By Ron Chen, Correspondent ASEAN Region

With global water supplies under severe pressure from climate change and growing worldwide demand, Fujitsu and Botanical Water Technologies (BWT) signed an agreement and initiated the creation of a blockchain-based water trading platform, “Botanical Water Exchange” (BWX), on November 8, 2021. Fujitsu will help businesses achieve sustainability commitments and alleviate water shortages through the development of the world’s first water trading platform for the exchange of plant-derived water, which is based on the concept of sustainable water offsetting.

BWT leverages its patented technology to purify and re-mineralize water that is normally discarded during the production of vegetable and fruit juices and the processing of sugarcane, providing this plant-derived purified water to areas where it often proves difficult to secure safe drinking water.

The new BWX platform will rely on the FUJITSU Track and Trust service, which uses blockchain technology to ensure end-to-end transparency and traceability of processes including the refinement, sales, purchase, delivery and usage of the product. With a planned launch date of April 2022, both companies envision the new BWX platform contributing to the realization of greater safety and security in water trading, and ultimately aim to create an open market in which companies including juice concentration facilities, sugar mills, alcohol distilleries, and beverage manufacturers can sell water purified by the patented Botanical Water process.

CEO at Botanical Water Technologies Terry Paule comments, “Reducing all wastage from industrial processes is a key pillar of a “circular economy”. The focus of Fujitsu to create a better society through innovation and their breakthrough methodologies are the main reasons for our co-creation journey with them. With our Botanical Water technology we can, for example, recover up to 60% of the water in sugarcane that is still accessible after sugar extraction and produce clean, environmentally green and safe drinking water. Food and beverage manufacturers with excess water produced by the Botanical Water process can either put it to circular use as a sustainable ingredient, market it as AquaBotanical plant-based water or offer water credits on the BWX platform as part of their water positive ESG programs and non-financial indicators.”

Head of the FUJITSU Track and Trust Solution Center Frederik De Breuck comments, “Our new blockchain solution, the FUJITSU Track and Trust service, has been developed and launched at the FUJITSU Track and Trust Solution Center in Belgium. To realize the groundbreaking initiative of net-zero water trading with BWT, we have proposed a private and permissioned blockchain-based platform that leverages the Track and Trust solution. With this solution at the core, our multidisciplinary team continues to build blockchain solutions that support the realization of our customers’ management visions and the optimal resolution of global social issues under a global structure of co-creation and collaboration with our bases in India, the United Kingdom, and Japan.”

Background

According to the UN, about four billion people – nearly two-thirds of the global population – experience severe water scarcity during at least one month of the year (3). The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030 recognize the urgency of addressing this water scarcity.

Amid growing interest in the environment and the SDGs, beverage manufacturers are focusing their efforts on reducing the environmental impact of their business through actions like the reduction of CO2 emissions, the conservation of water sources, and the reduction of water consumption at production facilities.