The chapter investigates the transforming convergence of AI and sustainability, placing AI as core infrastructure facilitating a change from linear, extractive corporate models to regenerative entrepreneurial ones. These models turn planetary constraints into sources of innovation, profitability, and long-term competitive advantage in the face of resource shortages, biodiversity loss, and climate emergency by actively restore natural and social capital. Core contributions include seven archetypes: Product-as-a-Service, resource recovery, waste prevention, circular marketplaces, decentralized energy systems, regenerative agriculture/carbon removal, and longevity models; a typology of AI-native, AI-augmented, and AI-enabled sustainable models; and the new Triple-Layered AI-Enabled Business Model Canvas.It includes financing innovations, value creation, scaling by means of AI flywheels and platforms, and risks with mitigations. It ends by profiling the Regenerative Entrepreneur and proposing a research agenda for fair, net-positive AI-sustainability Integration in the 2030s.
Cloud providers need to report to their customers what carbon emissions have arisen from their use of computing resources, so that customers can include them in their own mandated emissions reporting. At present, these reports are neither verifiable nor audited. We show how a data centre operator can produce cryptographic zero-knowledge proofs to each customer that the emissions reported to that customer are accurate, without the customer being able to learn sensitive information about the data centre operator or other customers. Our approach is scalable, costing a data centre operator with one million customers an estimated $150 USD per month plus $0.01 USD for each customer who requests a verifiable emissions report. For customers, a proof is 37 KiB in size, and verifying it takes less than a second. By making emissions reports more trustworthy, we hope to give companies and policymakers the data they need to push towards decarbonisation.
Zacharoula Sereti, Emmanouil Mavrikos, Stamatis Chatzistamatis, George E. Tsekouras
The convergence of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse is reshaping the digital landscape by introducing novel models of ownership, identity, and interaction. NFTs enable verifiable digital scarcity and authenticity, while the metaverse offers immersive, persistent, and socially rich environments. Yet this integration raises significant privacy challenges, as vast amounts of personal, behavioral, and biometric data are continuously collected, processed, and stored. In addition, blockchain interoperability across platforms and the widespread use of avatars and digital identities create new vulnerabilities that extend beyond those found in traditional digital ecosystems. This paper examines the privacy implications of NFTs and the metaverse by mapping key threats, evaluating privacy-preserving technologies, and discussing regulatory, ethical, and societal perspectives. Moreover, by analyzing and synthesizing recent research, it identifies gaps in current methodological frameworks and proposes directions for future research and innovation. It argues that privacy should not be regarded as a barrier to innovation, but rather as a catalyst for building trust and enabling sustainable convergence between metaverse and NFT ecosystems.
Abstract Software development plays a central role in digital sustainability, yet developers’ role and engagement remains understudied. Here we analyse nearly a decade of developer discussions available on the code repository Github on Ethereum, a widely used open-source blockchain platform. Using topic modelling, with interpretation supported by large language models and a sustainability framework for software systems, we trace how economic, environmental, social, individual, and technical sustainability themes emerge and evolve over time. We find that sustainability awareness, particularly related to energy efficiency and cost, intensifies during key events such as the transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake consensus, which substantially reduced energy use. We identify influential contributors and thematic specialisation, providing a transferable framework for understanding sustainability in emerging developer communities. These findings highlight the role of developer discourse in shaping sustainable software ecosystems and integrating sustainability into open-source development.
This study examines the dynamic, asymmetric, and regime-dependent interactions between green cryptocurrencies and ESG indices under external uncertainty. Using an integrated framework combining Time-Varying Parameter Vector Autoregression (TVP-VAR), Multivariate Quantile-on-Quantile Regression (M-QQR), Markov-Switching models, and Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS), we show that ESG–crypto co-movements are highly conditional. Connectedness intensifies during periods of elevated market volatility, while remaining weaker in tranquil regimes. Financial uncertainty, proxied by the VIX, consistently amplifies ESG–crypto linkages, whereas geopolitical risk (GPR) exerts weaker and more heterogeneous effects. Green cryptocurrencies (ADA, XLM, XNO, XRP, and IOTA) exhibit limited static integration with ESG indices but display strong procyclical alignment in lower return quantiles, challenging their safe-haven role during systemic stress. Regime-switching and 2SLS results confirm robustness and rule out endogeneity. These findings offer important implications for ESG-oriented investors, policymakers, and risk managers integrating digital assets into sustainable portfolios.
