A friend in our peer-to-peer blockchain Energy project for our Environmental Sustainability and Competitive Advantage course shared a video of 7 ways block chain can aid our environmental problems. The video talks about 7 ways blockchain can stop climate change. Stopping blockchain is a little assertive slogan considering the size of the problem, but it offers great potential.
Many of us predict that the disruptive technology of blockchain will change many industries in the near future. But it is not known to many that they offer innovative solutions that will help governments, companies and people become more environmentally sustainable.
1- Supply chain management:
Block chain can help us track the production, transportation and retail cycles of the products we buy. In a world where consumers are becoming more concerned with product ethics, this technology can help reduce inefficiency, waste and unethical practices by making supply chains more transparent. Examples of companies who are do this creative business are Foodtrax and Provenance.
2-Recycling:
Current programs give little incentive for people to participate. Moreover, it is difficult to track cities’ efficiency in recycling programs. Increasing engagement can increase recycling efficiency. Recycle To Coin achieves this by rewarding individuals token rewards for returning plastic containers using automated machines. Plastic Bank exchanges plastic with customers for money items or services.
3-Energy Through Grid Decentralization:
Employing block chain platform to achieve decentralized energy will aid the problems of big electricity generation today. It will eliminate transmission inefficiencies, surplus and outage problems while promoting the shift to renewable energy. You can read more about this technology in my previous blog ( https://viterbigradadmission.usc.edu/2018/03/peer-to-peer-energy-sharing/). Transactive Grid, Suncontract are examples of companies using blockchain peer to peer energy platform.
4-Environmental Treaties:
Currently, it is difficult to track the real impact of environmental treaties and problems include difficulty of monitoring, fraud and manipulation. An example of tracking could be the difficulty of tracking carbon emissions allowances. Block chain can be employed to decrease the effort and money governments spend in tracking and discourage companies from backing on their promises or misreporting.
5-NGOs:
NGOs are an important part of sustainability efforts. However, tracking the flow of charity money can be difficult. Due to bureaucracy, inefficiency and in some cases corruption. Blockchain can enable transparent and easy tracking and increase efficiency by removing centralized actors. Thus, encourage higher participation in sustainability efforts. Bitgive and Bithope projects focus on ensuring that funds go where they are intended to go.
6- Carbon Tax:
In the current system product prices do not account for the carbon footprint of the product. There is also little incentive for buying or selling products with less carbon footprint. Blockchain can help by tracking carbon footprint and help integrate it to the sale price. To encourage both industry and consumers to shift to environmentally friendly products.
7- Changing Incentives:
Incentives for acting with sustainability responsibility are unclear in the short term. This happens to be one of the key reasons why companies have difficulty to adopt green solutions. Block chain can help people and companies see the real impact of their actions to contribute to sustainability.
Thank you for reading my post! See you in the next post.
Published on April 26th, 2018
Last updated on April 30th, 2018