Vincent Carrières, Andrée-Anne Lemieux, Manuele Margni, Robert Pellerin · 5 authors
The efficiency of sustainability assessments of textile products is generally prevented because of a lack of available and reliable data across complex and globalized supply chains. The purpose of this study is to evaluate how blockchain traceability data can improve the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of textile products and to measure the actual value of exploiting this specific traceability data. To do so, a case study consisting of two LCAs modeling the production of wool top lots in China was conducted. A first LCA was conducted with generic data and the second with the added value of specific blockchain traceability data. Based on the second LCA, different wool top lot composition scenarios were then modeled to account for the environmental impact of different farming practices. Two main results were obtained: the environmental impact of wool top lots can vary up to +118% between two batches depending on their composition, and the specific data changes drastically from the impact calculated with generic data, with +36% calculated impact for the same wool composition of batches. Therefore, it was concluded that blockchain traceability data could be a strong asset for conducting LCA at the batch level by providing differentiated data on batch composition and origin and providing readily available specific data for a more representative assessment.
Marco Schletz, Angel Hsu, Brendan R. Mapes, Martin Wainstein
The Paris Agreement’s decentralized and bottom-up approach to climate action poses an enormous accounting challenge by substantially increasing the number of heterogeneous national, sub-national, and non-state actors. Current legacy climate accounting systems and mechanisms are insufficient to avoid information asymmetry and double-counting due to actor heterogeneity and fragmentation. This paper presents a nested climate accounting architecture that integrates several innovative digital technologies, such as Distributed Ledger Technology, Internet of Things, Machine Learning, and concepts such as nested accounting and decentralized identifiers to improve interoperability across accounting systems. Such an architecture can enhance capacity building and technology transfer to the Global South by creating innovation groups, increasing scalability of accounting solutions that can lead to leapfrogging into innovative systems designs, and improving inclusiveness.
In the age of machine learning, cryptocurrency mining, and seemingly infinite data storage capacity enabled by cloud computing, the environmental costs of ubiquitous computing in modern life are obscured by the sheer complexity of infrastructures and supply chains involved in even the simplest of digital transactions. How does computation contribute to the warming of the planet? As information technology (IT) capacity demands continue to trend upward, what are some of the ecological obstacles that must be overcome to accommodate an ever-expanding, carbon-hungry Cloud? How do these material impacts play out in everyday life, behind the scenes, where servers, fiber optic cables, and technicians facilitate cloud services? This case study draws on firsthand ethnographic research in data centersâsprawling libraries of computer servers that facilitate everything from email to commerceâto identify some of the far-reaching and tangled environmental impacts of computation and data-storage infrastructures. It surveys a range of empirical accounts of server technicians to illustrate on-the-ground examples of material and ecological factors that permeate everyday life in the Cloud. These examples include air conditioning and thermal management, water cycling, and the disposal of e-waste. By attending to the culture of workplace practice and the behaviors and training of technicians in data centers, this case study reveals that the Cloud is not fully automated, nor is it hyperrational; emotion, instinct, and human judgment are enlisted to keep servers running. This case study closes with a speculative vignette that scales up from various local impacts to a planetary framework, sketching some of the particular ways that computation contributes to climate change and the Anthropocene.
Marthe Fogstad Dynge, Ugur Halden, Gro Klæboe, Ümit Cali
Support schemes like the Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) have for many years been an important driver for the deployment of distributed energy resources, and the transition from consumerism to prosumerism. This democratization and decarbonization of the energy system has led to both challenges and opportunities for the system operators, paving the way for emerging concepts like local energy markets. The FiT approach has often been assumed as the lower economic bound for a prosumer's willingness to participate in such markets but is now being phased out in several countries. In this paper, a new pricing mechanism based on the Levelized Cost of Electricity is proposed, with the intention of securing profitability for the prosumers, as well as creating a transparent and fair price for all market participants. The mechanism is designed to function on a Distributed Ledger Technology-based platform and is further set up from a holistic perspective, defining the market framework as interactions in a Cyber-Physical-Social-System. Schemes based on both fixed and variable contracts with the wholesale supplier are analyzed and compared with both the conventional FiT and to its proposed replacement options. The results show a cost reduction for the consumers and a slight loss in revenue for the prosumers compared to the FiT scheme. Comparing it to the actual suggested replacements to the FiT, however, it is clear that the pricing mechanism proposed in this study provides a substantial increase of benefits for both prosumers and consumers.