This report presents an updated assessment of the environmental footprint of Ethereum several years after the network transitioned from Proof-of-Work to Proof-of-Stake. Produced by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) at Cambridge Judge Business School, the research advances earlier analyses by executing a bottom-up infrastructural audit. Rather than relying on theoretical assumptions, it maps the physical infrastructure of the network: where the nodes sit, the exact hardware configurations they run on, and the specific carbon intensity of the grids that power them. The result is a highly granular, empirical estimate of the electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of Ethereum. By establishing this definitive baseline, the report provides a transparent foundation for understanding the contemporary environmental profile of the network and how it may evolve.
This deliverable describes the technical foundations and integration approach of the EU‑DREAM Data Management Platform, developed under Task 3.4 between M4 and M18. The platform acts as the central layer enabling secure, consistent, and reliable data exchange across the EU‑DREAM ecosystem, connecting components such as the Data Platform, Digital Twins, Distributed Ledger Technology, NLP‑based intermediator, and other energy applications. It defines the overall architecture in line with industry best practices, European recommendations, and earlier system designs, while detailing the operation of key components including identity and access management, API gateways, and DevOps‑based deployment environments. The deliverable also introduces a reference infrastructure to support integration with external systems such as sensors, energy management systems, IoT devices, external databases, and Living Labs. Designed to be modular, scalable, and replicable, the platform allows components to evolve independently while enabling consistent deployment across multiple locations and use cases.
A lack of data security and interoperability are significant challenges in low-carbon building design due to the involvement of numerous architects, engineers, and carbon auditors. This study proposes a novel framework that integrates blockchain, building information modelling (BIM), and life cycle assessment (LCA) to enhance data management and decision-making for low-carbon building design. Blockchain, as a distributed ledger, ensures data security by maintaining an immutable record of architectural design changes, energy system configurations, and carbon footprints. BIM visualises all the design information in a three-dimensional model to ensure real-time updates of energy and carbon performance. LCA assesses the trade-off between embodied carbon and operating carbon emissions across a building’s life span, optimising architectural and energy system design decisions. The proposed framework establishes a secure and transparent workflow by integrating blockchain, BIM, and LCA into an iterative design process. Smart contracts facilitate the automatic verification of design parameters, enabling architects and engineers to adjust their designs when carbon footprint targets and energy-saving requirements are unmet. Additionally, the framework incorporates a database of future weather profiles, material properties, and inventory information to support accurate and informed decision-making. This study enhances data security, improves interoperability and supports the iterative refinement of low-carbon building designs. The framework was validated on an industrial building project, demonstrating its effectiveness in designing low-carbon buildings and its potential to contribute to global net-zero ambitions. By offering a structured approach to integrating blockchain, BIM, and LCA, this study offers valuable insights for practitioners and researchers in the architecture, engineering, and construction industries.
Heba Abdul-Jaleel Al-Asady, K. Priyanka, V. Vennila, M. Murali · 5 authors
In modern supply chains, visibility and sustainability is becoming dependent on energy-efficient and auditable data management frameworks. The use of blockchainbased auditing methods can yield transparent visibility and mechanized auditing capabilities. However, typical auditing solutions using blockchain come with significant energy resource-consuming overheads that are not viable in Industrial IoT (IIoT). In contrast, traditional routing methods do not concurrently account for energy consumption at multiple layers of complexity. In this paper, a novel framework consisting of Fuzzy Logic-Based Energy Aware Routing (FLEA-RPL) combined with the lightweight Internet of Things Application (IOTA) Tangle is proposed, for green supply chain auditing. This is done by first collecting the sensor data (temperature, location, and, residual energy) from the IIoT nodes. The data is preprocessed to receive a similar distribution for incoming sensor data and to filter out inconsistent anomalies. Moreover, FLEA-RPL uses fuzzy inference to assess and choose optimal parent nodes to route the data to nodes on the routing tree, for minimizing energy consumption, according to residual energy and, load to send the data. The routed data is then permanently logged onto a Tangle so that the route is immutable and, therefore, low power and energy data is permanently attached to the distributed ledger. The final step is that the intelligent compliance auditing module monitors the contents of the distributed ledger for violations of a certain Service Level Agreement (SLA) from the ledger. The proposed FLEA-RPLIOTA attained better results, when compared FLEA-RPL in terms of Residual Energy (97.74 %), Packet Loss Ratio (2.2 %) respectively.
Silvio Meneguzzo, Nicolò Bertozzi, Marco Sacchet, Lucio Rocco Inglese · 5 authors
This paper introduces the EU-DREAM initiative, which combines Blockchain/Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and Digital Twin (DT) to achieve secure, transparent, and consumer-centric energy services. We discuss the high-level system architecture, emphasising how DLT ensures data integrity and how DT enable real-time scenario and historical analysis with DLT integrity-certified data for users. We describe the core platform layers, detail the blockchain–digital twin integration, and present application scenarios focusing on community-scale energy trading, demand flexibility, and microgrids. We conclude with a discussion of future development steps and the challenges of ensuring privacy, scalability, and compliance with EU data regulations.
