Arkadiah sees carbon not as a negative but as a resource to combat deforestation

A few hours before Arkadiah chief executive officer and co-founder Reuben Lai’s photo shoot, a WhatsApp message floated in from its marketing head. She asked if the session could be shortened. My response — “how to say no to a guy who’s protecting nature?” — elicited a chuckle, but I wasn’t joking. Not really, when you remember how we have exploited our most precious asset.

For decades, our demand for nature’s goods and services has exceeded its ability to supply them sustainably. Burning fossil fuels, farming, fishing, logging, mining: You name it, we’re doing it. So rapaciously, in fact, that wildlife populations are in freefall worldwide. 

As if dealing with carbon emissions weren’t enough, humanity is now grappling with another set of environmental risks — nature and biodiversity. 

Here is where Arkadiah steps in. While many nature techs focus on reducing carbon emissions or vacuuming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, 10-month-old Arkadiah sees carbon as a resource with the power to enact significant change. 

“For us, carbon is not the enemy. Removing carbon is not the end goal in and of itself,” he asserts. Instead, he focuses on land regeneration using technology to enhance traceability, transparency, and trust. 

Today, we are experiencing environmental degradation and biodiversity loss, and the repercussions extend to food security. Yet, paradoxically, the undervalued, low-yielding, degraded terrains, often overlooked, hold the capacity to reverse climate change and boost food production to meet the demands of our planet's expanding population, he explains. “Working with nature's regenerative design allows us to turn this crisis into a huge opportunity.”

Choosing nature restoration becomes intuitive when you grasp the ramifications of soil degradation. Up to 40 per cent of global soils are already degraded, a potential loss of up to US$23 trillion ($30.9 trillion) in food, ecosystem services and income on a global scale by 2050. And let’s not forget that humble soil holds a massive amount of carbon, second only to the ocean.

Arkadiah addresses climate emergencies, food security, and livelihoods by transforming degraded lands into productive assets. Land regeneration can, hence, become a potent force that positively impacts community and society. “This is powerful for our planet and inspires our work to scale land restoration through technology,” says Lai earnestly. 

Nature and tech go together

The former senior managing director at Grab Financial Group adds, “From Day One, we knew a science-based approach was critical to bring in capital and instil buyers’ confidence in the carbon credit market.” After an iterative process involving experienced land restoration developers on pilot projects, Arkadiah’s proprietary artificial intelligence (AI)-driven platform today integrates ground truth data, satellite imagery, and advanced AI models to provide projects with key quality indicators.

These include analysing ecological attributes, identifying threats such as fire risk or drought susceptibility, and providing recommendations and estimates for carbon potential.

“Our AI platform acts like an all-seeing eye from space to ground, and we can monitor progress remotely instead of continuous site visits. This gives projects unparalleled insights to implement restoration faster, better, and more cost-effectively than ever.” 

Armed with the appropriate technological arsenal, Lai is confident that unlocking the necessary funding to elevate land restoration to the level required for safeguarding our region's ecosystem is within reach. “If we can harness nature technology to feed our people and regenerate our planet for future generations, the opportunities are only limited by our imagination,” he maintains. 

From past pessimism to future optimism

Hopefulness imbues his words, but Lai reveals that he actually started out as a pessimist because “the climate crisis is so massive”. In fact, Lai’s appreciation of nature developed only when he immersed himself in outdoor sports. Over time, nature and environmental issues loomed larger in his mind — not just as global issues but as existential risks to future generations. 

Referencing a popular quote — “We don't inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children” — he says, “I was borrowing a degraded planet, and it weighed heavily on me.” 

In a stroke of good fortune, his prior roles in business and technology highlighted the capability of innovative solutions to address intricate challenges like financial inclusion. Using technology, he directed his attention toward developing a sustainable business model to confront climate change and revitalise the planet.

“I am optimistic we will innovate ourselves out of this crisis. When investment dollars and talent converge, we can truly solve planetary-scale problems,” he promises. 

The prevailing sense of prospect doesn't overshadow Lai's pragmatic recognition that finances are crucial in environmental conservation efforts. Idealism may be heartwarming, but reality has a way of grounding you, after all. 

His unique blend of romanticism and practicality is reinforced when he shares, “Instead of chasing personal lofty ambitions, (I want) to build a repeatable business model to turn degraded lands into nature-positive productive assets that generate a healthy return to investors. I believe that by healing nature, we are healing and uplifting humanity itself.”