Diego Saez-Gil-Pachama

Tap into the collective power of influential business and NGO pioneers to create new strategies and

 tactics to build a more socially and environmentally conscious world.

The U.S. Green Chamber of Commerce is excited to bring you our newest Q&A series, Global Sustainability Leaders.

We’ve traveled the globe searching for the best and brightest sustainability leaders and we’ve found them. In our series, you will meet the

people who are creating a healthier and happier planet for you, your business and your community. Click here to view all of our Global Leaders

What is the mission of your company/NGO?

I founded Pachama to help restore and protect our global forests in a bid to solve climate change. We are achieving this by leveraging data, artificial intelligence, and automation to protect ecosystems, restore forests, and improve the credibility of carbon markets around the world.

What are your thoughts on climate change? What is your company/organization

doing to help bring awareness or to help mitigate climate change?

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time. Forests are a proven and cost-effective means of drawing down atmospheric carbon, yet this solution is underutilized due to an absence of reliable data. Pachama’s technology changes that. We use machine learning with satellite imaging to measure carbon captured in forests and provide a new standard of assurance in carbon markets.

 

Personally—Why do you care about sustainability? What is your story?

I grew up in northern Argentina, at the tip of the diverse rainforest covering most of South America. After a decade building technology companies abroad, I returned to my roots and traveled to the Amazon rainforest. That’s when I saw how much forest was cleared to deforestation and I realized the potential of nature-based solutions to solve climate change.

How have those projects positively impacted your country?

Pachama is an open online marketplace which democratizes access to carbon markets. This makes it easy for individuals and companies of any size to purchase verified forest carbon credits and have a positive climate impact. Already more than 1M hectares of forests have been conserved thanks to our platform. We ensure projects are protecting real carbon in old-growth trees or growing new ones. 

 

Please share any new projects you will be implementing in the near future.

There are barriers to entering carbon markets for smaller companies. That’s why we just launched “forest bundles,” which allows companies of all sizes to select a “bundle” of credits from a particular region. Having a range of projects in a “carbon portfolio” reduces the risk of natural disaster in any one. We hope this new offering allows more businesses to take climate action and easily achieve net zero ambitions.

Please provide links/social media handles you would like to include: 

Twitter (Diego): @dsaezgil

Twitter (Pachama): @PachamaInc

Linkedin: here