Mercedes Benz Adopts Blockchain To Track Its Co2 Emissions In Cobalt Supply Chain

Mercedes Benz Adopts Blockchain To Track Its Co2 Emissions In Cobalt Supply Chain

Blockchain News News
February 3, 2020 by Editor's Desk
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Luxury automobile manufacturer Mercedes Benz is originating a Blockchain pilot program to keep a record of carbon eruptions in its cobalt supply chain. Mercedes Benz declared its move by a press release, details on how it is coupling up with Blockchain startup Circulor to record and ultimately fight carbon emissions for its battery supply chain.
Mercedes Benz Blockchain

Luxury automobile manufacturer Mercedes Benz is originating a Blockchain pilot program to keep a record of carbon eruptions in its cobalt supply chain.

Mercedes Benz declared its move by a press release, details on how it is coupling up with Blockchain startup Circulor to record and ultimately fight carbon emissions for its battery supply chain. The collaboration is a part of the Startup Autobahn goal, an initiative towards recognizing technologies for the next generation of vehicles.

The Blockchain technology will be utilized to trace the carbon emitted by manufacturers of vehicle batteries, including the number of recycled materials employed for producing electrical devices. The data obtained from this effort will eventually be used by the Mercedes Benz to explain their plans for a new line of passenger vehicles, which will have an overall neutral carbon footprint.

Mercedes Benz is not the initial car manufacturer that has investigated the use of Blockchain in its batteries related supply chain. Volvo is already utilizing the decentralized technology for tracking recycled cobalt for its batteries in its suppliers’ chain. 

It is the first car manufacturer to favorably use the technology in terms of producing these batteries in vehicles that are plying the roads. Other manufacturers have also used Blockchain in diverse situations, such as Ford, which is employing it to recognize areas in cities with low emissions laws and turn on electric mode of hybrid vehicles automatically.

The Cobalt Focus

Cobalt has, in current times, come under intense analysis in the world. An essential mineral in the manufacturing of electrical batteries, most of it comes from the mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The African nation is famous for its dreadful conditions of work and labor in the mines. According to a United Nations study in 2017, as much as 400,000 children were being used as labor in mines in the country.

The international community is frequently growing tender on the subject, and the issue of ethical sourcing of materials is driving battery manufacturers and auto companies to utilize cobalt extracted from child labor free and labor rights compliant mines. 

As cobalt is already hard to get, manufacturers are increasingly using recycled ones and attempting to diminish their dependence on exploited one.

Leveraging Blockchain will support Mercedes Benz to determine where the cobalt in its batteries was sourced from, allowing it to detect and assess compliance with its ethical standards, particularly from the emissions and human rights perspective.

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