Blockchain on Sustainable Environmental Measures: A Review

Abstract

Blockchain has emerged as a solution for ensuring accurate and truthful environmental variable monitoring needed for the management of pollutants and natural resources. The immutability property of blockchain helps protect the measured data on pollution and natural resources to enable truthful reporting and effective management and control of polluting agents. However, specifics on what to measure, how to use blockchain, and highlighting which blockchain frameworks have been adopted need to be explored to fill the research gaps. Therefore, we review existing works on the use of blockchain for monitoring and managing environmental variables in this paper. Specifically, we examine existing blockchain applications on greenhouse gas emissions, solid and plastic waste, food waste, food security, water usage, and the circular economy and identify what motivates the adoption of blockchain, features sought, used blockchain frameworks and consensus algorithms, and the adopted supporting technologies to complement data sensing and reporting. We conclude the review by identifying practical works that provide implementation details for rapid adoption and remaining challenges that merit future research.