We're proud to announce that nadar was awarded the IQ Innovationspreis Leipzig by the city of Leipzig!

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Companies can improve their climate footprint by buying CO2 certificates. The certificates are intended to prove that CO2 is being saved in another part of the world. The most valuable resource for climate protection is the forest, which absorbs large quantities of greenhouse gases. If you preserve or reforest your own forest, you can sell CO2 certificates on a global marketplace. This is a multi-billion dollar business in a confusing market, where greenwashing with forest protection programs is often carried out with false information. There is simply no means of precisely verifying whether the stated tree populations are correct, how the forest is developing, and whether the climate protection projects actually live up to their reputation. For the first time, Leipzig-based Nadar GmbH has developed an online platform specifically tailored to the CO2 market. An algorithm uses satellite images, climate data, and radar information to determine with pinpoint accuracy how a forest is actually developing. Anywhere in the world. In this way, all participants in the certificate market can prove beyond doubt and transparently to the public how high the contribution of a forest to climate protection actually is. The founders of Nadar are putting their passion for nature conservation into practice: they want to use their platform to protect over 12 million hectares of forest worldwide, which can store a whole 127 million tons of CO2.

As a Leipzig-based startup, it's an honor for us to receive this prize, especially as we were among so many innovative startups and teams from Central Germany. It's great to see all the developments in Eastern Germany and specifically all the high-tech innovations from cheap high-performing microchips, plug and play solar connections to plasma catalysis that recycles CO2 into green chemicals and e-fuels.

The award confirms us on our mission of bringing transparency to the carbon market through satellite data - from Leipzig globally!🌳🛰

Image by Guido Werner

Caroline is an experienced data scientist with a management degree from TU Munich and a degree in earth observation from the University of Würzburg, which is co-chaired by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). She has worked as a data scientist in the areas of nature conservation and land use change monitoring at WWF, the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), and at tech companies such as Celonis and Deloitte.