Table of Contents

ABSTRACT

With the rise of information and communications technology, the consumers in the west have grown aware of the sourcing of products that get imported to their countries from the less developed parts of the world. The condition of labour involved in producing these products is often reported as very poor and unsafe. Supply chains facilitating the production and import of these goods, therefore, are under immense pressure to be more socially sustainable. Lack of transparency of these supply chains, however, becomes a roadblock when it comes to ensuring fairtrade practices for social sustainability. This paper presents an experimentally proven framework for the use of blockchain technology to ensure social sustainability in supply chains. The framework utilizes the consensus mechanisms of blockchains and proposes a method through which the transparency of global supply chains could be increased. An experimental blockchain with a limited number of nodes was also created to test this framework and underlying mechanism. This mechanism works on the principles of delegated proof of stake and practical byzantine fault tolerance. The testing of the framework proves that blockchains could be a viable instrument for ensuring social sustainability in supply chains.

Keywords: blockchain, social sustainability, fair-trade, principal-agent relationship