In 2016, a bold idea emerged from the collaboration between Airbus and Earthworm Foundation: harnessing satellite technology to help companies navigate up and down in their supply chain, to analyse where deforestation was linked to their business and to engage relevant stakeholders.
At the time, transparency in commodity sourcing was still limited. Companies were making commitments to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains, but lacked the tools to monitor risks at scale, as well as traceability data.
To address these challenges, Starling was developed to bridge the gap between sustainability commitments and on-the-ground implementation by combining satellite imagery, geospatial intelligence, and supply chain expertise into a single operational solution.
Let’s look back at a decade of developments and trends that have shaped Starling’s history and its future.
The journey so far: 10 years spent observing forests and nature from space
2016 to 2018: Birth of satellite monitoring
The solution started in 2016 with pilot projects focused on palm oil, working alongside pioneering companies such as Nestlé and Ferrero. The ambition was clear: provide companies with visibility over deforestation risks in their sourcing regions. At the time, most audits still relied on costly and geographically limited on-the-ground testing.
Thanks to satellite imagery, Starling enabled continuous, tangible and objective monitoring of vast forest areas for the first time, wherever the plantation was located on Earth. The pilots then helped to reassure industries about the quality and reliability of the data, but above all to see what levers could be used to reduce the risk, including supplier engagement and on-site verification if necessary.
“In 2010, we made a No Deforestation commitment stating that none of our products globally will be associated with deforestation by 2020. Starling satellite monitoring has been a game changer to achieve transparency in our supply chain,” says Pierre-Alexandre Teulié, head of corporate communications, public affairs, and environment policy at Nestlé France.
“Data and analytics provided by Starling enabled us to manage risks and perform field intervention strategies together with our suppliers to drive changes better and faster.”
Those early years were dedicated to proving that satellite monitoring could become operational at industrial scale. What began as an innovative project quickly proved useful for sustainability and procurement teams, seeking reliable and independent monitoring tools. The combination of Airbus’ geospatial and imagery processing expertise and Earthworm Foundation’s supply chain knowledge and on-the-ground presence helped make this possible.
2018 to 2023: Empowering geospatial insights
By 2018, Starling had achieved a major milestone by covering 100% of global palm oil sourcing regions with reliable and field-verified data layers. This represented a transformative step for the industry, enabling companies to monitor vast and complex landscapes across Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America.
The same year also marked the beginning of monitoring activities in the cocoa industry, with first initiatives launched in West Africa, a region where deforestation and agricultural expansion were becoming increasingly interconnected.
In 2019, Starling evolved from a monitoring initiative into a fully commercialised solution through the launch of a dedicated digital cloud platform. This new phase enabled companies to access geospatial insights, alerts and reporting tools directly through a scalable interface designed for operational sustainability management.
In 2021, Starling became an industry-wide solution, leading the way companies are reporting on their No Deforestation Verification commitments. The collaboration with some of the largest consumer goods industries highlighted the growing recognition of satellite monitoring as an important component of responsible sourcing strategies. The approach was increasingly being used not only to identify risks but also to support the implementation of no-deforestation commitments.
In 2023, capabilities continued to evolve with expanded coverage across regions and commodities, and strengthened analytics based on proprietary datasets.
The Cavally Landscape Initiative example in Ivory Coast
Since its launch in 2020, the Cavally Landscape Initiative, implemented by Earthworm Foundation and supported by partners including Nestlé, Barry Callebaut, Touton, Cocoasource and SECO/Swissco, has worked to both protect the Cavally Forest Reserve (Ivory Coast) and improve the livelihoods of surrounding communities.
In the third quarter of 2025, the project reached a major milestone, with no deforestation alerts detected by Starling over that time period. Only three hectares of minor degradation were recorded, a significant drop compared to previous years. This achievement reflects years of coordinated efforts, combining satellite monitoring and concrete actions on the ground:
- Large and small-scale patrols covering 95% of the reserve
- 2,800 person-days deployed annually, including forest officers, gendarmerie and local communities
- Over 2,700 hectares of illegal cocoa cleared in the last 18 months
- Nearly 8,000 farming households supported through livelihood improvement initiatives
More than just numbers, these results demonstrate a real change of paradigm.
2023 to today: Navigating standards and regulations
The introduction of the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) has fundamentally changed the expectations placed on companies sourcing agricultural commodities.
