From a one-man basement operation to a globally impactful consulting and software company, so much has changed in 10 years, and we are just getting started!

July 14, 2022  | Ian Hanou

The scope of this year’s “Letter from the CEO” is going to be a little bigger than usual. 10 times bigger actually, because PlanIT Geo™ is celebrating its 10-year anniversary!

I’m awed by how far we’ve come in a decade. 10 years of developing innovative technology and customized planning that has enabled cities and businesses to get green and stay green. I’m also deeply grateful for the incredible employees, partners, and clients that have joined us along this journey and added their momentum to our purpose. What started as a small business focused on urban tree canopy analysis has evolved into a company that empowers urban greening around the world with a full suite of services and software.

To briefly review the past 10 years as well as look to the future, I’m going to structure this how our team builds the framework for strategic urban forest management and master plans: what do we have, what do we want, how do we get there, and how do we monitor progress.

What Do We Have?

In 10 years (which also somehow feels like a blink of the eye), PlanIT Geo has come so far. And it’s not just our company. Awareness of urban greening, professionalism in our industry, and its relevance to climate resilience, public health, and biodiversity have all grown tremendously. To illustrate this contrast, let’s take a brief look at our industry back in 2012.

The term urban forestry was finally catching on, but less than half of U.S. communities had an urban forest management plan, canopy analysis, or tree inventory. Very few people were talking about things like tree equity or using the term “nature-based solutions”. I can tell you that it was difficult to start a business and put so much on the line when I would often hear, “I didn’t know you could make a company that does that?” Hmm, time to rethink your business model, or double down? 10 years later, I’m glad to have stayed the course. If anything, I wish I would have tripled down years earlier. 

One of the things I’m most proud of is our team. We’ve assembled a mighty team of passionate, knowledgeable tree and technology nerds. Nearly a quarter of our 40 staff members have been at PlanIT Geo for five years or more. Our team works tirelessly to advance our mission, improve processes, develop professionally, and build each other up.

We’ve also partnered with several like-minded and like-missioned technology companies to deliver more value to our customers. We now have software resellers on 6 continents (as soon as Antarctica gets that first tree, we’ll be there) and software clients in 21 countries. This network not only expands our reach and potential market share significantly, but offers a continuous supply of feedback so our team and products can evolve with new ideas and business models from around the world.

In 10 years of operation we’ve pushed the limits of i-Tree, created statewide aggregated tree maps, and expanded what is possible for interacting with tree data on mobile devices. We’ve also developed custom methods for auditing urban forestry programs, launched new technology for community engagement, expanded into the private sector, and brought on an advisory board and investors.

This timeline offers a snapshot of PlanIT Geo’s evolution and some milestones over the past ten years:

Ian Hanou, Michael Gentry, and Chris Peiffer in 2014

What Do We Want?

There are plenty of items left in our Want column, but it all starts with our north star: to be the premium provider of urban green space technology solutions globally by 2025. That is the apex we use to chart our trajectory, but it is supported by a host of goals that define the context of how we’ll get there and the impact we can already create with our position. Those goals include:

• Creating a more diverse team to better serve our clients and the industry
• Technology upgrades to unify the customer experience across our software products, markets, and brand
• Building an integrated technology bridge between public, nonprofit, and private sector organizations that improves awareness of urban development impacts and enables better protection of existing tree canopy. We see an improved flow of data and information between these customer segments as vital for success
• Ensuring that every community has access to affordable, accurate, and updated tree canopy data and tools to inform policy, planning, and management for urban heat reduction, public health, and greenspace equity
• Continually improve the mobile app experience so that crews and contractors doing the work in the field can get their jobs done safely and track their work easily and efficiently
• Advance urban forestry research with the support of our partners, data, and tools so that we can deliver greater value to our clients and the changing climate, e.g.

-Heat mitigation analysis through scenario modeling
-Climate resilient tree planting designs
-C02 reduction quantification and validation
-Urban nature-based solutions and the impact on human health

Coming off a record quarter of growth, we’re poised and committed to being THE hub for urban forestry innovation, with integrated software and services solutions for all sectors of the green industry, from towns and small businesses up to large enterprise clients.

The Community Engagement Map is one of the newset additions to TreePlotter

How Do We Get There And Monitor Our Progress Along The Way

To achieve these important plans and make the desired impacts, we’ve got to grow. A key part of that growth will be strategic hires with diverse backgrounds across all areas of our company, from geospatial tech to software engineering to leadership. We will continue to build a team of people that are united by purpose but unique in their approach to urban forestry challenges. To support this effort we launched an Equity Incentive Program last year to reward employees with a stake in the company based on contribution, responsibility, and experience. Hiring and retaining talented and inspired people will be one metric of success.

We will continue to invest in and broaden our international program to achieve its full potential. Part of that process will be expanded marketing, new local tech support and customer success staff, and fostering a global green technology community for a place to exchange ideas, successes and challenges. We are going to continually engage our customers and partners, share their stories, broadcast their best practices, and grow our network. This plan was at the heart of a visioning process we conducted earlier this year that resulted in the creation of the PlanIT Geo Urban Forestry Hub.

Between our services, software, and various integrations, the list of ways we help our clients tends to run long. The HUB is a way of simplifying our offerings and demonstrating how they build on one another. Clients do not have to come to us with a product in mind. We can start at the problem, and use a consultative approach to work together to find the right solution and adjust it over time as their needs change.

It all starts with our north star: to be the premium provider of urban green space technology solutions globally by 2025.

We will also stay partner- and integration-friendly to offer advanced but pragmatic monitoring of trees and canopy. Our partnerships with NatureQuant, HUGSI, and EarthDefine allowed us to expand the boundaries of what is possible and we will continue to do so. Some of those future areas we’re exploring and will invest in include:

• Develop enterprise-ready software integrations so that TreePlotter is the best-in-class “green asset management” software suite which integrates with the most common “gray asset management”, point of sales, and accounting software systems.
• Mobile LiDAR to locate and assess trees in high-definition
• Augmented/virtual reality to envision greener urban landscapes
• Tree radar to non-invasively assess tree health and identify and resolve tree conflicts with infrastructure
• IoT (Internet of Things) sensors to monitor stress, watering, and more
• Drones to integrate surveillance and views of the urban forest to improve tree health and reduce risk and liability

Coming off a record quarter of growth, we’re poised and committed to being THE hub for urban forestry innovation, with integrated software and services solutions for all sectors of the green industry, from towns and small businesses up to large enterprise clients.

Looking Forward to the Next Decade of PlanIT Geo

We’re excited for the next 10 years, both for the industry and for PlanIT Geo. We have a tremendous opportunity in front of us. We unequivocally believe that urban forests and access to nature and parks yield an essential wealth of benefits to human health and the planet. Given the inequitable distribution of greenspace within cities and growing climate stressors, the need for urban greening has never been greater. To achieve and sustain nature-based infrastructure in cities, we need innovative green asset management technology, data-driven monitoring, and tightly integrated expert consulting services.

This challenge has motivated us since our inception, and we are more committed than ever to providing leading-edge technology solutions and consulting services. For all of those that have been a part of this 10 year journey, I’d like to say thank you. I hope you’ll join us for the next 10 as we continue to map the world’s urban forests for a greener future.

Sincerely,
Ian Hanou, PlanIT Geo Founder & CEO

PlanIT Geo is 10 years old and we are looking forward to the next 10! We rely on our extensive network of software users and urban forestry and arboriculture industry experts to develop and improve our software and services. We would love to hear from you!