Opportunities of Blockchain Traceability Data for Environmental Impact Assessment in a Context of Sustainable Production

Supply chains face various challenges for collecting reliable, transparent, and up-to-date data due to their increased complexity and globalization. This threatens their sustainability and limits the efficiency of environmental impact assessment of products with Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. This paper explores the opportunities, limitations, and research paths for assessing products' environmental impact using blockchain-based traceability data based on a systematic literature review. Results showed that blockchains are mainly used for product traceability and could be further used for the environmental impact assessment of products. A first architecture model and integration framework was proposed in the literature for the integration of blockchain-based LCA systems. However, the maturity of blockchain and supply chain organization are the prevalent barriers to implementing these systems. Further research is essential to shape these first results with strong opportunities identified.