In response, Starling has established itself as a leading multi-commodity solution to support companies in their due diligence obligations and has adapted, notably with a redesign of the platform capable of handling geolocation verification, deforestation risk analysis, supplier due diligence and large-scale reporting workflows.
Access to in-house archives of very high-resolution Pléiades and Pléiades Neo satellite imagery has also opened the door to accurate evidence-based capabilities, essential for analysing the most complex situations, e.g., smallholders, agroforestry, etc.
But beyond the legal aspects, and in an uncertain regulatory context, Starling has continued to support industries in monitoring and demonstrating its alignment with evolving standards and best practices. Together with its partner Earthworm Foundation, Starling has worked closely alongside leading frameworks such as the Accountability Framework and the Palm Oil Collaboration Group, among others.
The dedicated platform has expanded its capabilities to support more complex frameworks, such as the Deforestation and Conversion Free (DCF) standard, by taking a broader view of natural ecosystem conversion. Commodity coverage has also diversified to include wood, soy, sugarcane, coffee and other agricultural commodities increasingly exposed to regulations and market scrutiny.
Going beyond regulations and deforestation monitoring
At the same time, Starling has significantly advanced its work on land-based Scope 3 carbon emissions accounting in agricultural supply chains. The key? Having over 20 years of historical land cover time series as a foundation to understand the changes in land use that have occurred in the past.
The integration of archival satellite imagery, supply chain data and carbon accounting models enables the estimation of Scope 3 GHG emissions linked to deforestation and land conversion, from farm to landscape level. These insights can be delivered fast enough to support day-to-day decisions by sourcing and sustainability teams and help organisations achieve their climate goals and implement mitigation strategies in supply chains.
One of Starling’s differentiating features lies in its use of the Airbus very high-resolution constellation at scale. Pléiades Neo (30cm resolution) satellites offer a level of precision and scalability that supports increasingly detailed agricultural monitoring, and is transforming how agricultural landscapes can be mapped and understood.
This capability is becoming especially critical for commodities such as coffee or cocoa, requiring increasingly granular visibility when it comes to smallholder landscape analysis, plantation mapping, agroforestry detection and biodiversity assessments.
The Coffee Canopy Partnership example
Another major milestone in 2026 was Starling’s involvement in the Coffee Canopy Partnership. This groundbreaking initiative led by JDE Peet’s, one of the global leading coffee companies (owning brands like L’Or, Senseo, Tassimo, Jacobs and Douwe Egberts), aims to create the world’s first comprehensive, open map of coffee plantations to support deforestation-free and resilient coffee supply chains.
By combining Airbus’ very high-resolution satellite imagery (Pléiades Neo) with advanced artificial intelligence models trained on large datasets, coffee plantations can now be identified and monitored from space at a level of detail previously unattainable. These models have been deployed across multiple countries in East Africa, covering more than 1.2m km² of diverse and complex landscapes (shade-grown and agroforestry systems).
"Leveraging our very high-resolution Pléiades and Pléiades Neo satellite imagery combined with advanced AI capabilities, Airbus helps identify deforestation risk and protect our world’s forests, while simultaneously empowering food producers and smallholder farmers with the transparency and reliable data needed to strengthen their resilience and build a truly sustainable supply chain," says Eric Even, head of space digital at Airbus Defence and Space highlights.
The next decade: Restoration and resilience era
As standards, regulations and business needs continue to evolve, Starling remains committed to supporting industries in producing better, more sustainable and resilient supply chains. Whatever the challenges may be in the next decade, Starling will continue to provide the information needed to support these efforts, aligned with its four core pillars:
- Deforestation and conversion-free: Ensure transparency and compliance with EUDR regulations or DCF standard by monitoring deforestation and land conversion within the supply chain.
- Net-zero target: Quantify Scope 3 GHG emissions linked to land use change to achieve a path towards credible net-zero commitments and carbon removal.
- Nature positive: Monitor the progress of forest positive initiatives by tracking carbon dynamics, evidencing tree permanence and growth, and assess ecosystem restoration outcomes.
- Resilient agriculture: Enhance resilient, regenerative and carbon neutral crop production systems through insights on crop mapping, water and crop management, and early detection of diseases and pests.
The satellite doesn’t sleep. It passes, it observes, it compares with yesterday and with twenty years ago, and it produces information that no one else can produce in this way.