Satellite water monitoring
Hydrosat
45Mixed / ImprovingWashington, USFounded 20170 followers
hydrosat.comHydrosat uses thermal infrared satellite imagery to measure crop water stress and evapotranspiration at field level, enabling precision irrigation recommendations and drought risk management for agriculture and food security.
Green Score
- Greenwashing risk
- medium
- Data confidence
- medium
- Method
- how it is calculated
Climate Impact & Solution35%72
Does the core business genuinely avoid or reduce emissions, or build climate resilience? Share of revenue that is actually 'green'. Fossil-dependent models score low.
The core product — field-level water-stress and evapotranspiration intelligence derived from thermal satellites — directly supports drought resilience, optimised irrigation, and food-security risk management, all high-value climate adaptation outcomes; impact is real but downstream and depends on how customers actually act on the data.
Decarbonization & Targets20%8
Credible, science-based targets (SBTi), a real net-zero plan with progress to date, and CDP disclosure — not just a dated press release.
No SBTi commitment or validated targets, no CDP disclosure, and no published net-zero plan were found in any public source; the company has made no verifiable science-based climate commitments for its own operations.
ESG & Operations15%30
Operational footprint, labour and social practices, and governance quality across the company's own operations and supply chain.
No published ESG or sustainability report, no third-party labour/social audit, and no disclosed governance-level ESG oversight were found; the ~106-person workforce and dual-use (civil + defense intelligence) revenue structure are material ESG considerations without public disclosure.
Transparency & Verification15%18
Quality of disclosure, independent third-party verification, and how much hard data backs the company's claims.
Hydrosat publishes detailed technical and commercial product information but discloses no GHG inventory, no Scope 1/2/3 data, no independent sustainability assurance, and no ESG reporting framework (GRI, TCFD, SASB) — transparency on operational climate footprint is essentially zero.
Integrity15%72
Controversies, litigation, pollution, fossil-fuel lobbying, conflict-zone involvement and governance scandals. Higher means cleaner.
No material controversies, litigation, pollution incidents, greenwashing complaints, or governance scandals were identified; a moderate integrity flag is noted for undisclosed dual-use revenue from defense/intelligence agencies (NRO, U.S. Air Force) alongside climate adaptation marketing, and for investor Hartree Partners' primary business in commodity energy trading.
Why it's on ClimateTicker
Hydrosat provides genuine climate adaptation value by delivering thermal infrared satellite imagery that enables precision irrigation, early drought detection, and crop water-stress monitoring at field level — core tools for agricultural resilience in a warming world. The product is real, technically differentiated, and backed by credible customers including NOAA and Bayer. However, Hydrosat is primarily a data intelligence company with a significant and growing defense/intelligence revenue line (NRO, U.S. Air Force contracts), no published sustainability report, no SBTi targets, no CDP disclosure, and no third-party ESG verification, meaning its own operational climate credentials are essentially unverified.
Controversy & Greenwashing Watch
The lead investor in Hydrosat's $60M Series B, Hartree Partners, is primarily a merchant commodities firm specialising in energy trading — a governance-level association that may create tension with Hydrosat's climate resilience positioning.hydrosat.com
Hydrosat markets itself as a climate adaptation and food-security company while holding active imagery contracts with the National Reconnaissance Office and the U.S. Air Force for national defense applications — a revenue-mix tension not disclosed in its climate-facing communications.businessmodelcanvastemplate.com
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