Pictures Presentation Blog Post

Digitalization is a megatrend, with many seeing data as being the new number one raw material. Much hope is placed on digital innovations to solve some of the major challenges of our time, such as decarbonization, creating transparency along supply chains and more. Is digitalization really the key to making net zero a reality? What are the downsides to it? And where is caution required?

At this event, together with our partner EY we approached the question of how digitalization can drive sustainability, especially in hard-to-abate industries. After taking a look at the general opportunities and risks of digitalization for sustainability, we then took a more closely look at the example of blockchain.

Blockchain technology is one of many emerging technologies that has the potential to help solve some of the environmental problems that we face today. It can be used for: supply chain monitoring and tracking, innovative financial instruments, peer-to-peer trading of tokenized values and enabling decentralized systems of energy.

While blockchain bears many great opportunities it also comes with some controversies and challenges. For example, while blockchain can provide much more transparency along supply chains, it is often added to a supply chain and therefore causes additional energy consumption.

At this event, we examined questions including:

• Is digitalization the key to making Net Zero a reality?
• What are the opportunities & challenges and where is caution required?
• Are we driving an apathy to climate change, due to a belief that technology will solve the problem?
• What are the exciting emerging applications of blockchain?
• How do we manage the energy demands of a blockchain?

Programme: