SAP and Unilever have piloted a GreenToken by SAP solution pilot to curb deforestation and increase further traceability and transparency in Unilever’s global palm oil supply chain.

Raw materials like palm oil are often mixed with physically identical raw materials from verified sustainable and non-verified sources after the “first mile” of the supply chain, causing the origin information to be either hidden or lost.

In a successful proof of concept in Indonesia, Unilever has applied GreenToken to source more than 188,000 tonnes of the oil palm fruit. The solution enabled Agri-Resources and other suppliers from whom Unilever sources to create tokens that mirror the material flow of the palm oil throughout the supply chain and capture the unique attributes linked to the oil’s origin.

“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,” said Nitin Jain, Co-founder and General Manager of the GreenToken by SAP solution, SAP. 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. he added.

Ms Neville, the Chief Sustainability Officer of Unilever also iterated the benefits of the GreenToken on Unilever’s actors in the supply chain.

“Technology has played an important role in our efforts to enhance visibility and transparency in our palm oil supply chains. Golden Agri-Resources. Our participation in the GreenToken by SAP solution pilot with SAP and Unilever provided useful insights into successfully passing information between different actors in the supply chain. The GreenToken solution helped Unilever track, verify, and report palm oil’s origins and journey through its long and complex supply chain.”
Anita Neville, Chief Sustainability and Communications Officer-Unilever

Mr. Ingram, the Chief Procurement Officer for Unilever affirmed that the results of using the blockchain have been promising.

“Unilever is committed to achieving a deforestation-free supply chain by 2023. Blockchain helps companies, like ours, track their supply chains to ensure the commodities we source respect people and the planet. We are encouraged by the promising results of our pilot with GreenToken by SAP, the latest building block in our tech-enabled approach to ensure a more traceable and transparent supply chain. The work with GreenToken enhances Unilever’s ongoing and industry-leading efforts to gain complete visibility of its supply chain”.
Dave Ingram, Chief Procurement Officer Unilever

The GreenToken solution

GreenToken is a unique Blockchain approach that provides transparency to any raw material facts you wish to trace, such as commodity origin, child labor free, or recycled status. GreenToken uses mass balance accounting principles but ditches batches in favor of tokens green for good, no token for bad.