Increasing Transparency for Sustainable Supply Chains: An Industry Survey of Applications for Blockchain
Dr. Justin Goldston - Justin Goldston is a Professor at Penn State University, as well as a Visiting Professor and Graduate Advisory Board Member at Georgetown University and the University of Southern California. His research is focused on blockchain, social impact, supply chain management, and is a five-time TEDx speaker on blockchain. Goldston is the corresponding applicant and will take primary responsibility for the project.
Dr. Anoop V.S. - Dr. Anoop is a Professor and Senior Scientist in India where his focus is on blockchain and artificial intelligence. As the author and co-author of many highly-cited academic journal articles focused on emerging technologies, his research experience is invaluable to the team and this project.
Tomer Jordi Chaffer - Jordi is a graduate researcher at McGill University in Canada, and is also the co-author of The Metaverse as the Digital Leviathan: A Case Study of Bit.Country. As an international speaker on blockchain, Jordi’s research is focused on blockchain within the healthcare sector.
CVs
Justin Goldston, PhD - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qIS2Z3ANUJ9I_U3Aayb4zJGJM1dMAcrJ/view?usp=sharing
Anoop V.S., PhD - https://drive.google.com/file/d/17b2FqXq7DtchxDOYjBKkRtvRDvA2TzWp/view?usp=sharing
Tomer Jordi Chaffer - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jQFqowGFqCKTW3gegft3EYQPCbQRdUcc/view?usp=sharing
Please see a few notable articles below the applicants published centered around blockchain and Web3.
This is the first peer-reviewed academic case study on the metaverse written by Goldston and Chaffer. https://bit.ly/3wZaHt4
This is the first peer-reviewed academic case study on hybrid finance (HyFi) written by Goldston and Anoop V.S. https://bit.ly/3D55XGh
This will be one of the first academic peer-reviewed journal articles on soulbound tokens by Chaffer and Goldston. https://articlegateway.com/index.php/JSIS/article/view/5637/5349
This is the Google Scholar profile for Justin Goldston https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=trlWfAQAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
This is the Google Scholar profile of Jordi Chaffer. https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ztttWoYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
This is the Google Scholar profile for Anoop V.S. https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=66ddfXYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra
This is the link to Goldston and Anoop’s forthcoming book published by Taylor and Francis entitled "Blockchain for Industry 4.0: Emergence, Challenges and Opportunities" https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.1201/9781003282914/blockchain-industry-4-0-anoop-asharaf-justin-goldston-samson-williams
0xDB47B39e2fe61bA6a0f82aBf07daa38D358134c5 - Ethereum
⚠️ The combination of your GitHub account submitting the application and the payment address above will be your unique identifier during the program. Please keep them safe.
Climate change is widely acknowledged to be one of the most pressing global issues facing society today. As it has been noted that organizations’ supply chain networks are major contributors to this environmental impact, companies are taking steps to reduce their carbon footprint. Although attempts have been made by supply chain leaders to track carbon emissions, current state solutions do not provide real-time reporting and are often inaccurate (Chen et al., 2022; Fang et al., 2018). In March 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States issued a proposal that would require public companies to disclose climate-related information in their SEC filings. As organizations will look to their supply chain leaders to provide this information, these leaders will need tools to provide transparency across their supply chain networks.
As researchers have voiced concerns regarding proof-of-work blockchain protocols such as Bitcoin due to high electricity consumption, protocols such as VeChain could have a positive impact on the environment. VeChain is an enterprise-focused solution that is focused on providing a secure, reliable, and scalable platform for enterprise applications, namely within the supply chain industry (Schahczenski & Schahczenski, 2020). Additionally, in a recent Bankless interview (https://youtu.be/9FZq-9Oe5Hc), Paul Brody, the Global Blockchain Leader for Ernst & Young, mentioned a number of use cases EY is working on to increase transparency across supply chain networks. With the current work being done in both the Web2 and Web3 spaces in integrating blockchain and supply chain, the team is looking to develop a future-state framework.
The purpose of this qualitative modified Delphi study is to identify a consensus among a panel of supply chain executives as to the desirability and feasibility of a platform to track carbon emissions. From a sustainability perspective, we also look to gain insights as to whether they would use this tool due to regulation or for positive environmental impact.
Empirical studies / real-world measurements / performance analysis & comparison
Sustainability; Supply Chain; Blockchain; Carbon emissions; Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG)
A modified qualitative Delphi approach was selected because Justin Goldston used this approach in the past for a study to identify a consensus among a panel of ERP manufacturing consultants as to the desirability and feasibility of critical success factors in ERP implementations in the United States. In using supply chain executives as the panel of experts in this study, not only will we hopefully gain insights as to the needs of the user base for a blockchain-based carbon solution.
In this study, the team will look to answer the following research questions:
RQ1. What are the current challenges facing the supply chain industry in terms of carbon emissions and how can blockchain address these challenges?
