{"id":38,"date":"2017-03-29T17:33:36","date_gmt":"2017-03-30T00:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sustainabilityislit\/?p=38"},"modified":"2017-03-29T17:34:21","modified_gmt":"2017-03-30T00:34:21","slug":"38","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sustainabilityislit\/2017\/03\/29\/38\/","title":{"rendered":"Blockchain and the Future of Sustainability Certifications?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One concept that has now become the new buzzword in tech is blockchain. In the media, we often hear about blockchain technology being deployed in the financial sector resulting in products like BitCoin. The interesting thing about this technology, is that very soon, it will deployed in supply chain increasing transparency and traceability. With a large section of sustainability marketing being focused on third-party certifications, the application of blockchain can potentially render existing certifications obsolete or create new certifications that focuses solely on supply chain transparency. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Blockchain for a Non-Techie<br \/>\n<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Blockchain stores information across a network of personal computers. The key point is that these personal computers are decentralized and distributed which means no one person or system can control it. While passing information through this system, everyone on the system will help \u201cvalidate\u201d this information and this prevent records from being corrupted or altered. A quick <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=r43LhSUUGTQ\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">two-minute video <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">will get you up to speed about the concept of blockchain. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Understand the Blockchain in Two Minutes\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/r43LhSUUGTQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Current Examples<\/strong><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That leads us to the issue of supply chain transparency and traceability. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/pulse\/blockchain-silver-bullet-traceability-harry-morrison?trk=v-feed&amp;lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_feed%3ByflbHX7g1vY5YEnb4FcyKg%3D%3D\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Companies<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> long recognize the need for a transparent supply chain but struggle with sharing data with competitors, customers, suppliers or even neutral 3rd parties. Blockchain will allow participants across the ecosystems to achieve traceability without compromising the security of data. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2016-11-18\/wal-mart-tackles-food-safety-with-test-of-blockchain-technology\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Walmart,<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> one of the world\u2019s largest retailer has already started piloting blockchain their their supply chain. Currently, they are using blockchain to get data on suppliers, details on how and where food was grown and who inspected it. Information from the pallet to the individual package is available. Not only will this allow Walmart to be more accountable but the could potentially decrease the firefighting time in recalling few packages vs. all stock across all stores. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.greenbiz.com\/article\/blockchains-emerging-role-sustainability\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0Provence<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is another company that piloted blockchain to track tuna supply chains in Indonesia which supplies to the British grocer, Co-op foods. Looking away from the food industry and into the clean energy sector, L03 supported by Siemens is using blockchain to trade clean power across solarfed grids. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Implications<\/strong><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Certifications for sustainably managed forestry and and non-conflict materials all rely on rigorous checks and balances to ensure traceability. Would blockchain technology replace these certifications or perhaps simplify the certification industry. Maybe getting certifications in the future will be cheaper because blockchain can get the same verification job done in a fraction of the cost. Certifications and metrics will be one of the key areas of potential impact. I\u2019m interested to see where blockchain can be deployed next in the realm of sustainability. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One concept that has now become the new buzzword in tech is blockchain. In the media, we often hear about blockchain technology being deployed in the financial sector resulting in products like BitCoin. The interesting thing about this technology, is &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sustainabilityislit\/2017\/03\/29\/38\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14011,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sustainabilityislit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sustainabilityislit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sustainabilityislit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sustainabilityislit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14011"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sustainabilityislit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sustainabilityislit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sustainabilityislit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions\/42"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sustainabilityislit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sustainabilityislit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/sustainabilityislit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}