Technology for a thriving planet, holistic eco assets, pathways for regenerative jobs of the future.

TL;DR:

🌻 Vision → Mission → Goal → We envision a future where humanity's capacity to regenerate ecosystems surpasses the rate at which we degrade them. To turn this vision into reality, our mission is to transform regeneration into an occupation. Our immediate goal is to streamline the onboarding process into Regenerative Finance (ReFi) and make the verification of small-scale impact both feasible and cost-effective.

But why ❔

🚨 The planet's ecosystems are under threat, with degradation outpacing regeneration. Small-scale regenerators hold the key to reversing this trend, but face barriers like the high costs of originating environmental assets and complex, fragmented onboarding processes in the ReFi space. We're bridging the gap, enabling regenerators to earn a living through tangible impact.

So, what are we actually building ❔

1️⃣ RegenID: A dApp designed to simplify and enhance the onboarding process for regenerators looking to make an income while making an impact. It will help non-tech savvy obtain a non-custodial multi-chain wallet, match-make them with opportunities for regenerative income, and provide peer-to-peer credentials & attestations.

2️⃣ Adaptive Agroforestry & Smallholder Stewardship: A pioneering methodology that facilitates the issuance of eco credits on Regen Network, enabling small-scale regenerators to originate practice-based, environmental stewardship credits from verified regenerative practices like Syntropic Agroforestry in diverse bioregions across the globe.

FULL LENGTH GRANT:

Why you should care about what we’re working on

🌻 Amidst the looming shadow of planetary collapse and the vast "metacrisis", many feel daunted. Yet, we stand firm in hope and optimism. Our evolution from Eco Labs to Sunflower EcoTech is more than a name change; it's a symbol of resilience, growth, and a brighter future. Here’s why this is so important:

🌱 The Reality of Our Times

• The world is at a crossroads. Climate change, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, and other environmental challenges are not just abstract concepts; they are real, tangible threats that affect our daily lives. From wildfires to droughts, from rising sea levels to extreme weather events, the signs are all around us.

🌱 The Power of Individual Action

• While these challenges are vast, history has shown us that collective individual actions can bring about monumental change. Every regenerator, every tree planted, every sustainable practice adopted, contributes to a larger movement. A movement that isn't just about survival, but about thriving and coexisting harmoniously with nature.

🌱 The Ripple Effect of Systemic Change

• At the heart of our challenges lie systems and incentives that have long prioritized short-term gains over long-term sustainability. By reshaping these systems and realigning incentives, we catalyze profound, lasting impact. When we support regenerative practices, we're not merely addressing symptoms; we're transforming the underlying structures that govern behavior. This systemic shift not only restores the environment but also revitalizes communities, creates sustainable livelihoods, and fosters a culture of care and responsibility. Such deep-rooted changes have the power to influence economies, societies, and set the course for future generations on a path of harmony and abundance.

🌱 Innovation as Our Ally

• In the age of technology, we have tools at our disposal that our ancestors could only dream of. Leveraging technology for environmental good, such as blockchain, IoT, and AI, amplifies our impact and accelerates our progress. It's a fusion of nature's wisdom and human ingenuity.

🌱 A Call to Hope

• While the challenges are immense, so too are the opportunities. Every crisis in history has been met with innovation, resilience, and the indomitable human spirit. We invite you to be part of this hopeful narrative, to be a beacon of change, and to join us in sowing the seeds for a regenerative future.

What we’ve been up to the last year

🌎 Our Journey in Colombia

Over the past year, our team immersed ourselves in Barichara, Colombia for a total of five transformative months. Our first trip began at ReFi Barichara, a five-day event organized by regenerative collaborators Joe Brewer and Antonio, in partnership with the local organization, the Barichara Territorial Foundation. This experience grounded us in the reality of regeneration and fostered beautiful relationships with local regenerators. We engaged with the local community, learning about diverse regenerative projects, volunteering and getting our hands dirty in the field which helped us identify three pilot sites for our methodology:

Bioparque Móncora - this community forest is a 6.5-hectare symbol of regenerative cooperation.

Huerta Communitaria - a 2-hectare project in syntropic agroforestry fosters community connection and local economy.

Origen del Agua - a 3.2-hectare reforestation project that focuses on water retention, soil-building, and native forest growth.

This hands-on experience gave us invaluable insights into the realities of regeneration and the potential for small-scale regenerators to make a significant impact.

During our second trip, we delved into the practical application of digital, decentralized Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (dMRV) tools. We collaborated with Gainforest to collect ecological data, capturing drone footage and recording species data. We realized the need for a low cost sensor that maximizes ecological data collection, striking that balance lead us to partner with Seeed Studio to co-develop a low-cost bio-acoustic sensor. These tools promise to revolutionize the way we measure and verify regenerative practices, making it easier and more affordable for regenerators to demonstrate their impact.

