Building Environmental Transparency with a Blockchain + Life-cycle Assessment Approach

As human progress has steadily eroded our environment, we urgently need a more transparent, accountable, legitimate, effective and systematic framework to quantify and understand, either the damage we’re making, or the impact of our solutions. Good news is, a Life-Cycle Assessment framework combined with Blockchain technology is an incredible response to process impact data with accuracy and transparency.

 

Transparency entails gathering, storing and disclosing information and data on the impact of products, services, or projects. Impact of a product, service or project should include the entire life cycle, even the period before the raw materials reach the manufacturing. Using the right tools and approaches to assess the influence of the economy, industry, or the creation of individual products, services or projects is critical to successfully and efficiently protect the environment.

 

Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is the process of analyzing the environmental effects of a product across its full life cycle, including sourcing, production, distribution, usage, and end-of-life phase. Why? To increase resource-use efficiency and decrease environmental damage. It is a strategy to detect potential concerns throughout the life-cycle of a product or service, give qualitative/quantitative data to back up the steady-state risk assessment, and correct deviations.

LCA is likely the most comprehensive objective method for assessing the environmental impact of products, projects, and services.

And it is the approach we use for measuring the impact we create in our projects. It holds huge potential not only for registering a base-line, but for projecting impact goals related to chosen indicators. Think use of pesticides, pollutant load, carbon absorption, water efficiency, quality of produce… Our list is long, actually 67 values.

 

Blockchain technology?  Originally associated with the financial sector, blockchain is  gradually finding its way for multiple purposes. If  the LCA approach allows focusing on the right indicators, accuracy in gathering data, and thus considerably more detailed analyses and a more precise estimate of the potential influence in different impact categories, then registering this data on a blockchain ads for integrity of the data and transparency.

 

Blockchain technology is the perfect companion to  LCA. If the latter allows gathering, storing and analysing data, the former ensures integrity of data and transparency.

 

At Nature+, environmental transparency and protection are core values. We use Reality+ Blockchain design in the life-cycle assessment of our projects to create high quality data based on real time measurements. This is the foundation for assessing the different external values generated by a  Nature+ incentive.

 

Gathering and registering data is half the deal, what about sharing it with relevant stakeholders? Investors and project stakeholders can access relevant data in a beautiful dashboard. But that is not all, data can be made available in the Nature+ Digital Assets Certificate (DAC). With the DAC, we enable companies that invest in specific incentives to follow the impact they invested in, share it in product labels, for example, or for ESG reporting, and as a result harvest on the external value in an updated and transparent way.

 

This DAC-LCA approach supported by our Blockchain design gives us a holistic view on projects, enabling us to go beyond the zero-carbon target by creating solutions that are practical and scalable, and focus on regenerating, rebuilding and assisting people, the community and the planet. Holistic, for us, is looking at regenerative and climate impact, social impact, practicality and scalability, accessibility, proof of solution, as well as data transparency and controlling in the potential projects to determine whether the project guarantees the best solutions. You can probably see that this is many times more impactful than focusing on “Carbon only”.

 

How exactly do we create this foundation?

 

We have identified 5  phases as part of the journey of our project data. In the first phase, we run initial due diligence assessment phase, a 100 point scoring system to sustain a holistic view on effects, practicality, transparency and scalability.

 

During the second phase, the LCA method is used to define indicators relevant for the specific project, and start gathering data. The first data recorded defines the base-line value, against which impact and progress will be measured, and goals and projections defined. Measuring allows to identify deviations, and potential side effects in a “cradle to grave” view.

 

During the third phase, or the real-time operational blockchain data dance, investors  are able to follow the impact through the Digital Asset Certificate (DAC) they buy.

 

Blockchain adds the operational excellence level we require and phase number 4 is a formal third party audit to ensure data accuracy and integrity. We are delighted to have Deloitte on board.

 

Finally, researchers are invited to follow the long-term progress on identified projects.

 

This is what separates  Nature+, from other companies who strive to achieve similar results. As a deep-tech company, we prioritize data quality, and turn impact data into an asset, independent of the amazing real impact we achieve on projects. Through  the Blockchain data is transparent, protected, and impossible to tamper with. This is how environmental transparency is achieved.