Amazon’s Supply Chain Should Be On The Blockchain

As a global company with massive supply chains, Amazon, the online product and service delivery company, could seriously benefit from blockchain technology.

The blockchain will revolutionize efficiencies in operations for industries all over the world. It is a distributed, immutable ledger that builds trust between companies, vendors, and customers. It can be used to verify transactions and track where products are coming from, how they’re packaged, and the amount of waste produced in the supply chain, among other measurements.

Recently, Amazon got SEC approval to block a shareholder proposal asking for an accounting of food waste in its supply chain. It responded by taking a stance that food waste wasn’t a “material” and only made up less than 1% of the company’s operating expenses. Although the company states it donates to food rescue groups, to the tune of 17 million lbs. in 2017 alone, it has used this outlook as the reason to deny shareholder wishes to explore food waste prevention.

Food rescue and recovery has been revealed as a multi-billion dollar revenue opportunity, but Amazon’s pushback to dive deeper into the way it operates its food delivery branch seems to be a huge missed opportunity. Not only could the company take a stronger leadership role in this regard, but it could also reap the benefits of increased federal tax incentives for food donations and feed more hungry people in our communities instead of landfilling.

With an unfortunate reputation for squashing shareholder proposal requests, it would behoove Amazon to quell shareholder fears and concerns by putting all supply and delivery information on the blockchain for real-time data in waste tracking and providing accurate CSRs for stakeholders and the public.

For more information, please visit https://www.wastedive.com/news/amazon-food-waste-e-commerce/518223/