Chemical Engineering November 2019 - 13

OpenSC
www.opensc.org) - co-founded by
the World Wide Fund for Nature and
BCG Digital Ventures - received $4
million in seed funding to further develop
its technology to trace, verify and share
supply-chain data (Figure 2). OpenSC
assigns a digital identity to a product
and uses IoT technologies to trace its
supply chain from origin to consumer.
Collected data are stored in a decentralized,
tamperproof blockchain. " The
benefit of blockchain is twofold. Firstly,
it's an immutable ledger, which means
that once the data are recorded, it
cannot be changed. The second benefit
is that public blockchains are accessible
and decentralized, so data
can be made open and visible to
consumers and other interested parties, "
explains Markus Mutz, CEO of
OpenSC. OpenSC utilizes machine
learning to synthesize meaningful insights
and verify ethical production
claims by processing large amounts
of previously underutilized data from
disparate sources - including satellite
images, GPS information, weather
patterns and more.
OpenSC recently announced a pilot
project with global food manufacturer
Nestlé S.A. (Vevey, Switzerland; www.
nestle.com) to trace milk products
from New Zealand to the Middle East,
and plans are in place to expand this
partnership to trace palm oil sourced in
Mexico. Palm oil is a ubiquitous ingredient
in numerous food and personalcare
products, but its procurement is
currently fraught with environmental
risks related to deforestation, making
it an area where innovative supply-chain
strategies
are
necessary.
" OpenSC can use technology to verify
that a palm-oil product was farmed
on deforestation-free land by analyzing
satellite imagery over time. This
can be overlaid with plantation boundary
coordinates and a unique product
identification, tracing the product back
to a particular property, verifying that it
was produced without deforestation, "
says Mutz. Palm oil is just one example
of a product chain that can benefit
from the data transparency provided
by the customizable blockchain platform.
Moving forward, Mutz believes
that new levels of openness enabled
by blockchain and other IoT technologies
will drive consumers to increasingly
demand sustainably sourced
goods and encourage manufacturers
to manage their supply chains to mitigate
waste, fraud and other risks.
The need for responsible sourcing
in the mining and minerals sector has
been amplified by the tremendous
growth in demand for battery materials,
such as cobalt, graphite, lithium,
lead, nickel and manganese. " The
circumstances under which battery
materials are produced, traded and
transformed in certain geographies is
fraught with risks, " explains Nicholas
Garrett, CEO of RCS Global Group
(Berlin, Germany; www.rcsglobal.
com). RCS Global has collaborated
with IBM (Armonk, N.Y.; www.ibm.
com) and a consortium of large-scale
mining companies, automotive manufacturers
and intermediate suppliers
to develop the Responsible Sourcing
Blockchain
Network
(RSBN),
said
to be the mining industry's first
blockchain-based endeavor to tackle
supply-chain sustainability. The RSBN
includes an integrated assurance
mechanism incorporating RSC Global's
audits, which consider standards
and guidance from the Organisation
for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD; Paris, France;
www.oecd.org), including verification
against human rights abuses. " For
each tier of the supply chain, additional
criteria can be applied, including,
but not limited to, social, environmental
or operational health and
safety conditions, " adds Garrett. The
RSBN platform also aims to promote
the socioeconomic advancement of
small-scale miners through a tokenization
model. Furthermore, the platform
is designed so that it can be expanded
to include additional conflict
minerals and precious metals, with
the goal of making it the industry standard
for fully assured material traceability
and provenance.
In addition to the RSBN, RCS has
developed a smartphone application
for data collection from remote mining
sites. However, Garrett emphasizes,
even with the abundant capabilities of
digital technologies, a " boots on the
ground " approach remains key in highrisk
supply chains to ensure data integrity
and for downstream companies to
gain full visibility into their supply chain.
" Our global supplier audit program
helps clients map their entire raw-maCHEMICAL
ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
NOVEMBER 2019
FIGURE 2. OpenSC depends on blockchain technology
to bring together data from disparate sources,
creating a holistic view of a material's provenance
terial-specific supplier ecosystem and
verify that this ecosystem adheres to
responsible sourcing practices, including
industry policy frameworks, corporate
codes of conduct and legislative
requirements, " adds Garrett.
Another key element in assuaging
supply-chain concerns is the collaborative
management of relationships
between suppliers and customers.
" Enterprise contract management provides
supply-chain visibility by tracking
what a firm's worldwide obligation, entitlements
and business relationships
truly are. It gives a firm grasp on the
supply chain, key suppliers, the composition
of the products purchased
and the locales in which they operate, "
says Neal Singh, chief operating officer
at Icertis (Bellevue, Wash.; www.icertis.
com). Icertis offers blockchain and artificial
intelligence (AI) technologies to
help companies improve transparency,
execution speed and compliance with
regard to measuring supplier diversity
and product provenance. In the pharmaceutical
sector, for instance, the
complexities surrounding global supply
chains, regulatory programs and drug
trials introduce unique issues rooted in
contract management and data visibility.
" We're seeing more customers with
the need to enforce regulatory compliance
across multiple geographies and
optimize their relationships with material
suppliers, " adds Singh.
Innovations in materials use
The major drivers for responsible
sourcing in the plastics supply chain
are twofold - manufacturers must
consider the sustainability of their raw
materials while also minimizing the
carbon footprint of producing plastic
products. Dow (Midland, Mich.; www.
dow.com) has advanced its sustainability
strategy with technology partnerships
focused on recycled and
13
http://www.opensc.org http://www.rcsglobal http://www.ibm http://www.nestle.com http://www.oecd.org http://www.icertis http://www.dow.com http://WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
Chemical Engineering November 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering November 2019
