Building Trust in Sustainability. How Blockchain Elevates Carbon Certification?

Alright, many companies in the ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) space have already announced their use of blockchain technology. You might be feeling a bit bored and think: 'Oh, blockchain in ESG, nothing new.' But what if we promise to cut through the nonsense and present you three compelling use cases? These use cases leverage the blockchain technology which, while not new, can now make a significant impact.

While everyone's attention is currently on AI, it's a good time for real innovators like DoxyChain to shift the focus away from hype and concentrate on practical blockchain applications. Let's get started!

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Why now?

Due to climate change, the urgency of sustainability becomes more and more evident. The market sees the obvious need for reliable and transparent mechanisms to validate green efforts. So, things like carbon reduction certificates and ESG reporting play a crucial role in establishing a sustainable future. Yet, ensuring the credibility and verifiability of these efforts continues to be a challenge. Many technological innovations have been tested to leverage sustainability reporting in recent years. Blockchain technology, however, proves to be the real transformative force for the way we authenticate, manage, and trust carbon reduction certification

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Why on Earth does ESG need blockchain?

Blockchain and ESG is a logical blend of two complementary domains. Blockchain, with its foundational principles of transparency, immutability, and security, aligns perfectly with the ethos and purpose of ESG.

Think about it… if reporting is done in a way that is super easy to manipulate, does it even make sense to report anything? No, it does not at all. Similarly, what’s the point of holding an unverifiable certificate? None, right? Traditional certificate management has always faced hurdles such as tampering, data manipulation, and a lack of traceability. We need technology that places significantly more responsibility on each party involved in buying, consuming, issuing, and checking certifications.

This is where blockchain steps in as a leverager of old-school certificates. Utilizing its decentralized and encrypted structure, it ensures that once data is recorded, it remains unalterable, providing an immutable record of authenticity. This inherent immutability empowers carbon reduction certificates with an unprecedented level of security, making falsification and unauthorized alterations nearly impossible.

There is more to it! Next prominent advantage of blockchain-backed carbon reduction certificates lies in their real-time verifiability (via the tools like Certificate Blockchain Explorer). Stakeholders, including regulators, investors, and customers, can instantly access the origin, journey, and integrity of certificates. This transparency not only prevents any fraudulent activities but also empowers stakeholders with actionable insights into sustainability performance and keeps partners accountable. Blockchain creates a verifiable trust.

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Use Cases

Ok, so let’s talk about real use cases. Transparency, verifiability and integrity are the key pillars for a number of workflows within ESG reporting and certification. Among others, blockchain-based solutions leverage carbon offsetting and carbon accounting processes.  

1. Certification for carbon accounting

Product or organization’s carbon footprint calculation is the process of measuring, quantifying, targeting, recording, and reporting an entity's greenhouse gas emissions and removals. It helps organizations, individuals and regulators understand and manage their carbon footprint. The end output of such an analysis is a report or a certificate proving the compliance with certain international norms or protocols. The most secure and transparent way to issue one is to issue, manage and verify it on blockchain. One of the Polish sustainability reporting leaders, Envirly, does exactly that. Read more about this case study here.

2. Certification for carbon compensation/offsetting

Carbon offsetting (compensation) is a practice where individuals or organizations invest in projects that reduce/remove greenhouse gas emissions to compensate for their own emissions. Carbon offsetting certificates are required for verifying and validating the legitimacy and effectiveness of the carbon offset projects. Swiss sustainability pioneer Carbon Connect, for instance, issues voluntary cancellation certificates on the Doxychain platform. They allow project participants who hold certified emission reductions (CERs) to cancel them on their own behalf or on behalf of third parties. This gives them access to a broader source of demand for CERs in the voluntary market, while making a diverse portfolio of credits available to organizations and individuals wishing to reduce their carbon footprint.

3. Certification for carbon credits

Keep an eye out for other major carbon use cases coming soon. No one will be able to forge carbon credits anymore. The full traceability of ownership and verifiability of origin will game-change the market.

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DoxyChain, a solution to rely on

DoxyChain is among the solutions championing the integration of blockchain technology into the carbon certification process. It delivers a blockchain-based yet user-friendly solution for secure and trusted certificate issuance. It is a tech partner for ESG, Audit and Accreditation bodies who:

• care about security and credibility of their certificates,
• need a smooth system for dynamic management and verification of the certificates,
• aspire to win over their competition by being an innovation leader.

“I’m excited to facilitate a positive impact through a reliable and trustworthy platform for carbon certification management.” - Gabriel Dymowski, Co-founder & CEO DoxyChain.

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Visit DoxyChain to learn more about an innovative blockchain-based solution for secure and trusted carbon certificate issuance. A: because probably your competitors already do this. B: because our planet deserves that.

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