Regen Supply

Prakash Somosundrum, CEO of Enjinstarter and Co-founder of AYA Foundation chats about ReFi and bringing tech innovation into the carbon market. This recording was done at the launch of ReFi Singapore. Pardon the poor audio quality!

In this AMA, Prakash chats about:
- The beginnings of Enjinstarter and AYA Foundation
- Bringing digitisation, AI, digital MRV and blockchain innovation into the carbon market
- Using carbon as a proxy for impact on the balance sheet of a "phoenix startup"
- Learnings from Enjinstarter that he's applying to AYA Foundation
- Top three problems that developers can start thinking about solving: carbon, circular economy, soil restoration

Read the highlights from the podcast here: https://medium.com/@shihan.fang/refi-singapore-launch-aya-foundation-b1bd5f272d37

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Simon Schillebeeckx has three jobs. He’s an assistant professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the Singapore Management University. He’s also the founder of Global Mangrove Trust, a mangrove protection non-profit, and the founder of Handprint, a B2B funding platform for impact projects. 

But because he’s triple hatting as an academic, conservationist, and an entrepreneur, he’s got some pretty interesting ideas on how regenerative finance could be our way out of the climate crisis. 

Here’s my favourite part: he’s got a moonshot idea of how a currency pegged to the value of nature could be much better than currencies created by central banks. It’s the last question - scroll to the end to hear it.

Read the highlights of the interview here: https://medium.com/@shihan.fang/think-positive-think-regeneration-chief-vision-officer-handprint-a5d815691573 

Note: There’s a part when he talks about quantifying impact based on trees planted is better than carbon credits. I asked him about how he ensures permanence - ensuring that the trees planted stay planted - after the interview. His reply is in writing on the Medium article.

Part 1 (01:02 - 41:10)

• How Simon manages to juggle 3 jobs
• How Handprint helps companies integrate regenerative activity into their business model
• Every department must play ball: how siloed departments at Adidas missed the mark on the Common Goal campaign
• How digital MRV (measurement, reporting, verification) can cut down costs while improving integrity

Part 2 (41:10 - 1:03:00)

• Does regenerative finance (ReFi) need to involve blockchain?
• How is sustainability different from regeneration?
• How regeneration responsibilities can be distributed among companies based on valuation
• Moonshot idea: a currency pegged to the value of nature

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Imagine a future when nature and finance are both comfortably integrated into Web3. Imagine an economy that incentivises regeneration, rather than extraction. 

In this episode, I catch up with Jeff Ren, who wears two hats. He’s a partner at OKX Ventures and also an Asia Pacific Leadership Council member at The Nature Conservancy.

He drops in a Chinese saying: 人定胜天. Which refers to humanity’s determination to triumph over nature. It’s the cause of the climate crisis that we’re facing today. But it’s also our route out of this mess, if we can overcome the man made causes of this crisis. 

Can ReFi make that happen? Jeff thinks so. We chat about the following:

• The role of investment and technology in conservation
• His definition of refi 
• OKX Ventures’ current appetite for ReFi investments 
• What OKX Ventures looks out for when funding ReFi projects
• Whether tokenization is a distraction from bigger problems in the ESG space
• Where he sees ReFi going in the next 10-20 years

Read the highlights of the interview here.

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In this episode, I chat with Gabriel Eickhoff, the co-founder of ClearWind, which is developing carbon credit projects in Southeast Asia. He’s been in the carbon space since 2007 and was involved in the world’s first REDD+ project, Rimba Raya.

It was a long conversation so I’ve split it into three parts. The first part is a history lesson on REDD+ carbon credits, the second part is about market dynamics, and the third part is about controversy in the carbon market this year. 

Here are the time codes for each section:

• Part 1 (0:50 - 41:03): The history of the carbon market and the arrival of Verra
• Part 2 (41:10 - 1:18:53): Winning hearts and minds of the local communities and coping with vacillating demand-side signals
• Part 3 (1:18:58 - 1:53:37): Thoughts about South Pole’s Kariba project and media coverage of REDD+ carbon credits this year

Read the highlights from the interview here.