Justification: In order to develop a solution leaders will use, we must solve an industry problem. Interviews with individuals such as Paul Brody of EY and Sheri Hinish - Global Consulting Lead for Sustainability Services at IBM - will be performed to develop the survey instrument, hence the modified Delphi approach. While the team has yet to identify existing survey instruments for surveys based around blockchain-based carbon solutions, we will confirm that a survey currently does not exist.
RQ2. What are the potential benefits and limitations of a blockchain-based carbon solution for the supply chain industry?
Justification: In having discussions with supply chain leaders over the years on the feasibility of blockchain-based solutions within the industry, the consensus is that hybrid solutions may be needed for industry-wide adoption. As the benefits will allow for ease of auditing that will be coming for public entities, the limitations may be due to the fact that some blockchain solutions do not provide hybrid offerings to organizations. Platforms such as the Casper Network are noting they are creating hybrid solutions focused on enterprise adoption, and this solution will be reviewed in this study.
RQ3. How can a blockchain-based carbon solution be implemented in the supply chain industry?
Justification: Using Goldston's Critical Success Factors in Enterprise Resource Planning Implementation in U.S. Manufacturing as the foundation, we will look at the existing research and depend upon the experts to assess whether blockchain-based implementations are similar to ERP implementations for organizations that operate within the supply chain industry.
RQ4. What are the implications of a blockchain-based carbon solution for the supply chain industry in terms of cost, efficiency, and environmental impact?
Justification: Based on the protocol and platform, cost, efficiency, and environmental impact will vary. We will assess solutions such as VeChain, Ethereum, ICP, Cudos, and Casper to perform a comparison of viable protocols supply chain solutions could potentially build a blockchain-based carbon solution on. An interesting topic in this research question would be the environmental impact of NFT minting as the team feels the supply chain industry may provide the greatest opportunity for the integration of NFTs within the space. For example, similar to how ERP systems generate lot numbers for batches of products, serial numbers for individual serialized products, as well as individual identifiers for totes and containers, in the Web3 (or Web2.5) world, if the item has a serial or batch number, it will be a minted NFT. As analysts and researchers have speculated that NFTs have a negative impact on the envirnoment, the team will also research the use of NFTs to track and trace raw materials, sub-assemblies, and finished goods. It will also be valuable to understand the thoughts of supply chain leaders on the environmental impact of using NFTs to track and trace goods and whether that will impact their decision-making to use NFTs as a tracking and tracing mechanism.
The potential risk to this project could be the lack of responses among the panel of experts. As Justin Goldston is a part of many blockchain-related supply chain groups on LinkedIn, this risk could be considered a small risk.
The applicants should define multiple milestones together with the budget and the expected outcome of each milestone. The outcome may, for instance, be a prototype system, proof-of-concept, scientific paper, technical report, etc. Note that the grant will be disbursed step-by-step according to the budget of each milestone as explained in the Application Process.
- Total Estimated Duration: 4 months
- Full-Time Equivalent (FTE): 5FTE, the listed members would contribute to different deliverables based on their skill-set.
- Total Costs: 30,000 USDT
- Estimated duration: 1 month
- FTE: 5
- Costs: 15,600 USDT - link to budget details outlined in the Additional Information Section
| Number | Deliverable | Specification |
|---|---|---|
| 0. | Rights | All developed materials and raw data will be publicly accessible and public domain via a GitHub repository. Milestone 1 is research oriented and as such there is no code to test. |
| 1. | Overview of Blockchain Ecosystems | We will provide a literature review of the current usage of the Ethereum, VeChain, ICP, Cudos, and Casper blockchain protocols and their current uses within the supply chain industry. These protocols have been selected as organizations within the supply chain industry have built solutions on these protocols. We will also collaborate with users within the ecosystem to conduct interviews that will be published on the SydTek DAO YouTube page. |
| 1a. | Literature Review Distribution | At the conclusion of the research and interviews, a draft document of the Literature Review section of the study will be distributed across a number of LinkedIn Groups. Once feedback is gathered, we will then develop a survey to distribute to individuals within the respective LinkedIn groups as to the desirability and feasibility of a platform to track carbon emissions. Based on the feedback within the LinkedIn groups, additional questions will be added to the survey. All information and the development of the survey will be outlined in the study. |
- Estimated Duration: 1 month
- FTE: 5
- Costs: 13,000 USDT - link to budget details outlined in the Additional Information Section
| Number | Deliverable | Specification |
|---|---|---|
| 0. | Rights | All developed materials and raw data will be publicly accessible and public domain via a GitHub repository. Milestone 2 is research oriented and as such there is no code to test. |
| 1. | Data Collection and Analysis | The SydTek team will collect the data from the study to analyze to report the results in the study. |
| 1a. | Specific Coverage | The results of the study as to the desirability and feasibility of a platform to track carbon emissions will be completed for submission to a peer-reviewed academic journal. |
- Estimated Duration: 2 months
- FTE: 3
- Costs: 1,400 USDC - link to budget details outlined in the Additional Information Section
| Number | Deliverable | Specification |
|---|---|---|
| 0. | Rights | All developed materials and raw data will be publicly accessible and public domain via a GitHub repository. Milestone 3 is research oriented and as such there is no code to test. |
| 1. | Submit to OA journal | The SydTek team submit the completed journal article for publication in a peer-reviewed open access journal to ensure the research is available for everyone. |
| 1a. | Specific Coverage | The team will hold virtual sessions for universities such as Georgetown University in Washington, DC in the United States and at McGill University in Montreal, Canada to share the findings of the study. These events will also be recorded and held in the metaverse. |
$30,000
The details of the budget can be found at the link below. The budget will cover the costs for a Principal investigator, three researchers, a project manager, and the cost to cover publishing in an academic journal.
