Sustainability Certification Goes Blockchain

Sammanfattning: Food production accounts for some of the most significant social and environmental impacts at global scale. Reliable information on who produced a product where and under what conditions is a critical enabler for meaningful action on some of the most pressing challenges. Third party certification and labelling remain widely used tools to identify sustainably produced commodities. Fragmented auditing approaches and fraudulent supply chain actors risk undermining effectiveness and trust in certification. More efficient sharing of trustworthy information is a precondition to drive positive impact and strengthen confidence in certification and the global food system. Blockchain is a distributed electronic ledger technology that has been proposed as a potential solution by creating fully traceable, transparent and trusted supply chains through immutable record keeping. Combining blockchain technology and sustainability certification might provide stakeholders with a powerful instrument to step up transparency and sustainability in food supply chains. This thesis uses an exploratory case study approach to further define the field of research on blockchain applications for supply chain management and certification, and to show how key actors and processes might be affected by the introduction of blockchain technology. Insights from 20 expert interviews and a review of various use cases and pilot projects indicate that blockchain technology has the potential to improve the effectiveness of sustainability certification and strengthen trust in related claims. Key stakeholders, such as certification bodies, will need to adapt to a changing landscape as digitalisation further progresses in the food sector.