Luxembourg Blockchain Lab, LSFI Launch Call for SDG Projects

The Luxembourg Blockchain Lab and the Luxembourg Sustainable Finance Initiative (LSFI) announced a joint call for projects during the Luxembourg Blockchain Week, which is taking place at d'Coque in Luxembourg-Kirchberg from Monday 3 to Friday 7 October 2022.

Following the success of the first edition, this new call for projects will launch on Wednesday 12 October 2022 and will target three specific sustainable development goals (SDGs) with the aim of achieving viable solutions that can be deployed on a large scale as part of the national effort in sustainable finance:  

• Measuring scope 3 emissions - SDG 13, Climate Action
The solution should offer a way to measure, track and trace the value chain emission (also called indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions or scope 3) in order to trace these emissions in an easier and more transparent. Scope 3 emissions are the result of activities from assets not owned or controlled by the reporting organisation, but that the organisation indirectly impacts in its value chain;

• Pricing biodiversity - SDG 14 & SDG15, Life below water and life on land
The solution should help measure or price how much we lose or gain when affecting or improving biodiversity and nature conservation. For example, by proposing a methodology and an automated pricing of how much we are losing if we destroy forests and the gain when planting new trees for example, taking into account all associated factors;

• How to assess data on the social dimensions - SDG 3, 4, 5 &10, Good Health and Well-being, Quality Education, Gender Equality & Reduced Inequalities
Solutions using scientific and reliable granular data on social dimensions, which could then be used to assess how an investment is embedding the social dimension such as gender, education, health and well-being or inequalities.

The selected projects will benefit from a one-week programme designed by the Luxembourg Blockchain Lab and LSFI, in order to provide all the necessary information with regard to sustainability and SDGs.

The call for projects will run from 12 October until 15 December 2022. While it is open to international applications, there must be a strong willingness to come to Luxembourg. In addition, applicants should have already a viable product. The selection phase will start at the beginning of the first quarter of 2023 with the selected companies being announced at the end of March and coaching starting in May 2023. All the requirements will be listed on the application page which will be activated within the Blockchain Lab website (https://blockchainlab.lu) on the section dedicated to calls for projects.

"SDGs are more than just climate action. In this call, we will be able to go further and potentially discover a solution that could answer on of these issues identified as key for the industries", commented Emilie Allaert, Head of the Luxembourg Blockchain Lab. "The Luxembourg Blockchain Lab will fulfil its mission to help navigate the ecosystem while looking for solutions using the blockchain technology. We are glad to work in collaboration with the Luxembourg Sustainable Finance Initiative and to benefit from their knowledge in terms of sustainability and what are the needs of Luxembourg".

Nicoletta Centofanti, LSFI Interim General Manager, added: "Sustainable finance affects and involves us all. To further advance this topic, all the actors need to work in synergies and find shared solutions. Over the last years, one of the challenges the financial sectors faces is associated to data granularity, quality and standardisation. The industry needs meaningful harmonised data and technology will be crucial to help the sector gather and access this data. In this regard, we are delighted to launch this call for projects in collaboration with the Blockchain Lab as we aim to be able to find practical solutions to crucial sustainable finance aspects such as indirect CO2 emissions measurement, social dimensions data or biodiversity pricing".