This week we have added 11 new blockchain-driven projects that are aimed at improving sustainability performance1.
Not Subscribed yet? You can receive our new posts every week by becoming a free subscriber.
Responsible Supply Chain
Tracing sustainable credentials of chemical industry through blockchain | Europe
Project Description: While the chemical industry is an engine for the innovation economy, it is also one of the major contributors to climate change, toxic pollution, and plastic waste that threatens human and planetary health. While some companies are showcasing sustainable changes by accrediting themselves, auditing and issuing these certificates become difficult for accreditation agencies because of a lack of transparency. Circularise has developed a consortium of industry veterans and ISCC, a supply chain sustainability certification, to make auditing more efficient, and strengthen the integrity of certified data. The partners include Neste, Asahi Kasei, Borealis, Trinseo, Shell, Arcelik, Philips Domestic Appliances, EVBox, Marubeni, and Itochu. Participants utilized a public blockchain enabling authentication, decentralization, and encryption of data verifying material flows and related sustainability attributes. This approach differs from typical consortium blockchain projects where companies use a private blockchain. Circularise used a public blockchain, making it virtually impossible for companies to appear more sustainable than they are. Material traceability and verification of data at individual sites and across the value chain were guaranteed by ISCC Plus Certification of each site of the operators, requiring site-specific audits, certification, and mass balance calculations (accounting for all the materials involved in the process) to provide reassurance about the sustainability data. The said data was uploaded to the Circularise software system to improve mass bookkeeping and reporting while allowing secure data sharing among relevant stakeholders.
Expected Benefits:
Blockchain would eliminate any data manipulation and project participants can securely share data among themselves.
By creating a consortium of industry leaders, this project showcases their confidence in blockchain technology.
This project would encourage other players in the chemical industry to develop sustainable initiatives.
More Information: Ledger Insights, Neste, and Money Controller UK
Tracking recycled plastic through supply chain | Global
Project Description: Plastic waste management has been a painstaking process for companies that produce and use plastic as raw material. Due to the increased governmental pressure, companies are forced to generate and use recycled plastic in their BAU operations. However, tracking and monitoring this plastic is challenging for companies, especially those that have cross-border supply chains. Kamilo and Esri, a GSI-based chain of custody solution provider are partnering to leverage blockchain to track and monitor recycled plastic usage and its real-time environmental footprint. Kamilo creates a verifiable link between plastic recoveries and re-use and attaches GHG emissions and other ESG data directly to the flow of materials. By deploying this data onto a blockchain network, Kamilo enables safe and secure data storing and sharing capabilities, allowing companies to access their supply chain data in real-time. In addition to this, Esri enables access to a geospatial dashboard for supply chain monitoring, management, and analysis. Both these services combined enable companies to continuously track and account for their plastic waste from collection and processing to manufacturing. In addition to this, the service calculates GHG emissions the company avoided by using recycled plastic, plastic pollution prevented, and landfill space saved.
Expected Benefits:
A transparent supply chain would enable companies to showcase their sustainability initiatives without the threat of greenwashing.
This project would allow companies to command a premium on their products that contain recyclates.
A transparent recycled plastic tracking tool would encourage other companies to incorporate recycling into their supply chain operations.
More Information: Geospatial World
Eradicating counterfeit wine through blockchain | Georgia
Project Description: Due to its high label price and demand, wine is one of the most counterfeited beverages in the world. This can lead to consumer health problems and can raise questions about the brand’s goodwill. In addition to this, companies find it difficult to keep their supply chain transparent. Cardano Foundation has partnered with Georgia’s National Wine Agency, Bolnisi Winemakers Association, and Scantrust to ensure the quality and authenticity of Georgian wine. The partnership will support individual wineries by developing a shared, scalable blockchain-based platform that is cost-effective for winemakers and increases customer engagement. A pilot program will be conducted in the Bolnisi region of Georgia, serving both local and export markets. It will include up to 100,000 bottles of wine harvested during the Autumn 2022 period and subsequently bottled during Spring 2023. The data generated from the supply chain operations would be stored on the Cardano network, enabling winemakers to see each product in real time. In addition to this, blockchain would help each company in transitioning their legacy supply chains into more resilient and transparent ones. The bottles will carry a label with a unique and secure QR code that allows consumers to check the authenticity of products and learn all about their history. Additionally, the National Wine Agency will use the Cardano blockchain to create public, verifiable records from existing wine certification data on wine targeted for export markets, ensuring product quality and consumer safety.
