Planetary Intelligence Revolution: Making Earth Systems Your Competitive Advantage - 10 Big Ideas to Transform Supply Chains for a Regenerative Future
- S1E82
- 28:10
- October 17th 2025
Join the Supply Chain Queen and James George with Julia Armstrong D'Agnese, Co-Founder and CEO of Earth Knowledge, for a groundbreaking discussion about making nature a measurable stakeholder in business operations.
In this episode of the Supply Chain Revolution's "10 Big Ideas" series, you'll learn how Julia's team has pioneered Integrated Planetary Intelligence™—a platform that translates the complexity of Earth's natural systems into actionable business insights to build regenerative supply chains. As a top Microsoft partner serving Fortune 500 companies and now featured on NASDAQ DataLink with 800,000 users, Earth Knowledge is transforming how companies understand their planetary dependencies.
Key Insights:
- The Five Critical Planetary Dependencies: Water availability, soil health, biodiversity, energy demands, and agriculture/food vulnerabilities—and why supply chains are blind to these risks until crisis hits
- Digital Twin Technology: How Global Twins (1km resolution, forecasts from 1900-2100) and Regional Twins (250m resolution with daily forecasts) enable both strategic planning and real-time operational decisions
- From Compliance to Competitive Advantage: Why planetary intelligence transforms environmental data from reporting burden to profit driver
- Real-World Applications: How companies use daily forecasts to optimize inventory, protect infrastructure, and adapt agricultural sourcing ahead of climate impacts
- The $7 Trillion AI Opportunity: Balancing data center growth with water and energy availability—why site selection now requires planetary intelligence
- California's Climate Whiplash: How atmospheric rivers delivering "two Amazon rivers" require 10-day forecasts for emergency preparedness and groundwater recharge
- Integration Strategy: Why Earth Knowledge plugs into existing platforms (Microsoft Fabric) rather than requiring new infrastructure
What You'll Learn:
- How extreme weather events costing $1 billion+ now occur every three weeks instead of every four months
- Why $44 trillion of economic value (over half of global GDP) depends on nature's services
- How Fortune 500 companies are shifting from transition risk to physical asset risk assessment
- The difference between managing water like a "bank account" vs traditional approaches
- Why inventory decisions based on last year's sales are being replaced by planetary forecasts
- How wine and agriculture companies use long-term forecasts to identify optimal growing regions decades in advance
Julia shares compelling examples of companies discovering that planetary intelligence isn't just for compliance—it's needed across risk management, real estate, site selection, business continuity, supply chain operations, and strategic planning.
This isn't theoretical sustainability—it's practical guidance on using Earth systems data to build resilient, regenerative supply chains while improving business outcomes.
Perfect for: Supply chain leaders, sustainability executives, risk managers, operations professionals, and anyone responsible for long-term business resilience.
About Julia Armstrong D'Agnese: Co-Founder and CEO of Earth Knowledge, Julia brings decades of entrepreneurial experience including scaling a company from trailers to IPO in four years. Earth Knowledge's team includes five IPCC/National Climate Assessment authors, President Obama's former White House climate director, and pioneers in Earth systems science. Founded in 2003, Earth Knowledge was ahead of the market in understanding that businesses need integrated planetary intelligence to make decisions that serve people, profits, and planet.
Connect with the Supply Chain Revolution: Subscribe for the full "10 Big Ideas" series exploring how to transform supply chains for a regenerative future. Follow the Sheri Hinish on LinkedIn for additional insights and resources.
Episode Length: 28 minutes
Supply Chain Revolution
The supply chain podcast where sustainability, AI, and global trade strategy collide. If you run supply chains, set procurement strategy, or lead enterprise transformation, this is the show that connects the dots others miss.
Hosted by Sheri Hinish, the Supply Chain Queen, each episode tackles the questions keeping executives up at night: how tariffs and trade disruption reshape sourcing and supplier networks, where agentic AI and automation are actually delivering ROI in supply chain planning, what reshoring and nearshoring mean for sustainability commitments, how to operationalize ESG and Scope 3 reporting without destroying margins, and why the companies building circular economy and regenerative supply chains are outperforming those that are not.
