In our effort to uphold ethical environmental performance we remain conscious of the impact our products and operations have on the environment.
In our effort to uphold ethical environmental performance we remain conscious of the impact our products and operations have on the environment.
As permanent, tamper-proof databases, blockchains are particularly interesting for environmental causes.
Blockchains can be used to track products from the manufacturer to the shelf and help prevent waste, inefficiency, fraud, and unethical practices by making supply chains more transparent. They can also help consumers be better informed so they can make more environmentally friendly choices.
With the current recycling programs, people often don’t have good incentives to participate. The responsibility for running recycling programs often falls on each separate city, which results in many places not having recycling programs at all.
A recycling program on the blockchain could encourage participation by giving a financial reward in the form of a cryptographic token in exchange for depositing recyclables like plastic containers, cans, or bottles.
Traditional power grids are centralized, which can create inefficiencies in energy distribution, like having unused surplus. And in parts of the world affected by natural disasters or poverty, power outages can leave people without access to electricity.
A peer to peer blockchain based energy system would reduce the need to transmit electricity over long distances, which can result in losses along the way. It would also help reduce the need for energy storage, because such trading can move electricity locally from where it’s being produced in excess to where it’s needed.
In can be difficult to track the real impact of environmental treaties, and sometimes there isn’t an incentive for governments or corporations to keep their promises. Fraud and manipulation of data are also problems in this area.
Blockchain could discourage corporations and governments from back-pedalling on their environmental promises or misreporting their progress, because the technology would allow to transparently track important environmental data, and show whether commitments were met.
In the current system, the environmental impact of each product is difficult to determine, and its carbon footprint is not factored into the price. This means that there is little incentive for consumers to buy products with a low carbon footprint, and little incentive for companies to sell such products.
Tracking the carbon footprint of each product using the blockchain would protect this data from tampering, and it can be used to determine the amount of carbon tax to be charged on at the point of sale.
A blockchain-based reputation system could also give each company and product a score based on the carbon footprint of the products they sell. This would make manufacturing more transparent, and discourage wasteful and environmentally unfriendly practices.