Haya R. Hasan, Khaled Salah, Ahmad Mayyas, Ahmad Musamih · 7 authors
Greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprints have surged dramatically, with the transportation industry being a major contributor. While the UN aims to adopt zero-emission vehicles by 2040, the demand for electric vehicles (EVs) raises sustainability concerns about sourcing earth metals for batteries. Digital passports have emerged to track a product’s lifecycle, composition, certifications, origin, and recyclability. However, existing EV battery passport systems lack sufficient traceability, immutability, auditability, and are prone to manipulation due to their centralized nature. In this paper, we propose a decentralized blockchain-based digital passport for EV batteries using composable Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) to ensure traceable, tamper-proof records that promote transparency across the supply chain. Our solution enables standardized data sharing and interoperability while integrating off-chain storage for efficiency. We evaluate four cathode chemistries using ten sustainability Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to compute an overall sustainability score per battery. We present a system architecture, smart contracts, and supporting algorithms are presented, with testing and validation in a simulated environment. A cost and security analysis confirms affordability and resilience against known attacks. Our approach offers practical value for sustainability assessments, regulatory audits, carbon footprint tracking, and circular economy initiatives by providing immutable, component-level provenance and real-time KPI updates. Limitations include simulation-based validation, lack of stakeholder testing, and scalability challenges in live deployments. While we address some of these, via Layer 2 scaling and modular smart contract design, further research is required to validate adoption in real-world EV supply chains. The smart contract code is made publicly available on GitHub.
Alexandre Pires Barbosa, Rodrigo Pereira dos Santos
O aquecimento global é o maior desafio da humanidade e a ciência da computação tem papel central na escalabilidade de soluções de impacto social. Organizações autônomas descentralizadas (do inglês, decentralized autonomous organization or DAO) se refere a um tema emergente que vem ganhando destaque devido ao crescimento de iniciativas colaborativas. Este trabalho propõe a investigação de governança descentralizada em ecossistemas de inovação social, com objetivo de acelerar a mitigação das emissões de gases de efeito estufa por meio da participação social. Potenciais modelos como artefatos resultantes podem estabelecer diretrizes e expressar relacionamentos entre os envolvidos para orquestrar diferentes interações por meio das DAO.
The Web of Things (WoT) represents an interconnected network of sensors and smart devices. It faces significant security and privacy challenges, including potential data breaches, unauthorized access issues, and concerning scalability problems. This paper introduces a blockchain-based solution that aims to enhance the security and reliability of the WoT. Taking advantage of the inherent transparency of blockchain's distributed ledger, the elimination of single points of failure through consensus algorithms, the enforcement of access control and privacy through smart contracts, and the assurance of data confidentiality through encryption, I propose an innovative design for the WoT that could guarantee enhanced security and trust. I also incorporate the use of a homomorphic hash function to further boost data privacy and integrity. This paper presents a comprehensive framework that employs blockchain technology to transform the current WoT into a more secure and trusted network, which I term the “Web of Trust”.
Abstract This chapter examines how blockchain technology can advance energy management in smart buildings and urban areas. It analyzes the theoretical foundations of blockchain solutions and their integration into energy monitoring, control, and optimization strategies. It describes how blockchain can manage peer-to-peer transactions, coordinate distributed energy resources, and facilitate trust-minimized data sharing for building operators, occupants, and regulators. It then explores digital twin models, cybersecurity considerations, interoperability approaches, and energy market mechanisms that rely on immutable ledgers and smart contracts. The chapter reviews challenges and outlines directions for future research and deployment. The discussion underscores that blockchain presents potential for transparent and automated energy management. Realizing these benefits depends on supportive policies, reliable technology, cross-sector engagement, and continued system refinement.
