Exploring Blockchain for Certification
The ‘Blockchain Revolution’ is a pilot project led by the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials with funding from the ISEAL Innovations Fund.
Launched in 2016 the fund empowers ISEAL members to take bold, innovative steps to improve the effectiveness and value of sustainability standards. It supports a diverse portfolio of projects that demonstrate how standards can drive the transition to full sector sustainability.
The project will explore, test and report on the opportunities that blockchain can offer to sustainability certifications and their commercial partners.
A blockchain is a continuously growing list of records, called blocks, that are linked and secured using cryptography. By design, blockchains are inherently resistant to data tampering, and are typically managed collectively by a peer-to-peer network adhering to a protocol for validating new blocks.
The revolutionary potential of blockchain is evident from the success of virtual currencies such as Bitcoin but new applications for this technology are rapidly emerging across a variety of sectors, including health care, energy and real estate. For sustainability standards, blockchain’s promise of increased transparency and reduced fraud could bring a revolution in supply chain certification.
To ensure the findings of the project reflect how certification processes work in practice, ISEAL members are invited to participate in the project and contribute to the design of a pilot to test the technology on a specific sustainably certified supply chain. Findings of the pilot will be captured in a case study that will be shared and discussed with ISEAL members in early 2018. Based on the pilot and discussions with ISEAL members, the project will generate recommendations on the advantages and limitations of blockchain for sustainability standards, and collect member feedback for a potential second phase of the project.
Should you wish to find out more about the project you can contact Arianna Baldo – [email protected]