Expected Benefits:
Consumers can authenticate the wine bottles by scanning the QR code, ensuring their health and wellness.
The winemakers can command a premium on their products, by showcasing each bottle’s journey.
More Information: Cardano Foundation
Waste Management
Mobilizing local communities to collect plastic | Kenya
Project Description: The plastic waste problem has intensified due to its rising demand and inadequate waste management practices, which leads to plastic pollution in the oceans. A sustainable measure would be to financially back plastic recycling projects and mobilize local communities to collect plastic waste. Enaleia is collaborating with ClimeCo and the Kwale Recycling Center in Kenya to make sure that the plastic will not only be collected but also integrated into the circular economy. The companies are mobilizing Kenyans to collect plastic from the coastal area, by incentivizing them. The Kenya project supports over 350 fishers in Kwale County by empowering them to collect abandoned nets, gear, and marine litter. According to the press release, this number will increase to 800 people from the coastal communities in the following months. The waste is then taken to Kwale Recycling Center, a local collection and recycling company that transports and processes it into useful materials and products. To create a sustainable operating model, the project will be leveraging blockchain technology. Enaleia and ClimeCo will be partnering with Verra to develop blockchain-based plastic credits (Waste Collection Credits and Waste Recycling Credits). These credits can be purchased by entities and corporations to neutralize their plastic footprint. These credits would be minted on a blockchain network, ensuring that all the data related to these credits are safe, immutable, and secure to share.
Expected Benefits:
Through this project, Enaleia estimates they will collect 1,000-3,000 tons of plastic annually in Kenya.
Incentivizes and encourages the fishing community to use more sustainable fishing practices.
Provides a supplemental source of income to an area experiencing some of the highest poverty rates in Kenya.
This project is expediting the circular economy in the plastic industry in Kenya.
More Information: PR Newswire, ClimaCo, and Carbon Credits
GHG Emissions
Decarbonizing real estate industry through blockchain | United States
Project Description: Increasing construction output to meet growing housing and infrastructure demands while simultaneously fighting climate change remains a daunting task for real estate companies. To meet the Paris Agreement target of slashing emissions by 45% before 2030, this industry would require an approximately 73% reduction in emissions. In addition, keeping track and monitoring its carbon footprint is challenging for real estate companies. To address this challenge, Carbon Title launched an online platform to provide carbon transparency to the real estate value chain. This blockchain-based platform will bring together the entire real estate value chain, from architects, and developers to investors, homeowners, and carbon credit providers. All emissions data, from both existing buildings and those under construction, will be easily accessible and searchable to the public so that the industry can operate transparently around environmental costs. As a result, this will allow both companies to avoid greenwashing and consumers to make informed decisions. All the data stored on the blockchain would be safe, secure, and immutable, eliminating data manipulation. In addition to calculating and monitoring carbon footprint, Carbon Title allows its clients access to high-quality carbon credits to offset their emissions (only for pre-build structures).
Expected Benefits:
Real Estate developers could capture and monitor their environmental impact, which makes them a potential for impact investors.
The project will help expedite decarbonization in the real estate industry.
More Information: Commercial Observer and Yahoo Finance
Incentivizing small businesses to become carbon neutral | Canada
Project Description: Transitioning to a net zero organization demands a lot of financial commitments that small businesses generally couldn’t afford. This discourages them to initiate their sustainability initiatives. The voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) provides an opportunity for small businesses to create their carbon credit by showcasing renewable energy generation or carbon sequestration. However, it becomes difficult for them to accurately capture, monitor, and present their ESG data. To resolve this, ROCarbon Labs is launching ROCx, a blockchain-based exchange that is going to be a marketplace for premium credit offsets. The company has third-party auditors in place to certify the results of components used by small businesses. They will automate the process of reporting on the ESG reporting front so the businesses can claim and sell their credits. The said data would get stored on the blockchain, in addition to the creation of carbon credit. Blockchain would provide adequate security and data protection so that companies do need not to worry about their ESG data. According to the press release, the blockchain network used in this project is 99% more energy efficient than a typical blockchain because they don’t use ‘heavy miners. However, the blockchain vendor in this project is not disclosed by the company. In addition to blockchain, ROCx will also leverage AI and data analytics to analyze data from hundreds of hardware components, and devices used in various implementations. The AI monitoring provides reporting and alerts that will check for anomalies, and warn owners so they can take action.
