Blockchain Decentralized Clearing of Environmental Credits
Stuart School of Business research presentation by: Assistant Professor of Analytics Andrew Kumiega, Deborah Cernauskas, and Steven Josephs
Blockchain Decentralized Clearing of Environmental Credits
- Assistant Professor of Analytics Andrew Kumiega
- Deborah Cernauskas, Ph.D.
- Steven Josephs, P.E., Renewable Energy Consultant
Abstract:
The focus of this research is commoditizing environmental credits into standardized units by guaranteeing the provenance of the credit through the application of blockchain technology. The commoditization occurs by creating a decentralized clearing process using blockchain for the environmental credit market. The cleared standardized commodity units can then be traded without the risk of rejection by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) because of production fraud or errors. The removal of the rejection risk will allow for small farmers, municipal wastewater plants, and landfills to enhance their profitability by producing green electricity from biogas and receiving market tradable environmental credits.
The complexity of the pathway requires blockchain, which creates an immutable ledger holding production and distribution data for the environmental credit. This immutable ledger supplies provenance which can eliminate counter-party risk when combined with the concept of decentralized clearing of the credits.
All Illinois Tech faculty, students, and staff are invited to attend.
The Friday Research Presentations series showcases ongoing academic research projects conducted by Stuart School of Business faculty and students, as well as guest presentations by Illinois Tech colleagues, business professionals, and faculty from other leading business schools.