In this paper, 20 enablers of blockchain adoption in Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) are identified and analyzed using DEMATEL methodology. Our analysis uncovers how the identified enablers interact with each other and impact blockchain adoption in SSCM. Results show the primary importance of management commitment and support for adopting and implementing blockchain technology in SSCM. The results also point out the need for the technology to evolve, so that clearer governance rules for blockchains are adopted, and the interoperability with other IT systems is enhanced. Insights from our study are provided to help more informed decisions at the level of the adopting firms, the industry as a whole, as well as at the level of governments and regulations authorities.
In this chapter, we will work on measuring the impact of mining digital coins by mobile on the main resources of the phone, by means of experiments conducted on iOS devices and Android devices. The experiments were conducted within four scenarios, which are as follows: A. Measuring the impact of cryptocurrency mining on the main resources of the phone when the mining program is running in the foreground of the system while keeping the phone screen active. B. Measuring the impact of cryptocurrency mining on mobile resources when the mining program is running in the foreground of the system and keeping the screen idle. C. Measuring the impact of cryptocurrency mining on the main resources of the mobile while the mining program is running in the background and keeping the mobile screen active. D. Measuring the impact of cryptocurrency mining on the main sources of the mobile while the mining program is running in the background and keeping the mobile screen in the login mode. This is to determine the effects resulting from the mining process on mobile resources, such as high CPU usage, high temperature, battery power consumption, and high temperature, in addition to the increase in RAM consumption, clarifying the results for each experiment, which are reflected in the mobile performance and functions. In addition, a fair use policy must be provided, and the experiments could suggest one. For both iOS and Android devices, the results will help to control and analyze the programs installed on the mobile to ensure that the user does not fall victim to malicious programs that use the mobile resources in the mining process and consume them without the knowledge or consent of the user.
Muhammad Shoaib Farooq, Mishaal Ahmed, Muhammad Emran
Requirements are the basis of software development practices. Ambiguities in requirements lead a project to a point of failure or penalize it with a high budget and time for defect traceability. The ever-growing demand for advanced computing systems has increased the complexity of Software Requirements Engineering (SRE) practices. Blockchain systems require specialized SRE practices as the issues of Requirement Traceability (RT), developer/client confidentiality, and Requirement Negotiation (RN) typically exist in conventional approaches, which require more improvement. Moreover, blockchain technology incorporates the capacity to function as an infrastructure for the SRE framework providing transparency, security, and reliability. Even though the significance of studying blockchain in the context of SRE is evident, it is still in its infancy. None of the previous studies surveyed this domain to the best of our knowledge. We aim to summarize the scholarly contributions of blockchain acquainted SRE from 2015 to 2021 and to provide academia and practitioners with in-depth knowledge about this domain. In this article, we have provided a novel comprehensive review of the aspects of blockchain-acquainted SRE practices. We have presented SRE-based quality improvement factors and outlined the need for blockchain technology in this domain. Furthermore, we have classified SRE practices based on blockchain engineering. In addition, we have proposed a generic SRE model built on blockchain infrastructure along with its workflows. Similarly, we have provided implementation guidelines for the future development guidance of SRE applications built on blockchain technology. Finally, we have presented the current research challenges and provided future directions based on blockchain acquainted SRE.
Cryptocurrencies have appeared as a decentralized virtual currency where all users can contribute to the system and special encryption technology is used. Technologies from which cryptocurrencies originate are also promising technologies. Cryptocurrency mining, one of these technologies, provides a consensus algorithm that ensures the processing and security of the unique ledger. However, this algorithm requires a large amount of processing power for proof of operation, resulting in high levels of electricity consumption. The heat generated by cryptocurrency mining and the carbon emission due to high electricity consumption from fossil fuels will harm national and global efforts on the environment. In this respect, it may be possible to introduce various solutions and suggestions, including government intervention and technological changes in cryptocurrency mining.
