COVID-19 and the looming climate crisis threaten global businesses. The pandemic alone has caused companies to close down branches in several countries. For good measure, several states have also banned international travel. With climate change on the horizon, businesses won’t return to normal right away.
Thankfully, Dr. Maher Abdelsamie has proposed one solution. He wants to use the blockchain to address the climate emergency. In February 2020, Dr. Abdelsamie has filed another patent for an environmental credit scoring system. Backed by the blockchain, his system promises to help online and offline product and service providers, individuals, Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) experts, businesses, and governmental entities to combat climate change.
What is this system? This system is called the Environmental Credit Scoring System (ECSS).
What Is the ECSS?
Dr. Abdelsamie’s work focuses on using technology to fight climate change. In 2019, he secured a patent titled “Methods and Systems for Environmental Credit Scoring.” This first patent paved the way for the new blockchain-backed ECSS system.
Called the Environmental Credit Scoring System, this system scores people and businesses based on their environmental protection efforts. The ECSS stores people’s and companies’ ecological footprint on the blockchain. If your data show that you care for the Earth, you’ll get a good credit score.
What does this score mean? The harder you work for the Earth, the better your score. Companies can use ECSS scores for decision-making. For example, schools can look at students’ ECSS score before admitting them. Companies could even use ECSS scores to hire employees. Likewise, landlords could check tenants’ scores before letting them rent.
According to Dr. Abdelsamie, blockchain allows several parties to “transfer, track, and exchange” data or money. But how does blockchain protect the Earth? Dr. Abdelsamie says there is a distinction between blockchains that use proof of work consensus mechanism and other energy-efficient blockchains that use different consensus mechanisms in terms of energy consumption.
Dr. Abdelsamie filed his first patent application in July 2017. A few months later, he started both the Environmental Credit Score Foundation (ECSF) and YMEGY Research and Development LLC.
As an example, Dr. Abdelsamie’s ECSS page says that rideshare companies can register with the system. Once they link up with ECSS, they can drive up their credit score by offering electric vehicles.
Through ECSS, rideshare companies should adopt 100% renewable energy for their services to maintain a good credit score.
How Could ECSS Help the Environment?
According to Dr. Abdelsamie, the ECSS would inspire companies to adopt sustainable practices. In turn, the ECSS would also boost the demand for products that don’t harm the Earth. More companies getting excellent environmental credit scores mean more consumers are buying Earth-friendly products.
Dr. Abdelsamie adds that a surge in consumer demand would drive more entrepreneurs to enter the market. In turn, the competition would push more companies to adopt renewable practices.
With ECSS, Dr. Abdelsamie hopes that consumers, governments, businesses, and nonprofits work together to combat climate change and protect humanity’s future on the planet.
