In March 2016, Juan Carlos Sesma returned from Bogotá to Spain to develop a project that will combat climate change. With the help of his family — the Monastery of La Oliva in Navarra, and the Cistercian friar Enrique Carrasco family, who for generations have been linked to the Sesma-Fraguas family and have in-depth knowledge of alchemy — he founded the startup called CO2 Revolution.
The CO2 Revolution is powered by LG Spain, Fundación Ibercaja, and many Spanish companies such as the Junta de Extremadura, Exevi, Patrocina un Deportista and others. Their collective aim is to fight against climate change by planting trees using drones and smart seeds.
CO2 Revolution’s collaboration with these entities happened on October 23, 2020, when the pact to plant millions of trees across Spain was signed at the Monastery of Cogullada in Zaragoza. More than three million trees have already been planted through drones in Guadalajara, Extremadura, Palencia, and Murcia under the Smart Green Movement. This year, with Fundación Ibercaja, the reforestation will begin in Aragon.
During that time, Sesma shared that “going hand in hand with LG and Ibercaja in this new action show the great environmental awareness and commitment of both companies to continue growing in an ambitious project in favor of the recovery of forests in Spain. Investing in trees means investing in the future in every way. They are a business example of a true ecological transition towards a sustainable development model.”
Plans towards sustainability
CO2 Revolution’s first tests were done in Navarre with an iSeed or an intelligent seed that has a pre-germinated seed in it, which has an 80% chance of germinating wherever it lands. The pre-germinated seed in the capsule will be surrounded by other things such as root growth promoters, organic fertilizers, a highly absorbent polymer that will make the seed grow to 500 times its size, natural herbicides that will prevent the weed growth, and organic repellants to prevent the seed from being eaten.
Each drone from CO2 Revolution has a tank that can hold up to 2,500 of these seeds. The drones are equipped with GPS and mapping systems to autonomously detect the most appropriate zones on a piece of land for the iSeed to be dropped. They also use a spectrographic camera to analyze the spectrum of the pictures it collects of the zones presumably ideal for sowing.
CO2 Revolution hopes to plant over ten billion trees over the next ten years around the world and help build ecosystems with a touch of technology. This Spain-based company provides its services to those communities and organizations that need to carry out plantation activities for reforestation and offsetting their carbon footprint purposes to combat climate change.
The company has been officially certified by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge to go forward with their project. Along with the aforementioned tools, the team at CO2 Revolution also uses big data to reforesting large areas of land in less time and at a low cost. This model also allows remote monitoring of the growth of the ecosystem. The company believes that “Like the seeds that inspired us in the Monastery of La Oliva, our ethical code precisely defines our mission, vision, values, and principles that regulate the development of our company.”
YouTube: CO2 Revolution English – iSeed Video
Photo credits: The images used are owned by CO2 Revolution and are provided for press usage.