Xiaoyang Shi, Hang Xiao, Weifeng Liu, Xi Chen · 7 authors
The distributed consensus mechanism is the backbone of the rapidly developing blockchain network. Blockchain platforms consume vast amounts of electricity based on the current consensus mechanism of Proof-of-Work (PoW). Here, we point out a different consensus mechanism named Proof-of-Stake (PoS) that can eliminate the extensive energy consumption of the current PoW-based blockchain. We comprehensively elucidate the current and projected energy consumption and carbon footprint of the PoW- and PoS-based Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchain platforms. The model of energy consumption of PoS-based Ethereum blockchain can lead the way toward the prediction of other PoS-based blockchain technologies in the future. With the widespread adoption of blockchain technology, if the current PoW mechanism continues to be employed, the carbon footprint of Bitcoin and Ethereum will push the global temperature above 1.5 °C in this century. However, a PoS-based blockchain can reduce the carbon footprint by 99% compared to the PoW mechanism. The small amount of carbon footprint from PoS-based blockchain could make blockchain an attractive technology in a carbon-constrained future. The study sheds light on the urgency of developing the PoS mechanism to solve the current sustainability problem of blockchain.
Dave Murray-Rust, Chris Elsden, Bettina Nissen, Ella Tallyn · 6 authors
This paper presents an annotated portfolio of projects that seek to understand and communicate the social and societal implications of blockchains, distributed ledgers and smart contracts. These complex technologies rely on human and technical factors to deliver cryptocurrencies, shared computation and trustless protocols but have a secondary benefit in providing a moment to re-think many aspects of society, and imagine alternative possibilities. The projects use design and HCI methods to relate blockchains to a range of topics, including global supply chains, delivery infrastructure, smart grids, volunteering and charitable giving, through engaging publics, exploring ideas and speculating on possible futures. Based on an extensive annotated portfolio we draw out learning for the design of blockchain systems, broadening participation and surfacing questions around imaginaries, social implications and engagement with new technology. This paints a comprehensive picture of how HCI and design can shape understandings of the future of complex technologies.
Derrick Effah, Chunguang Bai, Francis Appiah, Bless Lord Y. Agbley · 5 authors
Over the years, carbon dioxide emissions are the primary cause of climate change due to its quantum release by anthropogenic activities. However, inconsistencies in current carbon dioxide emission data make it difficult to ascertain the actual companies' emissions as well as difficulties in assessing trading routes between emitters and cleaners. These inconsistencies impede the sustainable development of low-carbon cities in current times. Therefore, a decentralized, transparent, traceable, and trustless system for carbon emission monitoring and credit trading is imperative in meeting low carbon cities' development. This paper proposes a Blockchain and IoT-based framework on the FISCO bcos platform to monitor enterprise carbon emissions coupled with carbon credit trading using a smart contract. An evaluation of our system demonstrates that our system outperforms other solutions with comparisons on system median response time. The smart contract code for this work is available at: https://github.com/De-miles1/Carbon/tree/master.
Robert Karaszewski, Paweł Modrzyński, Gözde Türkmen Müldür, Jacek Wójcik
Environmental protection is currently one of the key priority areas of the European Union (EU). The search for precise tools to assess the impact of the economy, industry, or the production of individual products or services is crucial for an effective and efficient policy in environmental protection. Blockchain technology, originally related to the financial sector and cryptocurrencies, is an innovative solution that is increasingly being implemented by other areas of the economy and industry sectors. The authors reviewed the literature and based on it presented the possibilities and effects of using blockchain technology in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which is in line with the current development trends of this method. The analysis of the research conducted in this area also allowed to present not only the advantages of blockchain in LCA, but also the limitations of this technology and the potential directions of further research.
Dec 1, 2021·2021 IEEE International Conferences on Internet of Things (iThings) and IEEE Green Computing & Communications (GreenCom) and IEEE Cyber, Physical & Social Computing (CPSCom) and IEEE Smart Data (SmartData) and IEEE Congress on Cybermatics (Cybermatics)
Alexander Nubbaum, Johannes Schütte, Luoyao Hao, Henning Schulzrinne · 5 authors
Since the monitoring of environmental emissions is mostly in the hands of regulatory authorities, collected data may not be easily observed by the interested public. Centrally stored data may also tempt the authorities or others to manipulate the historical record for political or liability reasons. To enable timely, transparent and integrity-protected collection and presentation of emission data, we propose and implement Tremble, an emission monitoring system based on blockchain and IoT sensors. Tremble employs a hybrid storage approach to lower the cost of storage compared to using a pure blockchain without losing data integrity. It provides web interfaces and visualizations for end users to query emission values they are concerned about. Qualitative and quantitative studies involving a total of 62 subjects demonstrate the usability of the system.
