WEBVTT

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I'm an industrial engineer.

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The goal in my life has always been to make

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more and more products

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in the least amount of time and resources.

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While working at Toyota,

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all I knew was how to make cars

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until I met Dr. Akira Miyawaki,

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who came to our factory to make a forest in it

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in order to make it carbon-neutral.

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I was so fascinated

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that I decided to learn this methodology

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by joining his team as a volunteer.

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Soon, I started making a forest

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in the backyard of my own house,

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and this is how it looks after three years.

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These forests,

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compared to a conventional plantation,

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grow 10 times faster,

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they're 30 times more dense,

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and 100 times more biodiverse.

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Within two years of having this forest in our backyard,

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I could observe that the groundwater

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didn't dry during summers,

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the number of bird species I spotted in this area

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doubled.

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Quality of air became better,

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and we started harvesting seasonal fruits

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growing effortlessly

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right in the backyard of our house.

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I wanted to make more of these forests.

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I was so moved by these results

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that I wanted to make these forests

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with the same acumen with which we make cars

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or write software or do any mainstream business,

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so I founded a company

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which is an end-to-end service provider

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to create these native natural forests.

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But to make afforestation as a mainstream business

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or an industry, we had to standardize

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the process of forest-making.

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So we benchmarked the Toyota Production System

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known for its quality and efficiency

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for the process of forest-making.

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For an example, the core of TPS,

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Toyota Production System, lies in heijunka,

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which is making manufacturing

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of different models of cars

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on a single assembly line.

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We replaced these cars with trees,

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using which now we can make multi-layered forests.

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These forests utilize 100 percent vertical space.

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They are so dense

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that one can't even walk into them.

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For an example, we can make a 300-tree forest

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in an area as small as the parking spaces of six cars.

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In order to reduce cost and our own carbon footprint,

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we started utilizing local biomass

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as soil amender and fertilizers.

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For example, coconut shells crushed in a machine

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mixed with rice straw,

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powder of rice husk mixed with organic manure

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is finally dumped in soil on which

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our forest is planted.

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Once planted, we use grass or rice straw

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to cover the soil

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so that all the water which goes into irrigation

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doesn't get evaporated back into the atmosphere.

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And using these simple improvisations,

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today we can make a forest

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for a cost as low as the cost of an iPhone.

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Today, we are making forests in houses,

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in schools, even in factories with the corporates.

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But that's not enough.

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There is a huge number of people

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who want to take matters into their own hands.

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So we let it happen.

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Today, we are working on an Internet-based platform

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where we are going to share our methodology

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on an open source

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using which anyone and everyone

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can make their own forest

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without our physical presence being there,

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using our methodology.

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At the click of a button,

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they can get to know all the native species

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of their place.

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By installing a small hardware probe on site,

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we can do remote soil testing,

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using which we can give step-by-step instructions

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on forest-making remotely.

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Also we can monitor the growth of this forest

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without being on site.

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This methodology, I believe,

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has a potential.

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By sharing, we can actually
bring back our native forests.

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Now, when you go back home,

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if you see a barren piece of land,

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do remember that it can be a potential forest.

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Thank you very much. Thanks.

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(Applause)