The Carbon Barcode

The following is a podcast with the serial entrepreneur Alberto Saavedra from Los Angeles, California. It took place on 24 February 2020.

Alberto has been involved in a number of startups. He refers to himself as a serial entrepreneur in the computer industry. His first software startup was in 1981. Since then he has been involved in an additional six startups.

His latest startup is ‘Earth Accounting‘, which tracks the environmental impact and sustainability of any product and that of its supply chain. The goal is transparency. The scanning of a barcode tracks information such as the carbon footprint and the social impact of a product. This is achieved by the use of blockchains, with have become prominent to track data in bitcoin transactions.

Alberto explains that climate change is his number one priority. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to secure the investment due to personal health reasons. But now he is involved in yet another startup which is about compensation people that are participating in recycling processes.

Alberto explains that consumption represents 60% of the global economy, while in the US it represents 70% of the global economy. Furthermore, he explains that consumption essentially means consumers making decisions which products to buy. Therefore it is important that consumers are informed about a product’s environmental impact to make better decisions. He admits that there are several other product that are going in the same direction and that he is in contact with many of them. He therefore expects that all this will be possible within the next few years.

Alberto highlights transparency as an essential ingredient to calculate the carbon footprint of a given product and that there are many transaction within the supply chain of this product, starting with the mining of the elements needed in the manufacturing process etc., but it also involves the source of the electricity and energy for manufacturing, transportation etc. It is therefore not a trivial matter to calculate the carbon footprint of a product. It has to be done with full transparency.

The Podcast

Earth Accounting on Twitter