The magic word isn’t blockchain. It’s collaboration.
Blockchain promises the future of transparency. So, what does it mean for your t-shirt or your chocolate bar? Certification.
We’ve all seen them — those icons and checkmarks on the boxes and tags of the products we buy. Entities like the World Fair Trade Organization and B Corps can be crucial to help companies better understand their supply chains in the first place, meeting the highest standards environmentally and socially. Certifications are not completely foolproof, but there’s a reason they work. They certainly do their due diligence in ensuring companies are meeting the standards, and as consumers, we love buying certified products! Besides not wanting to think about toxic pesticides or child labour as we eat our chocolate bars, we prefer buying because it makes us feel good.
But how to navigate between the cotton shirts that only use the word ‘organic’ as part of Summer 2018’s hot trendy marketing jargon and the alternative that has actually passed through the strict criteria that even the cotton farmers can attest to? The list of false organic products might shock you, as using certifications has become part of sophisticated greenwashing.
Partnering with certification bodies and using blockchain to set the real apart from the fake is one giant leap forward in supporting the movement towards better regulation, and more transparent supply chains.
GreenLink, a project close to my heart, and forms the backbone to this; a base on which other applications can be layered, such as allowing consumers to actively take part in the product verification process and encouraging businesses to be digitally certified on the blockchain platform. One major criticism of certification is its price — it’s not always affordable for socially conscious companies to become certified. If buying certified products makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside, it’s just as important to play our part and leverage the technology to help support those brands deserving of certification.
GreenLink rallies consumers together to support their favourite brands in their sustainability journeys by subsidizing the cost through the community collaboration. Buying from the blockchain verified marketplace of sustainable brands results in some of the proceeds of the spendable IMPACT tokens to be donated to either charitable organizations rallying behind the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or helping the social businesses themselves get certified!
Some claim blockchain is bringing a new world order (cue the dramatic music) but to create sustainable impact especially in the social and environmental space, the magic word isn’t blockchain. It’s collaboration. Leveraging the power of technologies like blockchain to support and partner with established verification processes like certification bodies can make all the difference.
Find out more about Project GreenLink and download the whitepaper here.
