ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Shubhendu Sharma - Eco-entrepreneur
Shubhendu Sharma creates afforestation methods that make it easy to plant maintenance-free, wild and biodiverse forests.

Why you should listen

Industrial engineer Shubhendu Sharma was working at Toyota in India when he met Japanese forest expert Akira Miyawaki, who'd arrived to plant a forest at the factory, using a methodology he'd developed to make a forest grow ten times faster that normal. Fascinated, Sharma interned with Miyawaki, and grew his first successful forest on a small plot behind a house.

Today, his company Afforestt promotes a standardized method for seeding dense, fast-growing, native forests in barren lands, using his car-manufacturing acumen to create a system allowing a multilayer forest of 300 trees to grow on an area as small as the parking spaces of six cars -- for less than the price of an iPhone. Afforestt has helped grow forests at homes, schools and factories. Sharma seen improvement in air quality, an increase in biodiversity -- and the forests even generate fresh fruit. Afforestt is at work on a platform that will offer hardware probes to analyze soil quality, allowing the company to offer step-by-step instructions for anyone who wants to grow a native forest anywhere in the world.

More profile about the speaker
Shubhendu Sharma | Speaker | TED.com
TED2014

Shubhendu Sharma: An engineer's vision for tiny forests, everywhere

Shubhendu Sharma: Como cultivar uma pequena floresta em qualquer lugar

Filmed:
1,294,318 views

Uma floresta plantada por humanos, e então deixada aos cuidados da natureza, tipicamente demora 100 anos para amadurecer. Mas e se pudéssemos tornar o processo 10 vezes mais rápido? Nesta palestra curta, o eco-empreendedor (e bolsista TED) Shubhendu Sharma explica como criar um pequeno ecossistema de floresta em qualquer lugar.
- Eco-entrepreneur
Shubhendu Sharma creates afforestation methods that make it easy to plant maintenance-free, wild and biodiverse forests. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
I'm an industrial engineer.
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Eu sou engenheiro industrial.
00:14
The goal in my life has always been to make
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Meu objetivo na vida foi sempre
00:17
more and more products
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fazer cada vez mais produtos
00:18
in the least amount of time and resources.
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com a mínima quantidade
de tempo e recursos.
00:21
While working at Toyota,
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Enquanto trabalhava na Toyota,
00:22
all I knew was how to make cars
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eu só sabia como fazer carros,
00:24
until I met Dr. Akira Miyawaki,
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até que encontrei o Dr. Akira Miyawaki,
00:27
who came to our factory to make a forest in it
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que veio à nossa fábrica
para plantar uma floresta lá dentro
00:30
in order to make it carbon-neutral.
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para que ela fosse neutra em carbono.
00:33
I was so fascinated
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Eu fiquei tão fascinado
00:35
that I decided to learn this methodology
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que decidi aprender essa metodologia
00:37
by joining his team as a volunteer.
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entrando para seu grupo como voluntário.
00:40
Soon, I started making a forest
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Logo eu comecei a plantar uma floresta
00:42
in the backyard of my own house,
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no quintal da minha casa,
00:44
and this is how it looks after three years.
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e ela está assim depois de três anos.
00:48
These forests,
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Essas florestas,
00:49
compared to a conventional plantation,
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comparadas a uma plantação convencional,
00:51
grow 10 times faster,
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crescem 10 vezes mais rápido,
00:54
they're 30 times more dense,
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são 30 vezes mais densas,
00:56
and 100 times more biodiverse.
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e têm 100 vezes mais biodiversidade.
01:00
Within two years of having this forest in our backyard,
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Depois de dois anos
com essa floresta em nosso quintal,
01:03
I could observe that the groundwater
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eu reparei que a água subterrânea
01:05
didn't dry during summers,
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não secava durante os verões,
01:07
the number of bird species I spotted in this area
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o número de espécies de pássaros
que eu via na área
01:10
doubled.
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dobrou.
01:11
Quality of air became better,
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A qualidade do ar melhorou,
01:13
and we started harvesting seasonal fruits
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e começamos a colher frutos sazonais
01:15
growing effortlessly
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que cresciam naturalmente
01:17
right in the backyard of our house.
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bem no quintal de nossa casa.
Eu gostaria de plantar
mais florestas como essa.
01:19
I wanted to make more of these forests.
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Fiquei tão comovido com os resultados
01:22
I was so moved by these results
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01:23
that I wanted to make these forests
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que eu queria criar essas florestas
01:25
with the same acumen with which we make cars
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com a mesma destreza
com que criamos carros
01:28
or write software or do any mainstream business,
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ou programamos software
ou fazemos qualquer negócio convencional.
01:31
so I founded a company
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Então, eu fundei uma empresa
01:33
which is an end-to-end service provider
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fornecedora de serviços ponta a ponta,
01:35
to create these native natural forests.
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para criar essas florestas
naturais nativas.
01:38
But to make afforestation as a mainstream business
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Mas para tornar o florestamento
um negócio convencional
01:42
or an industry, we had to standardize
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ou uma indústria,
nós tivemos que padronizar
01:44
the process of forest-making.
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o processo de criação de florestas.
01:46
So we benchmarked the Toyota Production System
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Então nós adaptamos
o Sistema de Produção da Toyota,
01:48
known for its quality and efficiency
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famoso por sua qualidade e eficiência,
01:51
for the process of forest-making.
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para o processo de criação de florestas.
01:53
For an example, the core of TPS,
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Por exemplo, o cerne do TPS,
01:56
Toyota Production System, lies in heijunka,
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Sistema de Produção da Toyota,
está no heijunka,
01:59
which is making manufacturing
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que é transformar a manufatura
02:01
of different models of cars
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de modelos diferentes de carro
02:03
on a single assembly line.
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numa única linha de produção.
02:05
