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This Polygon Green Blockchain Summit explores how blockchain technology can transition from merely being sustainable to actively providing sustainability solutions, covering topics from verifiable carbon accounting and ethical supply chains to gamified conservation and the redefinition of economic value through nature-positive models.
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The summit emphasizes a shift from blockchain sustainability to blockchain as a sustainability solution, highlighting its speed and scale to address global problems. The discussions focus on how this technology can foster a sustainable future, bridging blockchain and non-blockchain experts for wider adoption.
Prasiddhi Singh, a nine-year-old founder of the Prasiddhi Forest Foundation, shares her inspiration from nature and her work in planting over 66,000 trees and conducting 400+ awareness sessions. She envisions blockchain as a powerful platform for environmental education, providing validated climate action data, and enabling a circular economy. She also discusses the potential for a metaverse forest for immersive learning and the importance of educating children about nature and technology collaboration.
Alex Muckus from OC (Ocean Conservation Exploration and Education Foundation) outlines their mission to educate the younger generation about ocean benefits and conservation using Web3. OC operates an advanced research vessel, the Odyssey, equipped with deep-diving submersibles and real-time mapping capabilities. They plan to democratize access through 3D metaverse environments (e.g., Fortnite), ship views (like Google Street View), and DAO governance for community-led mission selection, aiming to engage millions and give participants a voice in ocean research.
This panel discusses blockchain's role in verifying claims related to company commitments. Tom Garlick (EY, GBBC, IWA) highlights tokenized emissions for independently verifiable ESG stories, citing the development of a protocol-agnostic carbon emission token standard. George Walden (Circular Tree) addresses challenges in carbon tracking, including data trust, intellectual property, and the need for interoperability across diverse industry standards. Francisco de Lee (Bioverse) explains their work in optimizing non-timber forest product supply chains, emphasizing traceability and supporting indigenous communities. Jesse (Provenance) details how their platform helps consumers trust sustainability claims by standardizing and verifying data on the blockchain, working with major consumer brands.
This panel explores how gaming and Web3 can drive social impact. Sebastian (The Sandbox) shares their long history of sustainability initiatives, from planting trees in mobile games to carbon offsetting and promoting inclusivity in their metaverse. Andrew Robinson (Earth Guardians) introduces their game, which connects people to nature to map biodiversity, leading to the discovery of new species and the financialization of biodiversity data through bio tokens. Amandeep Singh (Unilever) discusses Unilever's metaverse strategy for brand engagement and purpose-driven messaging, citing examples like Sunsilk City Island and Hellmann's Island, and using NFTs for next-gen loyalty programs. The panel also addresses the shift in perception regarding blockchain's environmental impact post-merge and the potential for gaming to bridge Web2 and Web3 adoption.
Benoit from Vera discusses their public consultation on blockchain and tokenization in voluntary carbon markets. He highlights opportunities such as increased market access, enhanced price discovery, and more efficient, intelligent transactions. However, he also cautions against overstated benefits, potential for market manipulation, and the need to preserve environmental integrity and trust. Vera is exploring new terminology like 'immobilization' for tokenized credits to avoid confusion with traditional 'retirement' and is working with industry bodies to develop best practices for tokenization.
This panel, moderated by Joseph Pellant, delves deeper into blockchain's role in carbon markets. Benoit (Vera) outlines Vera's consultation topics: associating Vera's instruments with crypto, KYC/AML requirements, and anti-fraud measures. Ricardo Bayon (Encourage Capital) emphasizes maintaining the integrity of carbon markets while leveraging Web3 for growth, advocating for innovation and transparency. Drew (ClimaDAO) discusses their role in bridging traditional VCM with Web3, highlighting the benefits of public blockchains for transparency and interoperability, and embedding carbon offsets into financial activities. The discussion also touches on the World Bank Climate Warehouse initiative and the importance of an inter-chain future for carbon markets.
Tom Duncan (Earthbank) and Jennifer Helgeson (NIST) discuss using NFTs and tokenized forward contracts to scale carbon markets. Jennifer highlights the critical need for investment in nature-based solutions, which can significantly reduce climate mitigation costs. Tom explains Earthbank's approach to financing land restoration, such as mangrove planting, which provides flood defenses and increases local incomes. He emphasizes that AI, satellite imagery, and blockchain improve the accuracy and efficiency of carbon auditing, combating greenwashing. NFTs, as digital representations of trees, fund planting and protection, offering long-term royalty payments and making climate action profitable.
