payout based on a trigger event, such as a natural disaster of a specified intensity. It was great to connect with our peers from Planet, Element 84, LiveEO, OroraTech, Spire, Pixxel, Maxar Technologies, Sust Global and other EO companies. Huge kudos Aravind - we look forward to the next one!

🇳🇬 We’re delighted to announce our partnership with First Electric, who use VIDA to accelerate investments into energy access infrastructure, specifically mesh-grids, in Nigeria. Mesh-grids are an innovative and fast-growing technology solution for electrifying off-grid households. By connecting nearby houses and their individual solar systems together, users can share power which enables them to consume more than on their own. “Mesh grids have an indispensable role to play in addressing energy poverty in Nigeria”, says First Electric Founder Daniel Komolafe. “Using VIDA, First Electric can quickly and affordably identify the most suitable locations for our mesh grids across the country.” We agree! We’re proud to support First Electric’s journey.