Innovative Blockchain-Based Application of Carbon Footprint of Products: A Case Study in Textile and Apparel Industry

Abstract

To align with the national climate pledges for long-term emissions goals, each industry needs consider using advanced digital technologies to mitigate carbon emissions and make progress in low-carbon transformation. The textile and apparel industry plays a very important role in economy and is one of the main contributors of greehouse gases emissions. This paper aims to show the feasibility of using blockchain technology for the carbon footprint of products accounting and trace. A framework of blockchain-based application of carbon footprint of products in textile industry has been proposed, in which a permissioned blockchchain infrastructure is integrated with enterprise information systems, automatic data collection, aggregation and reliable data sharing between multiple stakeholders is fulfilled. A case study of carbon footprint of a silk product has been conducted and the results show that the printing and dyeing process, and the silk reeling process are the most two contributors for carbon emissions, accounting for 44% of the total.