James Evans, Davide Cassanmagnago, Tathagata Chatterji, Andrew Irvin · 10 authors
Urban innovation has emerged as a priority to address global climate and sustainability goals. As the world continues to urbanise, global organisations are encouraging cities to spearhead innovation to meet global carbon reduction targets and reduce inequalities (UN Habitat, 2022). Finding new ways to build, manage and live in cities is critical to provide all humans with adequate nutrition, shelter, access to products and services including mobility, leisure, health, energy, and education (UN, 2023). Focusing on the potential role of urban innovation is logical -cities drive innovation by bringing diverse people, knowledge and resources together (Florida et al., 2018). In many ways urbanisation represents the manifestation of new technologies and forms of social organisation, from the hydraulic cities of Mesopotamia 7000 years ago through to industrial and post-industrial cities today (Jacobs, 1969;Athey et al., 2008). However, while the link between cities and innovation is longstanding, the idea of 'urban innovation' as a specific activity to discover new ways to develop, manage and inhabit cities in more sustainable ways is recent, distinct and less familiar. This framing of urban innovation reflects established approaches to governance for sustainability, layered over the distinctive characteristics and capabilities of cities. In this paper we define urban innovation as a directed activity that takes place in and is driven by cities as a way to address local challenges that will contribute to the delivery of global climate and sustainability goals. The emergence of the urban innovation as an influential global policy agenda pushes cities once more to the front of the battle against climate change. This paper examines the emergence of urban innovation as a discrete and influential policy goal to deliver global climate and sustainability goals and outlines a research agenda to help achieve this.The paper is authored with leading global organisations in this space -the United Nations Climate Change Global Innovation Hub and the Global Covenant of Mayors. The United Nations is the leading global organisation coordinating international action on key challenges including climate change. The United Nations Global Innovation Hub for Climate Change promotes innovation as a catalyst for achieving global climate and sustainability targets. Their first global dialogue series focused on cities specifically because of their potential to integrate technological, social, and policy innovations. The Global Innovation Hub emphasizes systemic approaches to urban innovation, fostering cross-sectoral collaboration and community engagement to create sustainable, climate resilient development in urban environments. The Global Covenant of Mayors (GCoM) represents an alliance of more than 13,000 cities combatting climate change. Through its Innovate4Cities initiative, launched in 2019 in response to the Edmonton Cities and Climate Change Science Conference (Oke et al., 2022), the GCoM alliance outlines the knowledge gaps and action priorities for urban innovation, research and implementation, sharing data and best practices, and unlocking financing for scalable urban innovation projects. Both work closely with the Mission Innovation Urban Transitions Mission, which launched at COP 26 in 2021. This organisation empowers cities worldwide in their transition towards net-zero, resilient, and people-centred cities, mobilizing decision-makers across all levels of government to prioritize pathways enabled by clean energy and systemic innovation across all sectors and in urban governance (Urban Transitions Mission, 2024). The Urban Transitions Mission develops innovation systems capable of transforming cities to address climate change, including a focus on coordinating city level research and innovation challenges (European Commission, 2022).These organisations form part of a Global Innovation Alliance (GIA), which is engaging cities and relevant partners to build a worldwide urban innovation policy agenda for climate and sustainability goals. This policy agenda is complemented by the Global Research and Action Agenda on Cities and Climate Change Science, which provides a cross-sectoral, systems-based foundation for knowledge to enable urban innovation. This document launched at the Cities and Climate Change Science Conference in Edmonton, Canada in 2018, and in its latest iteration following the 2024 Innovate4Cities Conference, serves as an evidence base for the knowledge and innovation outputs being co-created by researchers, governments, businesses, and civil society (Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, UN-Habitat & University of Melbourne, 2024). These initiatives demonstrate the growing ambition for science to inform action and facilitates the exchange of knowledge to support stronger and more ambitious urban solutions and partnerships.The priorities and initiatives of these international organisations individually and collectively show that urban innovation has become central to the delivery of global climate and sustainability goals at multiple levels of governance. Urban innovation is being promoted as a way to develop solutions to challenges in sectors ranging from energy and transport to housing and social justice. By cutting across domains, and more closely engaging economic and knowledge production, urban innovation represents an exciting new way to create more sustainable cities. However, as Bai (2024) notes in relation to the potential of cities to deliver the SDGs, action on the ground requires clarity of roles. The term 'urban innovation' is used widely now in policy and research, but in different ways by different groups to mean different things, not necessarily with sustainability or justice and equity as core values. Realising the potential of urban innovation to deliver climate and sustainability goals requires greater clarity in defining what exactly it is, how it should be done in practice, and who is supposed to be doing it. Given the political weight and resource behind it, researchers have an important role to play in helping to ensure that urban innovation is an equitable and effective. Addressing rather than exacerbating inequalities and making sure successful innovations are actually transformative lie at the forefront of this challenge. This Grand Challenge article builds upon the high levels of current ambition and activity associated with key international initiatives like the Global