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U.S. think tank New America, blockchain startup ConsenSys, and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health have come together to develop a blockchain-based worker well-being system.
In a press release dated January 24, New America said that it was awarded an $800,000 grant from the U.S. Department of State last year for piloting a blockchain powered solution for a social innovation challenge.
The new system will be based on the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Sustainability and Health Initiative for NetPositive Enterprise (SHINE) Health and Well-being Index. It will assist in the transparent evaluation of working conditions by providing a workforce-wide view of factory conditions and individual health and well-being.
SHINE has been implementing the index in supplier factories for leading apparel giant Levi Strauss & Co. since 2015 and nearly 9,000 workers have taken the survey to date. Building upon this work, the pilot will develop a scalable and long-term mechanism to track and measure the health and well-being of workers with a blockchain solution.
ConsenSys Founder Joseph Lubin said that the Ethereum blockchain will help create a transparent environment for workers to securely and anonymously share critical information.
“Our goal is to develop, test, and scale a system that could empower employees, suppliers, and consumers to make informed decisions about factories, products, and brands,” Lubin said.
The first locations to use the blockchain-powered survey would be three factories, with a headcount of 5,000 workers, in Mexico which produce goods for Levi Strauss & Co. The first pilot is scheduled to be tested in the second quarter of 2019 and another pilot is planned for 2020.
“Providing a secure, standardized, auditable, and transparent platform through which worker survey data can be aggregated and analyzed will be possible with this solution,” said Tomicah Tillemann, founder of the Blockchain Trust Accelerator at New America. “Blockchain technology offers an innovative way to better measure and track the health and well-being of factory workers.”
