Commodity Ecology: A Virtual Community Platform for Promoting Responsible Consumption and Production to Achieve SDG #12
Mark Douglas Whitaker, Pravin Amrut Pawar · 2020
We live in a society built on three major disruptive technologies: (1) the Internet, upon which we are increasingly served by and even ruled by (2) online virtual community platforms, which are increasingly accessible using (3) handheld mobile devices. A fourth disruptive technology is coming: blockchain technology which is beginning to revolutionize the exchange of information in areas such as cryptocurrency, supply chain management, healthcare and smart contracts. Owing to these four technological developments, we now live among real/virtual ‘smart regions’ that on their own are capable of deliberating, finding, and buying/selling en masse toward their own better choices in sustainable material choices and better waste handling. These trends are utilized by the first online blockchain-based virtual community platform for ‘smart regions’ that facilitates this global, multi-regional drive toward more democratic, holistic, and sustainable ecological design in all of our consumptive choices. Commodity Ecology is a model, rubric, and checklist for sustainability of 130 material categories, on a virtual platform for deliberation in over 860 distinct ecoregions simultaneously. The United Nations Academic Impact Office called Commodity Ecology a top global initiative for actually achieving Sustainable Development Goal #12, Responsible Consumption and Production.