Exploring the value of blockchain for standards | ISEAL Alliance

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Blockchain - a new technology
Exploring the possibilities
Prototype blockchain database
Download project outputs

Introduction

Project details

Grant 1: The Blockchain Revolution: application to sustainably certified supply chains

Grant 2: Blockchain database for sustainable biofuels

Grant 2 duration : January - December 2020

Lead organisation: Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB)

Partner organisation: BioLedger

Contacts: RSB - info@rsb.org; BioLedger - Patrick@bioledger.io

Tanks for biodiesel washing © Piedmont Biofuels Industrial for RSB

Blockchain - a new technology

Best known as the technology behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, blockchain is set to revolutionise many areas of life and work over the coming years. Blockchain provides a way of simply, securely and transparently recording and validating transactions. Rather than being stored on a central database, information related to the transaction is distributed across millions of computers, which makes it almost impossible to tamper with. Among other applications, blockchain has the potential to solve numerous challenges for sustainability certification and dramatically increase supply chain transparency and efficiencies.

Processing wood © Simon Vollmeyer for FSC Germany

Exploring the possibilities

In the first phase of this project, RSB partnered with blockchain experts Provenance, and ISEAL members Fairtrade International, Accreditation Services International and the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, the project identified several promising ways of harnessing blockchain technology, including to:

improve efficiency by verifying and storing “microclaims” about specific pieces of information, which could be used across multiple audits
provide a single platform to track the movement of goods along a whole chain
accurately record other sustainability information, such as greenhouse-gas emissions, along value chains.

Tree rings © FSC Germany

Prototype blockchain database

In the second phase of the project, RSB partnered with blockchain specialists Bioledger to demonstrate the feasibility of a blockchain-based database solution for the European biofuels market. The initial focus of this database was the used cooking oil (UCO) biodiesel supply chain.

Following industry consultation to identify weaknesses in the current biofuels traceability systems, a prototype has been developed and tested with supply chain data from corporate partners.

Download project outputs

Report | Sustainability standards and blockchains

This report documents ideas for how certifiers can leverage blockchain technology to reduce audit inefficiency, create a single source of truth for chain of custody (CoC) tracking and support sustainability data reporting.

Sustainability standards and blockchains - full report | RSB1.09 MB

Sustainability standards and blockchains - hypothesis and milestones138.41 KB

Background material | Blockchain

A collection of background materials explaining the basics about blockchain technology. The collection also includes examples of how blockchain already came to an active use in VSS, helping standards be more transparent, traceable and preventing slavery and overfishing in the production of Tuna.

Background material | Blockchain116.86 KB

Blockchain database for sustainable biofuels: a case study | RSB, BioLedger

The growth and integrity of the sustainable biofuels industry, as well as the interests it seeks to protect, are in jeopardy due to the vulnerabilities in methods it currently uses for tracking transaction claims and verifying their authenticity — as identified by recent biofuel fraud investigations in the Netherlands. Bioledger and the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB) explored a solution to this risk, leading to the development of a highly innovative, simple, and secure centralised database for tracking the data generated by biofuels transactions, utilising the powerful and incorruptible capabilities offered by blockchain technology.

The results generated and lessons learnt from the project are shared in the accompanying case study document and are summarised below.

Blockchain database for sustainable biofuels: a case study | RSB, BioLedger1.75 MB

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