This trip helped us solidify our understanding of applied dMRV, and now we continue to develop our capacity to implement dMRV techniques in these categories:

🤳 Human Sensing: Data collected through humans using smartphones.

🛰️ Remote Sensing: Data collected through IoT devices, drones, and satellite imagery.

📛 Reputation Sensing: Data that shows the relationship and association between projects, the regenerators that steward them, and the local community and economy.

Market Research with NSF

Between our immersive trips to Colombia, we conducted comprehensive market research through the National Science Foundation iCorps program. This initiative involved conducting over 140 stakeholder interviews, providing us with a profound understanding of the ecological assets market. Our interviewees ranged from Corporate Sustainability Officers and Philanthropic donors to Asset Managers and Founders.

Our research led us to categorize "Patrons" into three distinct groups, each with different investment horizons:

▪️Short-term stakeholders: Philanthropists and Speculators

• Philanthropists: These are individuals or organizations with a big heart and the financial means to support regenerative causes. They are driven by a desire to contribute to environmental sustainability.

• Speculators: This group includes investors and traders who are interested in purchasing eco assets with the intention of reselling them later at a premium to medium and long-term buyers. They see immediate opportunity in the market and are ready to invest in eco assets for future gains.

◾Medium-term stakeholders: Commodity Producers and Insurance Providers

• Commodity Producers: These stakeholders view regenerative practices as a means of risk mitigation. Climate change poses existential threats to supply chains, and regenerative practices can increase biodiversity and ecosystem resilience, decreasing the risk of climate disruption. Commodities like Coffee, Olive Oil, Cacao, Citrus Fruits, Hemp, and others could be sold at a premium with proof-of-impact or eco assets attached to them.

• Insurance Providers: Similar to commodity producers, insurance providers see value in regenerative practices for risk mitigation. The ecological data collected through regenerative practices can be resold to insurance underwriters to better predict natural disaster impacts.

⬛ Long-term stakeholders: Corporates and Governments

Corporates and Governments: These entities are currently focusing more on Insetting (changing operations to reduce negative environmental impact) rather than Offsetting (buying eco assets that offset negative impact). There is a lack of clarity on what qualifies as Offsetting, and global standards bodies and government regulators need to achieve clarity on acceptable ecological assets. However, many corporations and governments have set sustainability goals for 2030 and 2040. As these dates approach, and if these organizations have not entirely reduced their negative impacts, they will need to purchase offsets to achieve goals like net-zero emissions. These stakeholders are considered long-term, not incredibly viable right now, but will become more so as we get closer to 2028 and beyond.

🦜🫎🐝 A key insight from our research was the growing momentum of biodiversity credits. This emerging eco asset, which extends beyond the traditional focus on carbon, is gaining significant momentum and is poised for substantial growth in the coming years.

Notable Achievements

• Sustainable Blockchain Hackathon Victory: We teamed up with our friends at FarmOS & Silvi to participate in the Sustainable Blockchain Hackathon, and we won! Our collaborative project, OpenTrees, is an open-source initiative that aims to create a standardized data model for trees. This standardization is crucial for research, conservation efforts, investment decisions, and transparency in reforestation projects.

• Future Quest Grants Recognition: We were honored to be one of the first 17 winners of the Future Quest grants. This achievement reflects our commitment to innovation and sustainability in the field of regenerative practices.

How we Work

At Sunflower EcoTech, we firmly believe in the power of collaboration to achieve our goals. We prioritize working with anyone and everyone who’s contributing to the puzzle of regeneration. This collaborative spirit has led us to run a methodology development sprint with individuals like Djimo from Silvi, Diogo from Agroforest DAO, Ana Maria from KoKo DAO, Darina from Coffee Impact Collective, and Charlie from ReCommon. We've also participated in the Ecological Benefits Activator hosted by the Lexicon and collaborated on designing a “Wiki Page” for ReFi with ReFi DAO and the Blockchain x Climate Leadership Network (BxC). While collaboration can be challenging to manage and progress, we believe it is essential to our mission of making regeneration an occupation, where Regenerators become the jobs of the future.

In our pursuit of this regenerative future, we have forged key collaborations that enhance our ability to verify and originate Eco Credits:

🤝 Regen Network: a platform that emphasizes high-integrity carbon and biodiversity credits. We are building on top of Regen Network's infrastructure, working closely with their team, organizing events with them, participating in their community and ecosystem governance, and assisting others in navigating Regen Network's methodology development process. This collaboration also facilitates the development of our own methodology, titled Adaptive Agroforestry & Smallholder Stewardship, aligning with Regen Network's mission to incentivize ecosystem regeneration and reverse climate change.

🤝 dMeter Membership: As a founding organizational member of dMeter, we are integrating decentralized Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (dMRV) techniques such as human-sensing, remote-sensing, and reputation-sensing. These innovative methods provide a low-cost, decentralized source of ground-truth data, vital for the issuance of Eco Credits.