Expected Benefits:
This project would bring down the sustainability payback time from 10-15 years to one year.
Blockchain, AI, and data analytics would eliminate the threat of greenwashing, in addition to price manipulation.
This marketplace would help project owners easily liquidate their carbon credits, encouraging active participation from them.
More Information: IT World Canada
Capturing aviation carbon footprint on blockchain | United States
Project Description: Due to the recent limelight on carbon emissions from various industries, the aviation industry has been hit the worst. To counter this, several companies have taken initiatives toward sustainable operations, especially on the fuel economy front. However, companies are finding it challenging to track their progress and showcase it safely and securely, to avoid greenwashing. To address this, Tamarack Aerospace Group recently retrofitted their Cessna Citation aircraft with a smart wing, that will potentially reduce the aircraft’s carbon emissions. The smart wing (Eco Smartwing) includes wing extension, composite winglet, and the company’s Autonomous Load Alleviation System (ATLAS). ATLAS allows factory wings to operate more efficiently. Together they improve aircraft range and save fuel, and Tamarack also promises increased aircraft payload, ride smoothing, structural life extension, and other benefits. The Tamarack upgrade includes FAA and European Union Aviation Safety Agency certified upgrades that will improve takeoff limits in high-altitude and high-temperature conditions, enhance stability at high altitudes on landing and climb performance, and improve fuel reserves. The data regarding fuel consumption would be recorded on the blockchain. The blockchain solution will be developed by OXÏ-ZEN. The solution will calculate and document the carbon emission savings created by Tamarack’s new system, enabling the company to store it in an immutable and public ledger format. In the future, the partnership is also planning to offer a service that will enable customers to verify their carbon footprint, and potentially participate in carbon offset programs.
Expected Benefits:
Blockchain will help Tamarack to showcase its fuel efficiency to the public, in a tamper-proof format.
This project will encourage the wider adoption of blockchain technology as a secure data-sharing platform.
More Information: AOPA
Reducing carbon through tokenized carbon credits | Switzerland
Project Description: The lack of digitization in the carbon credits market leads to greenwashing, price manipulation, overdependence on intermediaries, and opaqueness in the buying process. A sustainable way would be to digitize or tokenize the carbon credit and store all its data on a secure and trustworthy platform. To do so, Flowcarbon and ALLCOT are piloting the development of a carbon reduction project. This program will conduct the full carbon credit creation lifecycle, from inception to issuance to retirement, on the blockchain. On-chain issuance of carbon credits (credits created on a blockchain) allows buyers and validators to quickly and transparently access key data points regarding the carbon credit, underlying credit issuance, and certification. This allows certification processes to run more smoothly and efficiently. Tokenization of carbon credits from inception brings additional data transparency, lowers monitoring costs for third-party verification, and allows tokens to be programmed with useful features where payouts can be more dynamically linked to achieving key impact milestones. This enables the project developer to eliminate the threat of greenwashing, ensuring greater trust between concerned parties.
Expected Benefits:
Ensure greater transparency, quality assurance, and seller accountability in carbon transactions.
Ensure that only high-quality carbon tokens are being issued, increasing their share in the overall mix.
Create a sustainable financing funnel for carbon-negative projects.
More Information: Flowcarbon
Community Health and Wellness
Incentivizing users to eat healthy through NFTs and tokens | Global
Project Description: An unhealthy lifestyle and improper dietary habits can lead to chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and more. As malnutrition and dietary disorders are becoming more frequent, this demands a sustainable measure to encourage people to incorporate a healthy lifestyle and diet. In doing so, Food-Fi is leveraging blockchain technology to incentivize users to adopt a healthier lifestyle. Food-Fi offers a wide range of blockchain-based services where eligible users will be rewarded with EAT token. Users will gain access to a calorie and macronutrient tracking mechanism adapted for all dietary goals, a food log specifically designed as a dietary disorder management tool, an eat-out-to-earn feature as users will be rewarded for visiting healthy restaurants within their radius, and a community linking medical professionals to users suffering from dietary conditions. While the tokens would be minted on the blockchain, all the user data would get stored on the blockchain, enabling secure, immutable, and tamper-proof data storage. In addition to this, the company would integrate NFTs into the ecosystem, increasing the engagement of the application.