In the transition to a circular focus on electric and electronic products, manufacturers play a key role as the originators of both the products and the information about the products. While the waste electric and electronic equipment (WEEE) directive’s contemporary focus is on handling the product as waste after its end of life, the circular economy focuses on retaining the product’s value with a restorative system. The polluter-pays principle requires producers of pollution to bear the costs of handling the pollution, leading to the extended producer responsibility (EPR) principle. This requires manufacturers to change their focus from their current passive role of out-sourcing end-of-life treatment to taking explicit responsibility for product management over an extended period of time. This paper investigates how a manufacturer can assume its responsibility to achieve circularity for its products. Based on our findings, three fundamental circularity principles, the circular electric and electronic equipment (CEEE) principles, for manufactures of electronic and electrical equipment are defined: (1) Serialize product identifiers, (2) data controlled by their authoritative source at the edge, and (3) independent actors’ access to edge data via a distributer ledger are the foundation of the Edge and Distributed Ledger (Edge&DL) model. We demonstrate the model through a case study of how to achieve circularity for lighting equipment. The CEEE principles and the demonstrated model contribute to building new circularity systems for electronic and electric products that let manufacturers undertake their extended product responsibility.
In intelligent transportation systems (ITS), electric vehicles (EVs) play an essential role in reducing environmental pollution and minimizing high fuel costs. The EVs are three times efficient than conventional gasoline-powered vehicles, whereas it depends on the mix of source generation on the grid utilized for charging. However, in most cases, the EVs are resultant in emitting the more substantial greenhouse gas that extends fossil fuels’ lives. Therefore, the ITS contributing to developing the renewable energy management process is incorporated with electric vehicles to reduce greenhouse gas. The EVs are mostly designed to reduce the cost and improve efficiency during the charging infrastructure. Hence, renewable energies are saved exclusively and eliminating wasteful usage. In this work, a blockchain-based effective renewable energy management process should be created to achieve this goal. The blockchain process validates each EV before permitting them to charge their vehicle. The blockchain principle analyzes the energy demand of any EV and validates its demand through vehicle data. The validation process enables the same and original energy use vessel to be identified to remove threats associated activities efficiently. The validating process considering the vehicle information and energy utilization level to verify the EV. The block-based validation process monitoring each vehicle entered into the grid environment, and the ITS process minimizes the fuel wastage and enhances the system’s overall efficiency.
Abstract Currently, inconsistent software versions lead to massive challenges for many car manufacturers. This is partly because within the product lifecycle management and the software engineering process, there is no correct handling of software versions for the “data entry” (installation of software on the ECU) of the vehicles. Furthermore, there are currently major challenges for many vehicle manufacturers to ensure transparency, integrity and full traceability of SW data status vis-à-vis the legislator. To counteract these challenges, new solutions in the field of vehicle engineering are to be developed based on a new platform called “CarEngChainNet” and Blockchain technology. On the basis of the “CarEngChainNet” platform, new main and sub-chain chains will be developed that allow tamper-proof SW data management (Peer to Peer and crypto technology) across the entire PLM chain with new methods such as model-based systems engineering of the requirement, function and integration of the SW components in different areas of vehicle development. The aim is to develop new transmission chains of vehicles with individually packaged software artefacts (e.g. ECU software) that can be securely transmitted from server to server into the vehicle.
Navodana Rodrigo, Srinath Perera, Sepani Senaratne, Xiaohua Jin
Purpose Blockchain as an emerging technology has increased the interests within various industries because of its salient features. A potential application of blockchain for embodied carbon (EC) estimating is being explored. Though there are several databases/tools to estimate EC, the accuracy of estimates prepared using them is affected due to several limitations. As a solution, a prototype blockchain-based EC (BEC) Estimator for distributed supply chain-based EC estimating has been introduced. The data models and user flow diagram that lead to development of a BEC Estimator are developed and evaluated in this study. Design/methodology/approach A case study approach assisted in developing the data models and user flow diagram for the BEC Estimator. A Delphi-based expert forum was used to evaluate and produce the refined data models and user flow diagram. Findings The BEC Estimator adopts a waterfall model, a system development lifecycle model, in developing the application. The phases, system analysis and system design, consisting the development of the data models and user flow diagram for the BEC Estimator are discussed. Originality/value Estimating EC accurately plays an important role in construction. The BEC Estimator uses the supply chain based embodied carbon estimating method to estimate EC accurately. This paper demonstrates the data models and user flow diagram developed for the BEC Estimator.