Knox Innovation, Opportunity and Sustainability Centre | Swinburne

Last summer’s heat dome exacted a huge toll in the northeast Pacific. Hundreds of people died because of the extreme heat and its lingering effects. A perfect storm of high temperatures, low tides, and a noonday sun that scorched exposed tidal flats meant marine life suffered as well. The heatwave killed, by some accounts, one billion sea creatures. The marine toll was felt especially acutely by the US $107-million shellfish aquaculture industry in Washington State.  One of the people paying close attention was Tim Smith. An aquatic ecologist and aquaculture sustainability consultant turned science teacher, Smith recognized the scale of the problem. But just a few months later, when he began working at Pioneer Middle School in Shelton, Washington, a hotbed town for shellfish farming, he recognized an opportunity.

Promoting the shift from the linear economy towards a circular economy and fostering transparency in the processes, raising awareness and reducing costs are the goals of CircularChain, the cooperation ecosystem that Ecoembes and Minsait are developing in order to build the blockchain platform for the circular economy in Spain.  It’s a project that has posed a major challenge in terms of technological innovation and it will have a considerable impact on environmental sustainability. This network of distributed records will help public authorities, local entities, operators, recyclers and other organizations to securely share and control all the data in the system and speed up all the transactions related to the waste selection process.