After a review of the existing academic research on VeChain and other blockchain solutions, the team will research and include the following studies for the Literature Review section of the study:
Chern, B. T. P., & Aun, T. B. (2021). Blockchain adoption among Malaysian SMEs: A critical review on the supply chain implications. Journal of Education and Social Sciences, 17(1), 48-55.
Chiacchio, F., D’Urso, D., Oliveri, L. M., Spitaleri, A., Spampinato, C., & Giordano, D. (2022). A non-fungible token solution for the track and trace of pharmaceutical supply chain. Applied Sciences, 12(8), 1-23.
Hellani, H., Sliman, L., Samhat, A. E., & Exposito, E. (2021). On blockchain integration with supply chain: Overview on data transparency. Logistics, 5(3), 1-23.
Erokhin, A., Koshechkin, K., & Ryabkov, I. (2020). The distributed ledger technology as a measure to minimize risks of poor-quality pharmaceuticals circulation. PeerJ Computer Science, 6, e292.
Knutsen, K. E., Liang, Q., Karandikar, N., Ibrahim, I. H. B., Tong, X. G. T., & Tam, J. J. H. (2022, July). Containerized immutable maritime data sharing utilizing Distributed Ledger Technologies. In Journal of Physics: Conference Series (Vol. 2311, No. 1, p. 012006). IOP Publishing.
Liu, A., Liu, T., Mou, J., & Wang, R. (2020). A supplier evaluation model based on customer demand in blockchain tracing anti-counterfeiting platform project management. Journal of Management Science and Engineering, 5(3), 172-194.
Manolache, M. A., Manolache, S., & Tapus, N. (2022). Decision making using the blockchain proof of authority consensus. Procedia Computer Science, 199, 580-588.
Meghla, T. I., Rahman, M. M., Biswas, A. A., Hossain, J. T., & Khatun, T. (2021, July). Supply Chain Management with Demand Forecasting of Covid-19 Vaccine using Blockchain and Machine Learning. In 2021 12th International Conference on Computing Communication and Networking Technologies (ICCCNT) (pp. 01-07). IEEE.
Meraviglia, L. (2018). Technology and counterfeiting in the fashion industry: Friends or foes?. Business Horizons, 61(3), 467-475.
Pieroni, A., Scarpato, N., & Felli, L. (2020). Blockchain and IoT convergence—a systematic survey on technologies, protocols and security. Applied Sciences, 10(19), 1-23.
Raj, P. (2021). Industrial use cases at the cusp of the IoT and blockchain paradigms. In Advances in Computers (Vol. 121, pp. 355-385). Elsevier.
Shcherbakov, V., & Silkina, G. (2021). Supply chain management open innovation: Virtual integration in the network logistics system. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 7(1), 1-21.
Schahczenski, J., & Schahczenski, C. (2020). Blockchain and the resurrection of consumer sovereignty in a sustainable food economy. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 9(3), 79-84.
She, Z. (2022). VeChain: A renovation of supply chain management--a look into its organisation, current acitivity, and prospect. 2022 International Conference on Educational Informatization, E-commerce and Information System. 292-297.
Teodorescu, M., & Korchagina, E. (2021). Applying blockchain in the modern supply chain management: Its implication on open innovation. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 7(1), 1-18.
Teoh, B. P. C. (2022). Navigating the blockchain trilemma: A supply chain dilemma. In Advanced Maritime Technologies and Applications (pp. 291-300). Springer, Cham.
Thanasi-Boçe, M., AL-Issa, N., & Ali, O. (2022). Combating luxury counterfeiting through blockchain technology. In Blockchain Technologies in the Textile and Fashion Industry (pp. 1-16). Springer, Singapore.
Vieira, E., Ferreira, J., & Bartolomeu, P. C. (2020, September). Blockchain technologies for IoT applications: Use-cases and limitations. In 2020 25th IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation (ETFA) (Vol. 1, pp. 1560-1567). IEEE.
Chen, K., Yang, M., Zhou, X., Liu, Z., Li, P., Tang, J., & Peng, C. (2022). Recent advances in carbon footprint studies of urban ecosystems: Overview, application, and future challenges. Environmental Reviews, 30(2), 342-356.
Fang, Y., Ng, S. T., Ma, Z., & Li, H. (2018). Quota-based carbon tracing model for construction processes in China. Journal of Cleaner Production, 200, 657-666.
Schahczenski, J., & Schahczenski, C. (2020). Blockchain and the resurrection of consumer sovereignty in a sustainable food economy. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 9(3), 79-84.