Sanver (Solid World DAO) explains how their platform addresses the illiquidity and opaqueness of carbon forward markets. He highlights how project developers, like farmers, are often underpaid for their carbon credits due to information asymmetry. Solid World DAO de-risks investments for buyers by providing free due diligence and conservative production predictions, making the market more liquid and transparent. Their goal is to accelerate the carbon funding life cycle, allowing project developers to scale their efforts more rapidly and efficiently.
This panel, moderated by Ben West (Gitcoin), explores Web3's potential for social good. Ed (Impact Plus) discusses their work with Polygon to empower local startups and indigenous communities through developer training and technology access. Seth Blastein (Dollar Donation Club) introduces their gaming platform, Impact Arcade, which allows users to make real-world impact through play, fostering a 'collective super philanthropist' model. Trisha Wong (Crypto Research and Design Lab) emphasizes community-centric crypto development, addressing high barriers to entry, and advocating for evidence-based research on Web3's social value. The panel highlights cryptocurrency's utility for those in unstable economies and the power of smart contracts to build trust.
Ralph Chami (IMF) presents a vision for an equitable and nature-positive economy. He argues that humanity faces risks from climate change and nature loss, both driven by human activity. He proposes investing in natural capital (e.g., valuing seagrass, whales, elephants for their carbon sequestration services) as a natural solution. Chami emphasizes the need for legal frameworks that recognize nature's rights and personhood, citing examples from New Zealand and Costa Rica. He advocates for building natural capital markets and nature wealth funds, using blockchain for transparency to ensure benefits reach indigenous populations and local communities, creating a win-win-win model for nature, governments, and buyers.
Waleed (Rebalance Earth) expands on Ralph Chami's paradigm, illustrating how economic growth has been predicated on an extractive relationship with nature. He highlights the disparity in value: a forest elephant is worth $40,000 dead but over $2 million alive for its carbon sequestration services. Rebalance Earth aims to create a global ecosystem services platform to value and fund living nature, employing keystone species (like elephants) as 'biodiversity and carbon contracts' for corporations. These ecosystem services credits, tracked on blockchain, support park rangers, local communities (healthcare, education, women's businesses), and drive a new economic growth powered by living nature.
John Hutzalek (Conservation International Suriname) discusses Suriname's unique status as a carbon-negative, biodiversity-rich nation facing threats from illegal mining and logging. He proposes unlocking the bioeconomy through non-timber forest products, which could significantly boost GDP and create jobs. John advocates for moving beyond traditional ownership models to focus on the 'ecological utility' of forests, leveraging Web3 technologies (blockchain, tokenization, smart contracts) to maintain Suriname's intact forests. The panel, including Phil Rickard (Nature's Vault), Nathaniel Calhoun (Bioverse), and Max Song (Carbonbase), discusses scaling these bioeconomy initiatives, challenging extractive industries like gold mining, and using metaverse concepts and impact NFTs to connect global communities emotionally and economically to conservation efforts, emphasizing rapid action and collaboration.
The summit concludes by reiterating the importance of a holistic approach to sustainability, addressing both symptoms and sources of environmental and social challenges. It highlights how a blockchain-inclusive tech stack can drive deeper, more impactful change. The organizers thank all participants and emphasize that the sessions will be available for review, with more information on featured projects to be shared.
"Nature is my teacher and we are all its students." — Prasiddhi Singh
"Tokenized emissions in the blockchain have the potential to give you this provable, independently verifiable source of truth to back up your ESG story." — Tom Garlick
"We can't protect what we don't value and we don't value what we don't experience." — Andrew Robinson
"What excites me most is when I look at carbon credits as they currently stand it's sort of this less intelligent asset and I look at tokenization as being one of the potential vehicles of creating essentially an asset upgrade." — Benoit
"Apathy is the absolute biggest enemy of our future." — John Hutzalek
"Nature itself is a source of wealth beyond its intrinsic value in terms of service to humanity itself." — Ralph Chami
"We need not own a forest to benefit from it. We need not consume a forest to enjoy its utility. We need only find ways to ensure its continued existence and its future resiliency." — John Hutzalek
"We need you if you're a social worker, you're a teacher, you're a plumber, whatever it is, there's space for you." — Trisha Wong
"ESG is expected to go to 53 trillion by 2025 according to Bloomberg... basically if you look at the Gestalt of that it means that Humanity wants to put money towards impact whether that gets greenwashed or not is up to us." — Seth Blastein
"The threat we're all facing, the existential threat, requires a collaboration that is that is needed across blockchain protocols as much as possible." — Waleed
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