WWF Announces The Launch Of Blockchain Platform Designed To Track Products From Source
Revolutionizing how products are purchased with huge global potential to protect the environment & the more than 20 million people in forced labour globally.
Press Release – Sydney, Australia—January 17, 2019—WWF and BCG Digital Ventures (BCGDV), the global corporate venture, investment and incubation arm of Boston Consulting Group, announces today the launch of OpenSC, a revolutionary new platform which leverages the blockchain and other leading technologies to track the provenance of food from source to table. This digital platform helps businesses to remove illegal, environmentally-damaging or unethical products from their supply chains–giving consumers much needed peace of mind about the products they are purchasing.
With OpenSC, consumers are now able to discover the full history of a product using nothing more than their smartphone to scan the product’s QR code. Once the code is scanned, OpenSC automatically provides details regarding where the product came from, when and how it was produced, and how it journeyed along the supply chain. With this knowledge, OpenSC empowers consumers to make informed purchasing decisions at the touch of a finger.
“Through OpenSC, we will have a whole new level of transparency about whether the food we eat is contributing to environmental degradation of habitats and species, as well as social injustice and human rights issues such as slavery. OpenSC will revolutionise how we all buy food and other products as well, enabling more informed decision making by consumers, businesses, governments, and industry bodies” says Dermot O’Gorman, WWF-Australia CEO
With OpenSC, businesses can track their products, such as fish or beef, by attaching a digital tag (such as an RFID tag) at their original point of production. This tag is linked to a tamper-proof blockchain platform which automatically records the movement of the product through the supply chain. This system can also record additional information that is valuable for businesses , such as the temperature of food throughout storage and transport.
“OpenSC is invaluable for businesses that are committed to sustainable and ethical operations. In addition to providing transparency about the origin of an item’s production, OpenSC helps optimise business supply chain operations, reduces costs, and enables producers to manage issues such as product recalls,” says Paul Hunyor, BCGDV Managing Director and Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum Council on the Future of Consumption.
OpenSC is available to all businesses that are looking to demonstrate that their products are produced in environmentally-friendly or ethical ways. The technology behind the platform was built to be highly compatible both with existing supply chain operations and sustainability certifications, but also to interface with other blockchain-enabled providence solutions. Given this flexibility, any producer who is ready to provide transparency to their customers can be operating on OpenSC within a very short timeframe.
Designed following an award-winning pilot by WWF and its partners to track tuna caught in the Pacific, OpenSC draws upon WWF’s 30 years of leadership in supply chain transformations to improve environmental outcomes. The platform also draws heavily upon BCGDV’s expertise in developing blockchain-enabled supply chain traceability and launching innovative startups with some of the world’s most influential corporations.
“We are launching one of the world’s first “profit with purpose” startups that uses blockchain to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). OpenSC does this by using cutting edge technology to help stamp out unscrupulous operators who fish in illegal areas, bulldoze virgin forests, or engage in slave labour,” Mr O’Gorman said.
Austral Fisheries has committed to complete a full implementation of OpenSC across their entire Toothfish fleet in 2019. Austral is part of the Maruha Nichiro Group, the largest seafood company in the world whose President, Shigeru Ito, Chairs the Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship Council (SeaBOS) coalition which represents 20% of the global seafood market
The launch of OpenSC will be kicked off by a meal prepared by Matt Moran, the Australian chef behind some of the world’s most celebrated restaurants–including Aria, where the event will take place. Moran will cook one of the first products tracked using OpenSC, Patagonian toothfish*. Caught in Antarctic waters by Austral Fisheries, one of Australia’s largest fishing companies, and shipped to thirteen countries around the world.
“We have developed technology that can reliably pinpoint the exact location where each fish was caught and then use machine learning to demonstrate that all of Austral Fisheries’ toothfish were caught in a legal, MSC-certified sustainable fishery*, and in particular that the fish were not caught inside a marine protected area,” says Mr Hunyor.
OpenSC-tracked produce will also be served at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on 24 January by WWF Director, General Marco Lambertini, and BCGDV CEO, Stefan Gross-Selbeck. This will enable business leaders from across the globe to sit down for a meal together and have full transparency of where their food has come from.
*Additional information about Austral Fisheries and its Patagonian Toothfish Operations is here.
**MSC = Marine Stewardship Council, the world’s leading sustainable fishery certification program.
Be a hero! Join the elite group of supporters who ensure that stories like this can continue to be shared! Visit heroes4good.org to become a hero now.
The post WWF Announces The Launch Of Blockchain Platform Designed To Track Products From Source appeared first on GoodCrowd.info.