Blockchain pilot sees Ben & Jerry carbon-offset ice cream at new London store
Melanie May | 12 June 2018 | News
Ben & Jerry is offering customers the opportunity to help carbon-offset their ice-cream through blockchain technology at its new London Scoop Shop.
The ice cream company is using a new retail platform that connects consumers to their own carbon footprint and supports forest conservation. The platform was launched by The Poseidon Foundation on 1 May, and uses blockchain technology to integrate carbon markets into transactions at point-of-sale, giving retailers and their customers the opportunity to support action on climate change and forestry conservation projects around the world when they buy and sell everyday items.
A pilot is currently underway at Ben & Jerry’s new ice cream Scoop Shop in London’s Wardour Street. For every scoop of ice cream sold the company contributes through the platform towards carbon credits from a forest conservation project in Peru, giving a penny, and offers their customers the opportunity to do the same.
It is already contributing. Laszlo Giricz, Founder and CEO of Poseidon said:
“While this is just one small pilot, the technology is now proven and can be fully scaled and integrated, giving everyone the opportunity to understand their own carbon impact and take action. In just three weeks, we have already protected over 1,000 trees via the London store, equivalent to an area the size of 77 tennis courts, which is very encouraging and shows the potential for the platform to drive behaviour change once widely adopted.”
Chris Gale, Head of Ben & Jerry’s Social Mission Europe, added:
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“We have got a long way to go within our own business to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels but we have also made some big commitments and want to be transparent about our impact. At the same time, we want to use every part of our business to support a transition to a low carbon economy, including putting an internal price on carbon and setting ourselves ambitious targets to reduce our absolute carbon emissions by 80% by 2020. We are excited by the opportunity Poseidon Foundation’s new technology brings as an approach that connects fans to climate action.”
The carbon credits on the Poseidon Platform are sourced from Ecosphere+. The first project supported by users of the Poseidon platform, the Cordillera Azul National Park, sits at the intersection of the Andes mountain range and the Amazon basin in Peru and is home to around 6,000 plant species, 11 endangered large mammals and numerous indigenous populations.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.