Innovation Alliance and Global Research and Action Agenda on Cities and Climate Change Science to frame a broad and inclusive research agenda for sustainable cities and urban innovation.Innovation relates to the development of new services, products or processes that generate value through being of use to customers or users. The concept of innovation was arguably first framed as a place-based agenda in scholarship and policies relating to regional innovation clusters. These often developed near universities, most famously in the case of the Silicon Valley innovation cluster in California that grew up around Stanford University. The focus was on supply-side technology development though, with little consideration of the demands of cities and their residents. The emergence of the idea of smart cities in the early Twenty-First Century dramatically changed this, positioning innovation as a key element of place-making. Urban innovation became an activity focusing on how to deploy digital technologies to improve cities and urban services (Angelidou, 2015). Successful examples include the replacement of traditional incandescent bulbs with LED for street lighting, and the adoption of digital information and payment platforms for citizens to engage with municipal authorities. Evidence suggests that cities investing in smart city projects tend to generate economic benefits associated with traditional innovation, gauged through measures such as numbers of patent filings (Caragliu and Del Bo, 2019). A rapidly growing body of work from China suggests a correlation between the innovative capacity of cities and their environmental performance (see for example Tan, et al., 2022;Yang, et al., 2022;Guo, et al., 2023). Work in this context has also identified a positive relationship between the existence of a digital economy and the achievement of low carbon transitions in larger Chinese cities (Liu et al., 2024). However, it is the distinct idea of urban innovation as a directed process that brings different stakeholders together to develop solutions to problems in their own cities that has gained traction beyond smart cities. In relation to environmental policy, the need for practical action to complement international commitments on climate change and sustainable development, coupled with the emergence of world cities as major political actors (Bulkeley, 2013), has provided fertile ground for urban innovation to emerge as a potential driver of societal change. Urban innovation represents the culmination of a longer-term metamorphosis of cities from being framed as sources of sustainability problems to sources of sustainability solutions (Angelo and Wachsmuth, 2020). In principle, urban innovation offers a way to situate and address the United Nation Sustainable Development the context of cities and 2024). 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Smart Cities and Technologies
Innovative Approaches in Technology and Social Development
This paper reviews the emerging literature on blockchain, structuring key insights in a conceptual framework and setting out a research agenda from a socio-technical and information systems (IS) perspective. The review covers 234 blockchain-focused papers across IS, management, computer science and related fields. It categorises blockchain use into three main types and reframes blockchain use within the socio-technical phenomena of which it is a part. This broader framework enables us to aggregate, integrate and synthesise knowledge about blockchain, its values, drivers and barriers, social and technical subsystem(s), as well as potential consequences, both intended and unintended. Using this framework as a basis for analysis, we identify gaps in the existing blockchain literature and outline a research agenda for advancing blockchain studies within the IS field.
Hossein Naderi, Alireza Shojaei, Mohammad Hossein Heydari
Building energy efficiency programs face significant challenges in performance monitoring and occupant engagement, which hinder the achievement of sustainability goals in the built environment. Traditional systems often suffer from intermediary-dependent workflows, insufficient transparency, and reliability issues, leading to conflicts among stakeholders and reduced occupant participation. This study proposes a blockchain-enabled solution that leverages Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) to improve the transparency, reliability, and traceability of performance monitoring systems. By integrating Digital Twin (DT) technology, blockchain, and a token marketplace, the platform not only enhances monitoring capabilities but also incentivizes occupants to adopt energy-efficient behaviors through Fungible Token (FT) rewards. A proof-of-concept prototype was developed using a synthetic case study, demonstrating the feasibility, cost efficiency, and scalability of the framework. The findings emphasize the importance of network selection for wider blockchain adoption. This transparent and immutable framework addresses key challenges in energy performance monitoring, offering a foundation for advancing sustainability in the built environment.
The design of Web3 applications presents unique challenges due to their complex technical requirements. Despite the increasing spread of this technology, there is a notable lack of comprehensive, empirically grounded design guidelines for developing user-friendly Web3 interfaces. This study addresses this gap through a systematic three-phase approach: (1) developing initial guidelines from a literature review and industry sources (n = 31), (2) conducting evaluations using a 14-point framework based on the initial guidelines to test its effectiveness across diverse Web3 applications (n = 25), and (3) validating refined guidelines through expert evaluation sessions (n = 7). Expert evaluations highlighted the need for task-oriented rather than category-based organization of design principles. Based on these findings, we developed a structured framework organizing guidelines into four key task flows, each with three implementation levels. The framework emphasizes progressive disclosure of blockchain concepts, integrated user education, and clear state visualization. Our findings contribute to academic discussion and industry practice by providing empirically validated patterns for Web3 interface design. This study lays a foundation for creating more accessible and user-friendly decentralized applications, though future work should focus on longitudinal validation and adaptation to emerging technologies.