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Bhutan has been quietly mining bitcoins with hydropower since 2017, when bitcoins were trading at US$5,000 apiece. With bitcoins now trading above $30,000, Bhutan’s bet has paid off handsomely. 

But Bhutan has no plans to expand “crypto adoption” beyond bitcoin mining. Instead, it is focused on positioning itself as a leading technology hub in the Himalayan region.

Last month, Bhutan launched a National Digital Identity (NDI) system for its citizens. The system is similar to Singapore’s Singpass but based on a self-sovereign identity (SSI) framework and built on a blockchain. It is also partnering with Singapore’s Garuda Robotics to monitor high transmission lines in its hills using drones.

I spoke with the CEO of Druk Holding & Investments, Ujjwal Deep Dahal, about the sovereign wealth fund’s plans to disrupt the Bhutanese economy by building local expertise in drone testing, blockchain, and artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML).

In this episode, we talk about:

• DHI’s Bitcoin strategy
• Focus areas for DHI as it pivots the country towards a digital economy
• Challenges that lie ahead

Read the highlights of the interview here, and a longer background feature here.

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Donor funding has never been enough for conservation, says Dr Lahiru Wijedasa, Asia Forest Coordinator at BirdLife International. BirdLife has traditionally relied on donor funding but will issue carbon credits next year from its Lomphat Wildlife Sanctuary in Cambodia. 

In this episode, Dr Wijedasa chats about:

• Why carbon financing, while flawed, is the most promising avenue for conservation
• Why claims that 90% of forest carbon credits are “worthless” rest on scientifically shaky ground
• Why technology can solve some supply-side problems, but broader issues related to lack of on-ground expertise remain
• Difficulties in funding the Lomphat Wildlife Sanctuary, given that rainfall is seasonal and six months of dry season means half the amount of carbon credits compared to a tropical forest with constant rainfall
• Why sustainability professionals and carbon buyers should visit the projects themselves to witness the impact of their purchase

Read highlights of the interview on Medium here. 

Bonus post for the ReFi community here. 

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InterOpera’s head of strategy Koh Hong Yi is a former officer at Singapore's Monetary Authority of Singapore. He jumped into crypto in 2022 just as the market was crashing, and is now doing work in... security tokens. 

In this episode, Hong Yi chats about:

- the difference between cryptocurrencies, digital payment tokens, and digital assets within Singapore's regulatory framework
- attending Cop27 after starting in the company for a month
- the regulatory status of digital green bonds and carbon credits, and the future of nature-based securities
- and InterOpera's newly launched carbon exchange, OperaX

This podcast is Part 3 in a series about carbon credits. Read the highlights from the interview on Medium.

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Wavemaker Impact executive Yap Su-E is in charge of picking the winning businesses that are emerging from the climate disruption. She chats about: 

- her portfolio companies that are involved in biochar production, solar panel installations, and regenerative farming
- visiting severely degraded farmland in Vietnam
- how humanity is recalibrating its extractive relationship with nature
- why she would never invest in a company that relies solely on carbon credits for profit
- and what gets her up everyday

This podcast is Part 2 in a series about carbon credits. Read the highlights of this interview on Medium.

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Futures trader turned conservationist turned carbon investor Rich Gilmore chats about

- being the head of The Nature Conservancy in Australia  before co-founding Carbon Growth Partners
- how negative and sometimes misleading media coverage isn’t helping to solve climate change
- the impact of Verra’s standards overhaul and advice for new carbon buyers
- specifics on how carbon credits from the BlueMX project were issued and audited
- and why we don’t see more carbon projects from Southeast Asia. 

This podcast is Part 1 in a series about carbon credits. Read the highlights of the interview here on Medium. 

Sound Effect by Cristian_Changing from Pixabay

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Nothing is ever enough until we hit Net Zero. But to cross the chasm between now and then, we should be paying attention to those creating solutions to better address climate change, in addition to calling out the bad actors.

Regen Supply aims to be a source of inspiration for anyone that wants to take part in climate action. Watch this space - I'll be interviewing the people behind impactful climate action initiatives to get insights on where they're going, and what drives them forward.

Credits: SoulProdMusic from Pixabay

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