Consumer goods giant Unilever has launched a pilot blockchain system to increase traceability and transparency in its global palm oil supply chain, the company announced.
Unilever said it had applied the GreenToken by SAP system to source more than 188,000 tonnes of palm oil fruit in Indonesia.
The solution had enabled Golden Agri-Resources and other Unilever suppliers to create tokens that mirrored the material flow of the palm oil throughout the supply chain and captured the specific attributes linked to the oil’s origin, the company said in the 21 March statement.
“With GreenToken, we want to bring the same traceability and supply chain transparency to bulk raw materials that you get from scanning a bar or QR code on any consumer product,” Nitin Jain, GreenToken by SAP solution co-founder and general manager said. “Our solution allows companies to tell what percentage of palm oil products they purchased from a sustainable origin and track it to the end consumer product.”
The GreenToken solution helped track, verify and report in near real time the origins and journey that palm oil took through its long and complex supply chain, Unilever said.
“Unilever is committed to achieving a deforestation-free supply chain by 2023, and blockchain technology has the potential to help companies, like ours, track their supply chains to ensure the commodities we source respect people and the planet,” Unilever chief procurement officer Dave Ingram said.
Unilever said the work with GreenToken was part of its ongoing efforts to achieve full visibility of its supply chain.
