Alexandria Schmitz
Alexandria Schmitz is the founder and visionary of Canopeum.
​
Her lifelong connection with forests began under the canopy, canoe tripping, climbing, and camping—and grew into a professional career spanning over 20 years in forestry, wildfire management, and environmental restoration.
​
She has worked as a Wildland Forest Firefighter, Environmental Technician for rivers and riparian zones, and a seed picker and woody plant propagator specializing in Indigenous species. Alex brings over 6 years with Alberta’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, 7 years of woody plant selection and propagation experience, and more than 35 years of forest discovery.
Her current research, as part of her Master’s thesis, is pioneering the Five Elements of Regeneration, a framework that translates the chemical building blocks of life (Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Phosphorus) into an ESG-aligned model of
People, Planet, Profit, Purpose, and Protection.
This model underpins a trading card ecosystem that links carbon sequestration, ESG reporting, and community engagement. Through this platform, environmental actions translate into measurable carbon credits and living stories, creating a transparent, OCAP-aligned system for tracking impact. She works in collaboration with leading Canadian climate scientist Dr. Damon Matthews, whose research with the federal government has shaped national and international climate policy.
​
Alex combines deep ecological expertise with innovative financial and storytelling frameworks, positioning Canopeum and COâ‚‚Life at the forefront of nature-based solutions, youth engagement, and scalable carbon credit generation.
Her vision is simple and powerful: restore forests, unlock measurable ESG value, and inspire a generational shift from extraction to regeneration.
Teprine Baldo
Teprine Baldo is a farmer, educator, and researcher based in Stanbridge East, Quebec, where she stewards Le Noyau Seeds and founded Le Noyau Education, a nonprofit agro-educational farm. She brings over a decade of expertise in seed saving, regenerative agriculture, and inclusive environmental education.
​
She is currently pursuing her PhD in Geography at Concordia University under the supervision of Dr. Damon Matthews (Volt-Age and Future Earth) and Dr. Govind Gopakumar, Professor and Chair of the Centre for Engineering in Society, who is supporting her in the development of social science metrics to analyze student engagement with Canopeum models on campus.
She collaborates with Dr. Erik Chevrier, researcher and coordinator of the CultivAction cooperative, on the project, which provides one of several ecological metrics for carbon sequestration and nitrogen fixation. Data is collected from three sites, the CultivAction cooperative, Concordia’s Loyola Campus, and Le Noyau farm, to inform the carbon and nitrogen cards in the Canopeum–COâ‚‚Life trading game.
​
Her work integrates BASH and GitHub into COâ‚‚Life’s carbon frameworks and advances bean genomics research with Dr. Fabiola León (Instituto Milenio BASE). This research generates ecological metrics for carbon sequestration and nitrogen fixation, informing the C and N cards in the Canopeum–COâ‚‚Life trading game. Building on the framework established through Alexandria Schmitz’s Master’s research on the Five Elements of Regeneration, Teprine’s contributions ground the deck in rigorous ecological data and ESG valuation.
​
Drawing from her MA in Educational Technology (Concordia), Teprine designs bilingual, inclusive S.T.E.A.M. curricula that connect underserved and neurodiverse youth to ecological monitoring while supporting the Forest Steward curriculum developed through Canopeum.
Guided by Indigenous mentors, she seeks permission to respectfully integrate their teachings into curriculum design and pedagogy, ensuring that ecological regeneration is pursued alongside community knowledge, inclusivity, and youth engagement.