Planet + EARTH: How Satellite Technology Transforms Supply Chain Transparency

The Partnership Revolution

The alliance between Planet Labs PBC and EARTH PBC represents something unprecedented in environmental monitoring: the world's largest satellite constellation combined with community-powered ground truth verification. Two Public Benefit Corporations united by shared mission and legal commitment to positive impact.

Daily Global Coverage

Planet Labs operates over 200 Earth-imaging satellites, providing daily coverage of the entire planet at sub-meter resolution. This constellation captures changes in forest cover, infrastructure development, and land use patterns in near real-time—a dramatic improvement over traditional satellite systems that update weekly or monthly.

For supply chain monitoring, this means companies can detect deforestation, illegal logging, or unauthorized land clearing within days of occurrence rather than waiting for annual audit cycles.

The Ground Truth Gap

Satellite imagery alone tells only part of the story. Changes visible from space need human context to understand their meaning. Is that forest clearing authorized sustainable harvesting or illegal logging? Is that new infrastructure supporting conservation efforts or facilitating resource extraction?

This is where EARTH's community networks provide essential ground truth verification. Local community members understand the context behind landscape changes, can verify whether activities comply with management plans, and can document human impacts invisible from space.

Hyper-Transparency

The Planet + EARTH partnership creates what we call "hyper-transparency"—immediate correlation between satellite observations and community reporting. When Planet satellites detect forest cover loss, EARTH community members can verify what's happening on the ground in real-time.

This combination provides verification accuracy approaching 90% for environmental monitoring, far exceeding what either satellite imagery or community reporting can achieve independently.

Real-World Applications

In forest conservation, the partnership enables immediate detection of illegal logging backed by community verification of perpetrators and methods. In marine protection, satellite tracking of fishing vessels combines with community reporting of landing activities to create comprehensive monitoring.

For supply chain compliance, this means companies can demonstrate due diligence through continuous monitoring rather than periodic audits. When issues arise, they have both satellite evidence and community documentation to support rapid response.

Beyond Monitoring: Empowerment

The partnership's real innovation lies in empowering communities to tell their own stories. Community members use EARTH's platform to document conservation successes, sustainable practices, and positive environmental outcomes—not just violations and problems.

This creates a complete picture where satellite technology amplifies community voices rather than replacing them, supporting local agency while providing the verification enterprises need for regulatory compliance.

Scalable Impact

As more communities join EARTH's trusted networks and Planet's constellation continues growing, the partnership's impact scales exponentially. Network effects mean each new participant strengthens the entire system's reliability and coverage.

This represents the future of environmental monitoring: space-age technology serving human-centered transparency, delivered by organizations legally committed to planetary wellbeing over profit maximization.

The question isn't whether satellite technology will transform supply chain monitoring—it's whether that transformation will empower communities or further marginalize them. Planet + EARTH ensures technology serves people power.

‍