Guests include senior leaders from Microsoft, SAP, IBM, Amazon, Starbucks, Unilever, MIT, TerraCycle, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, and the most ambitious climate technology companies in the world. These are not scripted talking points. These are real operators, real decisions, and real outcomes.
Whether the topic is autonomous supply chain planning, digital twins, supply chain cybersecurity, trade compliance, sustainable procurement, carbon data transparency, or the talent pipeline for next generation supply chain leaders, every episode delivers frameworks you can use Monday morning.
Built for chief supply chain officers, heads of procurement, sustainability leaders, operations executives, technologists, policymakers, and graduate students in supply chain management, operations, and sustainability. If your role touches global supply chains, this show was made for you.
Sheri Hinish is an award winning executive strategist, board advisor, and global thought leader in supply chain transformation, sustainability, and AI. She is the Founder of Supply Chain Revolution Global and previously led sustainability consulting at EY and IBM. Featured in The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The Economist, and Forbes. Named the number one Global Supply Chain Leader and Top 250 Leaders in Sustainability. She speaks regularly at COP, New York Climate Week, Reuters Events, and Gartner Supply Chain Symposium.
Show notes and resources at supplychainqueen.com
Full episodes on YouTube at youtube.com/@supplychainqueen
Follow Sheri on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/supplychainqueen
Keywords: supply chain, sustainability, AI, artificial intelligence, ESG, tariffs, trade policy, procurement, reshoring, nearshoring, circular economy, Scope 3, digital transformation, supply chain management, supply chain technology, supply chain leadership, agentic AI, climate tech, supply chain strategy
Learn more at supplychainqueen.com
My purpose is to make a meaningful impact for the clients, colleagues, partners, and communities I serve. I have spent my career at the intersection of supply chain, sustainability and innovation in large-scale transformation. I’d love to walk with you on your journey.
I'm the Founder and Host of the Supply Chain Revolution podcast. In my day role, I currently serve as the Global Consulting Sustainability Services, Technology + Ecosystems Leader at EY serving across sectors, alliances, sustainability solutions, and digital ventures. I formerly led Sustainability Services + Alliances at IBM with a passion for sustainable supply chain, circularity, and hardening emerging sustainability tech use cases.
Colleagues and clients affectionately call me the nickname “Supply Chain Queen.” I'm recognized as a trusted partner that F500 companies consistently leverage for connected transformation, end-to-end digital supply chain, purpose-driven leadership, and disruptive thinking in embedding sustainability and emerging innovation in transformations.
Recent awards include: Top 250 leaders in Sustainability (2025), Leaders in Excellence, Supply & Demand Chain Executive (2025), Top 100 Women in Sustainability and Supply Chain (2024), Top 50 influencer in Sustainability by Onalytica (2023), 100 Women in 2023 by March8 Magazine, the 2021 #1 Supply Chain Leader by Supply Chain Digital, a 2022, 2021, 2020 & 2019 Supply & Demand Chain Executive "Pro to Know," the "People's Choice 2020 Global Woman in Supply Chain Leader,” and a Corporate Vision Excellence award in 2020.
I’m a Rebel who loves creating, building, and bringing out the best in people, helping to grow high-performance teams. I've made a career in turn-around and scaling high growth opportunities (product, solutions, infrastructure for practice areas and alliances), simplifying the complex, rethinking paradigms for F500 clients, mainly in CPG, Financial Services, Retail, Advanced Manufacturing, Chemicals and Energy.
I am a graduate lecturer in Sustainability at the University of Arkansas and have a Masters from Harvard University with emphasis in Sustainability + Liberal Arts. I hold 2 credentials from Rutgers University with highest distinction (Beta Gamma Sigma), an MS in Supply Chain Management, and a Mini-MBA in Digital Supply Chain. I also have a BS in Business, Supply Chain Management (Summa Cum Laude) from the University of Maryland. I hold an IBM Industry Academy Expert designation (in Consumer), Project Management Professional (PMP), and Lean Six Sigma Greenbelt.
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