Sumthing: Scaling up nature restoration with Google Cloud
About Sumthing
Founded in 2021, Sumthing is a Dutch social enterprise dedicated to restoring nature that offers almost instantaneous transparency on the use of donations thanks to an innovative platform that enables each donor to see the result of each donation to nature. They are realizing 'Nature's Comeback Story' by creating a movement of businesses and individuals that come together to restore more nature than is lost, each year.
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Contact usWith Google Cloud's support and services, Sumthing is using technology—in particular AI—to revolutionize the relationship between organizations working to restore the environment, businesses, and individuals that financially support that work, as well as ultimately encouraging even more donations to maximize the impact on restoring nature while ensuring unprecedented transparency and efficiency.
Google Cloud results
- Simplified management of scaling for large volumes of multimedia data
- Large-scale image and video processing thanks to Vertex AI models
- Growth supported by automation efficiency
- Operational efficiency
A 300% annual increase in donations since 2021, thanks to AI-automated processing in particular
Positioned at the intersection between nature restoration and advanced digital technologies, Sumthing offers a platform that allows individuals and businesses to contribute to a curated range of nature restoration projects, such as planting trees, restoring coral reefs, and removing plastic from rivers. Founded on the belief that restoring nature is a crucial mission for humanity, the company is moving away from traditional strategies with a radically different approach to managing donor funds. "We're convinced that transparency—that is, the possibility to see donations being used appropriately—fosters trust and commitment from donors. By enabling a direct and visual link between projects and donors, we hope to encourage donors to participate again, giving even more to support initiatives that have a real impact on actively restoring our planet," states Mike Odenhoven, Sumthing Cofounder.
"We're convinced that transparency—that is, the possibility to see donations being used appropriately—fosters trust and commitment from donors. By creating a direct and visual link between projects and donors, we hope to encourage donors to participate more in supporting initiatives that have a real impact on protecting our planet."
—Mike Odenhoven, Sumthing CofounderTransparency at the heart of Sumthing's mission
Recognized by the United Nations for its nature of actively restoring the planet, Sumthing was founded on three key values: to make giving to nature accessible, engaging, and meaningful. A true intermediary between charitable organizations and donors, the company curates world-class projects and helps them raise more funds by using technology.
To do this, Sumthing has developed an innovative platform. It regularly posts information in the form of text, videos, and images so each donor gets an accurate and personalized view of the progress of the projects they have invested in and how their funds have been used. The platform is fully supported by Google Cloud services and relies heavily on AI. "Google Cloud is at the heart of our operational efficiency," emphasizes Mike Odenhoven. "Not only is it a generous donor that participates in numerous projects, Google Cloud also generously provides us with the resources we need to realize our "Tech-For-Good" mission while supporting our capacity for innovation with advanced, cutting-edge technologies."
Sumthing has big growth ambitions, and its platform capitalizes on Google Cloud's highly scalable infrastructure to expand as new projects and donors use its services. In particular, the company uses Cloud Storage intensively; its platform handles large volumes of multimedia data, which requires a robust and scalable cloud infrastructure for storage and fast access to information. But AI is probably where the company is most advanced in its use of the services offered by Google Cloud.
AI for good
In practice, Sumthing receives an ever-growing volume of images, videos, and data from partner organizations that directly manage projects, augmented with third-party data like satellites. Before publishing them on the platform in the form of a personalized dashboard for the donor, the company verifies their authenticity, checks their relevance, and removes duplicates. Due to the magnitude of this task, manual processing is simply not an option. For this reason, the company extensively uses Vertex AI models to automate the processing as much as possible.
"Marking thousands of coral fragments on images previously took us up to four days of tedious and not very fulfilling work. Now, this is accomplished by the ever growing models we created in Google Vertex, completing this task in less than an hour."
—Guido de Rooij, Sumthing CofounderTypically, for coral reef restoration projects, Sumthing uses Vertex AI to detect coral fragments in the videos and images so it can visually quantify the impact of the projects on restoring marine biodiversity. The company is also testing Vertex AI on the detection of species of fish in the coral reefs to evaluate increases in biodiversity, a key indicator of the health of marine ecosystems. "Marking thousands of coral fragments on images previously took us up to four days of tedious and not very fulfilling work," clarifies Guido de Rooij, Sumthing Cofounder. "Now, this is accomplished by Gemini models in about an hour, reducing the burden of work for the humans involved."
In other words, by automating large-scale content management, Vertex AI models enable the company to publish regularly updated personalized dashboards on an unprecedented scale, without significant manual effort. This means the company can realize its ambition of transparency—its biggest asset and its raison d'être.
Google Cloud: A close partner that shares the same sustainable commitment
As proof of its success, Sumthing has seen a 300% annual increase in donations since its launch in 2021. "Google Cloud has played a crucial role in this success," believes Mike Odenhoven. "Far more than just an infrastructure and advanced technology provider, Google Cloud is a close partner that listens, advises, and readily shares its expertise and best practices to help us realize our ambitions. What's more, Google Cloud is by far the most sustainable cloud service provider both in terms of current performance as well as commitment, which demonstrates real involvement in long-term sustainability. This is all the more important since we need to show our partners and donors that 'Tech for Good' is present at all levels of our company."
"Google Cloud has played a crucial role in our success. Far more than just an infrastructure and advanced technology provider, Google Cloud is a close partner that listens, advises, and readily shares its expertise and best practices to help us realize our ambitions. What's more, Google Cloud is by far the most sustainable cloud service provider, aligning perfectly to our 'Tech for Good' approach."
—Mike Odenhoven, Sumthing CofounderArmed with a technological and scalable foundation, Sumthing fully intends to continue capitalizing on its partnership with Google Cloud to strengthen its platform—especially in the domain of AI-driven automation—to attract even more donors and increase its positive impact on the planet.
Tell us your challenge. We're here to help.
Contact us
About Sumthing
Founded in 2021, Sumthing is a Dutch social enterprise dedicated to restoring nature that offers almost instantaneous transparency on the use of donations thanks to an innovative platform that enables each donor to see the result of each donation to nature. They are realizing 'Nature's Comeback Story' by creating a movement of businesses and individuals that come together to restore more nature than is lost, each year.