🤝 Silvi Protocol Collaboration: Working with Silvi Protocol, creators of a human-sensing mobile app for tree planting tracking, we are building on their technology to enhance our dMRV stack. This partnership makes our process more efficient in verifying and originating Eco Credits.

🤝 Ekonavi Integration: Our collaboration with Ekonavi involves weaving their platform into our methodology as an additional indicator for agroforestry verification. As Regenerators use the ekonavi platform to post and engage with other Regens, the points they accrue will increase the number of eco credits a project is able to originate.

🤝 GainForest Collaboration: In partnership with GainForest, we are enhancing the verification layer of MRV by utilizing their open-source models for satellite-based tree and vegetation assessment. Additionally, we are collaborating to develop novel bioacoustic models for recognizing species, further enriching our verification capabilities.

🤝 Seeed Studio: one of the world's leading open-source hardware companies. They specialize in hardware research, production, and sales, particularly in the field of innovative IoT technology. We’ve partnered with them to co-develop our bio-acoustic sensor device.

What we’ve got planned for the next year

📗 RegenID: Empowering Regenerative Land Stewards

RegenID is a digital platform designed to onboard millions of environmental stewards, or "Regenerators," into the world of Regenerative Finance and web3. By leveraging a multi-chain wallet, digital identifiers (DIDs), and issuing Bioregional Passports (a form of verifiable credentials or VCs), RegenID aims to help validate skills, build trust within communities, and facilitate fair payments for ecological asset sales. More than just a tool, RegenID serves as a pathfinder.

Regenerator pathways are a core function of RegenID, serving as an index to guide Regenerators on available options for getting paid to make a positive impact. These pathways provide guidance on how and where to start taking action and where to get educated on regenerative practices. We are building a database of projects that include existing systems for paying people for positive action. This database will detail how people can get started in those projects, and what personality traits, skills, geography, and access to resources make an individual well-suited for a specific project. By asking a would-be Regenerator a few key questions, we can narrow down the options and display only the most relevant projects tailored to them specifically.

The Bioregional Passport feature will serve as a recognized and verifiable system to acknowledge the skills, reputation, and contributions of Regenerators across various bioregions. By filling the gap in community accountability measures, RegenID aims to restore public trust in the carbon credit and ecological asset market, which has been eroded by instances of exploitation by external actors.

This approach will incentivize reputable community regenerators to participate in ecological asset markets, providing eco-credit buyers with the necessary information to ensure their investments support genuine, community-rooted regeneration projects over global corporatized project developers with no real connection to the local economy. Use cases for Bioregional Passports include:

Reputation Sensing: Revealing disconnects from the community.

Onboarding and Tracking Eco Assets: Facilitating the process of integrating ecological assets.

Empowering Volunteers and Traveling Regenerators: Facilitating a peer-to-peer system to issue badges that recognize skills and experiences.

Tracking Regen Experts and Consultants: Monitoring their impact on projects over time.

Engaging Patrons and Contributors: Facilitating eco-tourism and tracking contributions to regenerative projects, rewarding funding milestones with unique opportunities.

🌳 Adaptive Agroforestry & Smallholder Stewardship (AASS) Methodology

We're developing and implementing the Adaptive Agroforestry & Smallholder Stewardship (AASS) methodology to assist smallholder farmers in adopting agroforestry practices. The methodology is adaptive and flexible, allowing for customization based on varying agro-ecological contexts. It focuses on practice-based eco-credits, with the potential for future outcomes-based credit issuance as carbon and biodiversity modeling can be performed on the collected data over time.

Our monitoring approach will use a combination of decentralized, digital Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) solutions, applying the concept of Data Fidelity. This means eco-credits may be issued with varying levels of certainty, from low-fidelity (one form of sensing technique) to high-fidelity (all sensing techniques present and cross-referenced).

Over the next year, we plan to develop and implement this methodology, which is based on observations from on-the-ground agroforestry projects around the world, including locations in Barichara Colombia, Ndula Zambia, and Lima Duarte Brasil.

In conclusion

At Sunflower EcoTech, our principles of regeneration, collaboration, diversity, and transparency guide us. We prioritize the needs of regenerators, those on the frontlines of ecological restoration, and strive to create tools and methodologies that support and validate their invaluable work.

We embrace collaboration, value radical truth and transparency, and prioritize action. We're not just building products; we're fostering a community that seeks to understand and address the complexities of our world.

As we look to the future, we're excited about our projects' potential to accelerate humanity's capacity to regenerate ecosystems faster than we degrade them. But we can't do it alone. We need your support.

By donating to this grant, you're investing in a regenerative future. You're joining a community of regenerators, innovators, and dreamers who believe in the power of collective action to heal our planet.

Join us on this journey. Donate to this grant today. Together, we can sow the seeds for a regenerative future. Let's regenerate ourselves and the world, one step at a time. Donate Now.

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