For this Company Spotlight, we interviewed Earthview’s CEO (Bear Givhan) and CFO (Mike Minyard) about how their emissions sensor technology and data platform are enabling accurate and cost-effective continuous emissions monitoring. Earthview’s BluBird Continuous Environmental Monitoring System uses advanced sensors that send data to its cloud-based monitoring platform for visual analysis of emissions events at the production site or facility, helping customers in the oil & gas, waste, and agriculture industries detect, locate, quantify, and repair leaks at a fraction of the cost of competing offerings. For more information on Earthview, please visit earthview.io.

Background: Before co-founding Earthview in August 2019, Bear Givhan piloted research aircraft serving the oil & gas, waste, and agriculture industries. During his time there, he realized the inefficiencies, safety risks, and limitations the process of flying research aircraft over potentially emitting sites presents (i.e., provides only minutes of monitoring per location, requires planes to fly at lower altitudes, increases emissions from jet fuel, ineffective in non-ideal weather conditions). While finishing his geology degree from the University of Colorado, Bear met Jim Maslanik, who was a professor that also had 40 years of climate research and instrumentation expertise. Together, they co-founded Earthview and began developing the initial version of their sensor and data platform.

Value Proposition: Intermittently flying aircraft over sites, sending a field technician with a camera to each site, or launching satellites to capture images (non-continuous emissions monitoring) is akin to sending a fire truck to every house/building to check for fires. Conversely, Earthview’s unique offering acts as a smoke detector/alarm system through the following features and benefits:

Proprietary Technology: Earthview has invented over 60 hardware and software technologies that are protected by multiple patents, with more underway. Further, Earthview’s in-house developed BluBird sensors enable it to offer customers a true 24/7 continuous emissions monitoring service at a cost that is magnitudes lower than its competition.
High Accuracy: Earthview’s monitoring service are third-party certified at 90% probability of detection for rates of 3kg/hr, exceeding EPA and MiQ requirements. This enables it to detect small leaks that are difficult to find with widely-used leak detection cameras.
Analytics & Insights: Earthview utilizes cloud-based algorithms to better identify, locate, and quantify emissions by filtering out off-location emissions, comparing multiple sensors to pinpoint the source, and utilizing physical models to correctly measure emissions. Additionally, emissions data is captured and analyzed in real-time (vs. 3-6 days for aerial data), repairs can be easily measured and tracked, and emissions profiles can be sensitized to analyze effects of potential actions.
Scalable: Earthview’s services are offered via a pure SaaS model, allowing its customers to avoid spending capex on monitoring equipment and cost-effectively scale continuous emissions monitoring across their entire operations.

Closing Thoughts: With units serving customers coast-to-coast and rapid growth, Earthview plans to expand its offering to include additional hardware and software features in the near future. We look forward to following the company, as it continues to enable the oil and gas, waste, and agriculture industries to better understand and manage their emissions profiles.

Company Spotlights

November 2022