🚘 Sustainable aluminum for Bimmers

GM, GM you tinfoil hats!

Na, just kidding, but today it is all about sustainable aluminum in the car industry.

You know how we break down the Web3 use cases every week in 4.3 minutes:

• 😰 The challenge

• 💡 The solution

• 👀 Take away for other industries

So let‘s go!

😰 The challenge

Aluminum is one of the most used materials for products, and still growing like crazy.

It is used for my beloved Apple devices, packaging for food and beverages, in buildings and of course in the automotive industry.

To produce aluminum, you need a lot of energy, which is unhealthy for the environment.

Some manufacturers are using only renewable energy to produce the metal to reduce the CO2 footprint.

Regarding sustainable products, you never know if they are really sustainable. Typical you have the following challenges:

• Non-verifiable data

• Varying reporting

• Limited transparency and traceability

This makes it difficult to follow the ESG reporting standards and to set up one's company sustainably.

💡 The solution

To gain trust across the whole supply chain and to have a bullet proof certificate BMW partnered with their supplier Rio Tinto.

Together they created a new Blockchain based standard for transparency and traceability in the aluminum industry. It‘s called START and is like a „nutrition label“ for aluminum parts.

Source: https://www.startresponsible.com

It helps to collect and report data in nearly real time. Each transaction (e.g. step in the supply chain), is recorded with a time stamp not changeable on the Blockchain, visible for everyone participating.

The customers will receive the digital „label“ with the key information about the site where the aluminum was responsibly produced, covering ten criteria:

• carbon footprint

• water use

• recycled content

• energy sources

• community investment

• safety performance

• diversity in leadership

• business integrity

• regulatory compliance

• transparency

These datasets make it very easy to prove how sustainable the used aluminum is and to feed the data into the global ESG reporting.

👀 Take away for other industries

If you want to have better data for better (ESG) reports, you could think of a blockchain-based solution.

It will provide trustworthy, non-changeable data.

BUT using only one technology will not solve the problem of incorrect data.

Wrong data can just as easily be written on the blockchain.

It is important to work together with suppliers.

Suppliers and everyone involved in the supply chain process must adhere to standards and specifications for data collection and transmission.

Then it will work out with good data, regardless of whether it is stored in a centralized or decentralized system.

And speaking of sustainability: Today I will pick up my kids with the bike and not the car (because it‘s sunny outside 😎).

What do you think about this use case? Just hit reply and let me know!

Have a great day! ☀️