Willie Smits

PopTech 2009

Willie Smits works at the trisection of humanity, the animal world, and our planet. During his early forestry work some 30 years ago, Indonesian forests started being destroyed for timber and mining, and the first huge impacts of the increasingly severe El Niño seasons became clear. Today Indonesia is the world’s third largest emitter of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere (after China and the U.S.).

His observations and experiences launched Smits on what has become a lifetime journey: to find regenerative forest solutions that can positively impact worldwide needs for energy, food, climate remediation, and meaningful jobs for people who live in and around forests.

Smits is the founder and Chief Science Officer of Tapergy. He has created a zero-waste, people-planet-profit model global company. Its primary focus is generating biofuels with a carbon-positive environmental impact that can scale to replace fossil fuels and the production of healthy sugar. Besides setting up several NGO’s for nature conservation and running his own university in Indonesia, Willie also set up a forest sciences group for improved forest management and environmental monitoring, including space born systems.

Smits, his wife Syennie, and their three sons live in the tropical mountain village of Tomohon, Sulawesi, Indonesia.

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Watch Willie Smits’ talk at PopTech 2009