We replaced these cars with trees,
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Substituímos esses carros por árvores,
02:08
using which now we can make multi-layered forests.
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com o que hoje podemos criar
florestas de várias camadas.
02:11
These forests utilize 100 percent vertical space.
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Essas florestas utilizam
100% do espaço vertical.
Elas são tão densas
02:15
They are so dense
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02:15
that one can't even walk into them.
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que não dá nem para caminhar dentro delas.
02:19
For an example, we can make a 300-tree forest
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Por exemplo, dá para criar
uma floresta de 300 árvores
02:22
in an area as small as the parking spaces of six cars.
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numa área do tamanho
de seis vagas de carro.
02:27
In order to reduce cost and our own carbon footprint,
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Para reduzir os custos
e nossa própria pegada de carbono,
02:31
we started utilizing local biomass
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começamos a utilizar biomassa local
02:33
as soil amender and fertilizers.
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para corrigir e fertilizar o solo.
02:36
For example, coconut shells crushed in a machine
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Por exemplo, cascas de coco
esmagadas numa máquina
02:38
mixed with rice straw,
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e misturadas com palha de arroz,
02:42
powder of rice husk mixed with organic manure
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pó de casca de arroz
misturado com adubo orgânico
02:46
is finally dumped in soil on which
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são finalmente depositados no solo
no qual nossa floresta é plantada.
02:48
our forest is planted.
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02:49
Once planted, we use grass or rice straw
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Uma vez plantada,
usamos grama ou palha de arroz
02:52
to cover the soil
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para cobrir o solo
02:54
so that all the water which goes into irrigation
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para que toda a água usada na irrigação
02:57
doesn't get evaporated back into the atmosphere.
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não evapore de volta para a atmosfera.
02:59
And using these simple improvisations,
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E usando essas simples improvisações,
03:01
today we can make a forest
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hoje conseguimos criar uma floresta
03:03
for a cost as low as the cost of an iPhone.
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com o custo no nível de um iPhone.
03:07
Today, we are making forests in houses,
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Hoje estamos criando florestas em casas,
03:09
in schools, even in factories with the corporates.
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em escolas, até mesmo
em fábricas com as empresas.
03:13
But that's not enough.
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Mas isso não é suficiente.
03:15
There is a huge number of people
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Há uma enorme quantidade de pessoas
03:17
who want to take matters into their own hands.
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que querem ter sua própria iniciativa.
03:20
So we let it happen.
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Então deixamos acontecer.
03:22
Today, we are working on an Internet-based platform
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Hoje estamos trabalhando
numa plataforma na Internet
03:26
where we are going to share our methodology
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onde vamos compartilhar nossa metodologia
03:29
on an open source
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com código aberto
que pode ser usado por qualquer um
03:31
using which anyone and everyone
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03:32
can make their own forest
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para criar suas próprias florestas,
03:34
without our physical presence being there,
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sem a nossa presença física,
03:36
using our methodology.
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usando nossa metodologia.
03:38
At the click of a button,
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Com o clique de um botão,
03:40
they can get to know all the native species
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pode-se conhecer todas as espécies nativas
03:41
of their place.
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de sua região.
03:43
By installing a small hardware probe on site,
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Instalando uma pequena sonda no local,
03:47
we can do remote soil testing,
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conseguimos testar o solo remotamente,
03:50
using which we can give step-by-step instructions
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com o qual conseguimos
dar instruções passo a passo
03:54
on forest-making remotely.
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para a criação de florestas remotamente.
03:57
Also we can monitor the growth of this forest
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Também conseguimos monitorar
o crescimento da floresta
03:59
without being on site.
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sem estar no local.
04:03
This methodology, I believe,
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Essa metodologia, acredito eu,
04:05
has a potential.
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tem potencial.
Compartilhando, nós podemos
recuperar nossas florestas nativas.
04:06
By sharing, we can actually
bring back our native forests.
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04:09
Now, when you go back home,
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Agora, quando voltarem para casa,
04:11
if you see a barren piece of land,
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se virem um pedaço de terra improdutivo,
04:13
do remember that it can be a potential forest.
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lembrem-se de que tem potencial
para ser uma floresta.
04:16
Thank you very much. Thanks.
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Muito obrigado. Obrigado.
04:18
(Applause)
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(Aplausos)
Translated by Gustavo Rocha
Reviewed by Ruy Lopes Pereira

▲Back to top

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Shubhendu Sharma - Eco-entrepreneur
Shubhendu Sharma creates afforestation methods that make it easy to plant maintenance-free, wild and biodiverse forests.

Why you should listen

Industrial engineer Shubhendu Sharma was working at Toyota in India when he met Japanese forest expert Akira Miyawaki, who'd arrived to plant a forest at the factory, using a methodology he'd developed to make a forest grow ten times faster that normal. Fascinated, Sharma interned with Miyawaki, and grew his first successful forest on a small plot behind a house.

Today, his company Afforestt promotes a standardized method for seeding dense, fast-growing, native forests in barren lands, using his car-manufacturing acumen to create a system allowing a multilayer forest of 300 trees to grow on an area as small as the parking spaces of six cars -- for less than the price of an iPhone. Afforestt has helped grow forests at homes, schools and factories. Sharma seen improvement in air quality, an increase in biodiversity -- and the forests even generate fresh fruit. Afforestt is at work on a platform that will offer hardware probes to analyze soil quality, allowing the company to offer step-by-step instructions for anyone who wants to grow a native forest anywhere in the world.

More profile about the speaker
Shubhendu Sharma | Speaker | TED.com