The aim is to create a kind of digital product passport to make the emissions footprint of end products transparent.
 

Covestro and Alibaba Cloud, the technology and information division of the Chinese Alibaba Group, are working together to enable the traceability of materials and their carbon footprint, according to a press release. Together, Covestro and Alibaba want to provide downstream industries with important solutions and tools to enable this transparency, starting in Asia. To this end, corresponding data is to be measured along the entire value chain. As part of the partnership, Covestro intends to provide plastics solutions with associated CO2 footprint data, among other things. This data would then be analyzed by the "Energy Expert", an AI-driven sustainability platform from Alibaba Cloud. The "Energy Expert" made it possible to calculate the overall emissions balance of end products - including from the data of the materials used - using digital technologies such as blockchain. The platform also offered a solution for industrial companies to measure and optimize their carbon footprint across the entire production cycle. The information will reportedly also be made available to car buyers. Covestro has already implemented this approach together with the Chinese beverage manufacturer Nongfu Spring in the consumer goods sector. "Our collaboration with Alibaba Cloud is a significant milestone on our path to a circular and climate-neutral future," explains Lily Wang, Head of the Engineering Plastics business unit at Covestro.
 
Sources:

• Covestro press release, Alibaba Cloud (20.6.2024)
• Photo: © unsplash.com, John Schnobrich (symbolic image)