Expected Benefits:
By financially incentivizing the users, the company would be encouraging them to eat healthily and stay fit.
The NFTs and tokens could be sold in any third-party marketplace, enabling users to see quick and tangible results.
More Information: Global Newswire
Animal Health
Creating awareness around wildlife conservation through NFTs | United States
Project Description: Because of the extensive habitat loss, increased bushmeat hunting, and illegal trade, Sumatran orangutans are listed as critically endangered in the wild. However, a recurring revenue stream for wildlife conservation initiatives could reverse this impact. To create awareness, Oklahoma City Zoo and Oklahoma Zoological Society are partnering with Megafauna Studios, Becky Scheel, and Mathieu Kuhne to develop an NFT collection depicting the recent Ethereum Merge. The merge transitioned Ethereum’s current consensus mechanism to an energy-friendly one, creating a positive impact on the environment. According to a report by Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute (CCRI) and ConsenSys, the merge reduces Ethereum's carbon footprint by 99.992%, On the same lines, to raise awareness and funds for the conservation of wild orangutans and their habitat, the zoo helped one of the male Sumatran orangutans, Elok, to create digital artwork available for purchase as a non-fungible token (NFT) via an international auction. The two works titled Elok #5 PRE-MERGE and Elok #11 POST-MERGE, part of The Elok Collection, will be for sale at a very low set price. The low price is intended to appeal to both established collectors and first-time buyers interested in affordably joining The Elok community and contributing to conservation. All the data generated from the sale would be stored on the blockchain network, enabling the zoo to maintain a secure digital record book. In addition, all proceeds from sales of Elok’s art will be used to conserve orangutans and other endangered species in the wild.
Expected Benefits:
This project would help the Zoo create awareness and target the unaddressed blockchain audience.
By using NFTs, the project developers are eliminating intermediaries in the fund-raising process, while also allowing international donors to participate.
The NFT would be minted on the newly merged Ethereum network, ensuring minimal carbon footprint.
More Information: Visit OKC and CCRI
Biofuels
Tracing sustainable aviation fuel through blockchain | United States
Project Description: The environmental impact of aviation fuel is concerning. According to the Environment and Energy Study Institute, CO2 is the largest component of aircraft emissions, accounting for 70 percent of the exhaust. A sustainable alternative to this is Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). However, its tracking in aviation operations has been challenging for companies, in addition to verifying its sustainable outcomes. To address this, Directional Aviation, Alder Fuels, 4Air, and Flexjet have partnered to launch Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), backed by blockchain technology to prove its carbon-reducing credentials. Directional Aviation financially backed Alder Fuels, enabling the company to scale up production of SAF and supply it to Flexjet and other private aviation operators. Alder Fuels’ Alder Greencrude (AGC) SAF, uses sustainable biomass such as regenerative grasses, forest residues, and agricultural waste products, making it a lot cleaner to burn as compared with other aviation fuels. According to the press release, AGC reduces GHG by more than 80% compared with petroleum jet fuel and can be converted into SAF using existing bio and petroleum refinery infrastructure. This process has been validated by the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Laboratory (NREL). 4Air and Alder Fuels will collaborate on the deployment of the blockchain-based tool to track the use of SAF from source to wing tank. It will provide transparency around the production of SAF and document its compliance with regulatory programs, ESG targets, and carbon reduction milestones for business aviation. The data stored on the blockchain would remain tamper-proof and immutable. This project is in line with Flexjet’s commitment to transition 12% of its annual fuel consumption to SAF by 2030.
Expected Benefits:
Blockchain will help users to qualify for tax credits from the US government, by providing accurate SAF information.
Companies can make accurate ESG claims about using SAF, eliminating the threat of greenwashing.
As AGC SAF can be produced using existing bio and petroleum infrastructure, the entry barrier would be eliminated, ensuring wider adoption.
More Information: Corporate Jet investor, Yahoo Finance, and Environment and Energy Study Institute
Not Subscribed yet? You can receive our new posts every week and more benefits by becoming a free subscriber.
Disclaimer: The information in this newsletter does not constitute investment or professional advice and investors and other users of this newsletter should not rely on it for investment or other purposes. While we have taken due care and caution in the compilation and presentation of the information and data in this report, no warranty is made as to the completeness, accuracy, or utility of this analysis. Users are also advised to review the detailed disclaimer, terms of use, and privacy policy on our website.