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Our carbon emissions tracking tool enables you to create digital blockchain-based records of your products to capture carbon emissions and other data at each step of the production
About
The mining sector is currently in a peculiar situation: on the one hand, metals are increasingly demanded for the high tech industry, and particularly for the "greening" of the economy, such as the production of electric vehicles and batteries. At the same time, the mining industry is a major emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG) and mining activities bring about a host of other sustainability and environmental challenges. At the moment, companies struggle to account for their carbon emissions and to properly report on their sustainability efforts, which makes it hard for the sector to identify potential improvements. Additionally, the downstream industries don't have a way to know the overall footprint of their products. Minespider offers a solution to this; digital product passports. A Product Passport is a blockchain-secured digital identification for a material shipment. It contains all the information that is relevant about a product at a given step in the production, including the carbon and other GHG emitted. By linking together product passports as they are passed along the value chain, the user will get the full picture of carbon emitted in the production process. They can attach a QR Code to their materials to directly access data, use our app, or have a full integration with their own internal system via our API. Of course, product passports can also be used for compliance purposes along value chains: by uploading all the data needed for a product to cross a border, comply with due diligence requirements and provide the documentation a customer requires. Product Passports can be applied along international supply chains, as well as internal value chains. Users can add data on three different layers: A Public Layer, containing data that is visible publicly, for example when scanning a QR Code. A Transparency Layer, containing data that is visible for all subsequent participants along a supply chain, when Product Passports are linked together. A Private Layer, containing information only visible to the direct participants in a transaction. Specifically for GHG Emissions, Minespider's innovation includes three components, going beyond mere provision of software: 1) We work with our partners to collect both public and private documents to understand the rates of emissions in their organizations. 2) We create an average emissions rate for one production cycle. By combining information from each participant in the supply chain, or each step along the value chain, we can get an overall value. 3) Participants in the value chain upload information for each new shipment. The results can then be collected and updated for each individual product lifecycle. As a further step, participants can also hire Minespider consultants to individually audit the emissions results or they can invite independent third party auditors to verify their supply chain information. While Minespider's overall software infrastructure is commercially available and already in use with different customers, it's application for the collection of GHG emissions is still in prototype mode. Since there are a range of different accounting methodologies we are looking forward to designing and implementing the final mile with our project partners, taking into account their specific use cases. For that, Minespider is partnering with the University of British Columbia's Bradshaw Research Initiative for Minerals & Mining (BRIMM). BRIMM will contribute their extensive expertise and research on challenges around GHG emissions in the mining industry, and mine energy systems modeling specifically for coal mines. About UBC BRIMM: In the province of British Columbia, Canada, there is a long-established coal mining industry that delivers metallurgical and some thermal products to downstream customers. Today, these companies are committed to responsible mining to meet the ICMM 2050 targets and are also aligned with the local government’s commitment to increased transparency and trust related to where raw materials come from and how they are produced. It is in this context that UBC BRIMM operates as a consortium that enables partnerships between leading edge scientists and engineers across the University of British Columbia (UBC) to promote cross-disciplinary research spanning the entire life-cycle of mining, from early exploration to mine closure and rehabilitation. Within the university there is deep expertise in both mining engineering and clean energy technology, which BRIMM has brought together as a Sustainable Mine Energy Systems Theme to address the challenges of moving the mining industry to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 through a systems approach to energy and carbon. To the challenge of developing sustainable mine energy systems, BRIMM researchers offer a capability to design and evaluate the systems with dynamic modeling of emissions and supply/demand trade offs that are unique to each site. Blockchain supported tracking is recognized as playing an important role in supporting data-informed transparency and decision-making. Some of BRIMM’s current collaborations and partnerships include mining companies with producing and development stage metallurgical coal projects, who are committed to meeting Scope 1 and 2 targets. Those organizations can also have a role in influencing downstream customers with Scope 3 emissions. https://brimm.ubc.ca/ https://brimm.ubc.ca/projects/sustainable-mine-energy-systems-theme-white-paper/
Key Benefits
Know exactly how much carbon was emitted at which stage production. Track a finalized product backwards, understanding every step of the value chain. Seamlessly pass on data to downstream clients, if they wish to do so. Enhance reporting. Enhance data security and maintain immutable records.
Applications
Minespider is a blockchain-based traceability platform, helping actors in the raw material supply chain capture their sustainability data in digital Product Passports, distinguishing their products in the market. Product passports can be linked together along the entire supply chain - for example from the point of extraction of metallurgical coal, to the final steel bar, or from cassiterite concentrate, to the solder in a smartphone. Therefore, Minespider's platform can be used by any company along a supply chain to create product passports for their goods, which can be accessed through the Minespider Platform or via QR Codes that are attached to products. Linked together, Product Passports allow for a complete picture of a good's supply chain. Product passports can be used in order to highlight aspects such as: - Product Details - Sustainability Records - Carbon footprint (Scope 1 through 3) - Supply Chain History Especially for Carbon Emissions, another application is worth pointing out: Of course, Minespider's digital infrastructure can also be used with a company's internal value chain. For example, using Minespider in the context of a mining operation, the software can capture carbon emissions at every step from extraction through processing and sale of minerals. For every step of the internal value chain, product passports carrying information about the related carbon emissions can be created and linked to the mineral in question. At the end of internal processing, the mine site operator will get a clear picture of what types of emissions were incurred at which stage of the production. The unit of materials can be determined by the individual user. In the example of internal tracking at a mine site, the first product passport could designate a truck load of material, hauling the extracted ore to the Warehouse. After further processing, a new product passport is created, for example per tonne of processed output, linking back to the old one. Of course as many steps as needed can be added in between. In the end, every product passport contains the amount of GHG emissions for its corresponding production step. In the end there is a complete record of the incurred emissions. At the moment, Minespider is working with OEMs such as Google and Cisco, mid-stream companies such as Stannol, and upstream mineral producers such as Minsur and LuNa Smelter. For case studies about our projects please take a look here: https://www.minespider.com/case-studies For press mentions and publications on our partners' website, please look here: https://www.minespider.com/press