Ice cream giant partners with Poseidon to allow customers to offset carbon impact of ice cream purchase with blockchain technology
Customers to Ben & Jerry’s ice cream shop on Wardour Street in London’s Soho are now able to choose a climate-friendly ice-cream, thanks to a new pilot underway with blockchain non-profit Poseidon.
Using Poseidon’s crypto-ledger technology, customers can choose to add a couple of pence on to the cost of their ice-cream to purchase carbon credits equal to the climate impact of producing and selling the snack.
The technology uses blockchain to securely enable micro transactions of carbon credits for the first time, allowing consumers to directly connect carbon credits with their specific everyday activities in real time. Poseidon is working with offset provider Ecosphere to source its credits, which fund anti-deforestation projects around the world.
The Ben & Jerry’s pilot has been running since the beginning of the month, and already it has driven the purchase of enough carbon credits to protect 1,000 trees, said Poseidon CEO Laszlo Giricz.
«We are thrilled to see our pilot with Ben & Jerry’s fully operational, giving consumers for the first time the opportunity to rebalance their own carbon footprint – and rebalance the carbon concentration in the atmosphere in the process,» Giricz said. «While this is just one small pilot, the technology is now proven and can be fully scaled and integrated, giving everyone the opportunity to understand their own carbon impact and take action.»
Ultimately, Poseidon said it hopes that controlling an individual carbon footprint will «be as easy as checking your bank balance». «Our solution will, for the first time, empower everyone to participate in climate action, all the way to the retail level,» the firm explained in a recent whitepaper. «Our vision is to create a platform that integrates carbon credits into everyday life, enabling the seamless and transparent accountability for our carbon footprints as part of every purchase we make.»
The trial is the latest move from Ben & Jerry’s to price the cost of climate change into its activities. As part of its plan to cut carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2020, it has used an internal $10 carbon tax since 2015.
Fuente: BUSINESSGREEN