Sequestering farming CO2 dApp

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem.

Our solution is to work with a major agricultural business to lead and deliver a feasibility study of how Cardano technology can prove the soil sequestration of carbon during the farming processes.

[GENERAL] Summarize your relevant experience.

Our team has more than 60 yrs of experience of mapping business processes against advanced technologies in very large organisations, and the authoring of resultant review papers.  The outcomes have always been step-changes in functionality and effectiveness.

F7/8 proposal winners

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

How you perceive the problem you are solving

Agricultural businesses want to prove that they are using carbon-negative farming methods as a differentiator but don’t have reliable solutions available to them.  

This proposal is a feasibility study that will set out the pathway to a series of dApps and integrations that will provide this proof for the global agricultural sector.

Your reasons for approaching it in the way that you have

Business leaders prefer to see the commercial benefits of products or solutions that are offered to them.  By engaging with business leaders at the very beginning of the development of a blockchain-based business solution we will be more likely to get their active engagement and adoption of Cardano based solutions.

We will achieve this engagement by involving them in the development of the business use-case and the production of a whitepaper that describes the development journey to provide them with reliable solutions that can be integrated into their companies.

Our approach is supported by the engagement of the executive leadership 

of two major European agricultural businesses – who will act as sponsors for the programme. 

Describe the value that the solution will add

Our proposal is for the development of a ‘use case’ for the development and delivery of a soil sequestration application.  The value at this stage of the development pathway is confidence that the proposed tool described in the project report will add value to the different stakeholders in the project.

Overall, for farmers, it will provide value in the form of the carbon credits that are claimed as a result of the proof of the carbon sequestered.

For Cardano, it will show the impact it is having on the climate, using the soil sequestration tool as an example.  While it is intangible value, it is of great reputational value.

Describe the scalability of the solution 

As an on-chain tool, available on mobile devices, the solution is massively globally scalable.

Describe the sustainability of the solution 

Our solution is sustainable because it is a virtual tool that needs no consumption of resources other than the already committed energy resources of the blockchain.

Additionally, it is making a positive contribution to the sustainability of farming practices.

Who your project will engage, or who its stakeholders are

Our project will have multiple stakeholders:

·      Business leaders as the project sponsors and eventual product users

·      Plutus developers as technical advisors

·      Edify team as project facilitators

·      Sustainability consultants as advisors

·      Global farming communities

The business leaders will come from two large European agricultural businesses that operate across the spectrum of farming activities in the UK, Europe and Australia.  These businesses are highly innovative in the agri sector – both leveraging links with Cambridge University, national bodies, and other innovation centres – and already have an understanding of blockchain technology.  

How your project will be implemented

The project will be implemented in phases:

Phase 1 – identify the needs of business leaders

• The Edify team will conduct a series of interviews with the executive teams of 2 European agricultural businesses with combined revenues of more than $1bn, using our collective knowledge of blockchain capability, to help the businesses identify how a blockchain solution is the optimum solution to their need for long-term proof of carbon sequestration.

Phase 2 – identify the feasibility of the current blockchain technology and applications to provide the identified solution.

• The Edify team will work with Plutus developers to translate the business need into a technical scope of work, and to test this scope of work against current Plutus capability.

Phase 3 – describe pathway to the development of the technical solution.

• The Edify and developer teams will document the pathway to the delivery of the technical solution and how it will be deployed into the business’ existing business processes.

What you will produce (i.e. your outputs) 

The project will produce a whitepaper that describes the Plutus development necessary to deliver the technical solution to the business problem, it’s likely cost of development and its implementation methodology.

What will happen as a result of your work (i.e. your outcomes). 

As a result of this project, both agricultural companies will have a much clearer understanding of how Cardano blockchain-based products can deliver the proof of carbon sequestration that will generate revenue through more effective CO2 capture measurement and consequent proof of soil based sequestration and the carbon credits and certificates associated to it.

The Plutus developer team/s will have a clear pathway to the creation of commercial ‘proof of trust’ solutions that can be used in the agricultural sector.

Explain what's unique about your solution, and what value it brings to the Cardano ecosystem.

The Edify team has a client base consisting of forward-thinking business leaders who are already eager to embrace new technologies, but need guidance on why they need blockchain solutions.

Uniquely, our solution will bring together the business, sustainability and developer communities, with the Edify team as translators and facilitators.  

The resultant value to Cardano will be its exposure to the business community as a source of value-generating products and solutions.

Explain who will benefit. Does your proposal primarily benefit a) your organization or company, b) the Catalyst community, c) the greater Cardano community or d) a specific community in the wider world? All of these are OK, but it is helpful to explain which you are primarily addressing.

The beneficiaries of the project will be fourfold:

1.     The agricultural business leaders, who will have a greater understanding of how to use Cardano based solutions to create value from carbon credits in their companies

2.     The global environment, as more farmers embrace soil-based carbon sequestration with blockchain solutions

3.     Cardano developers who understand how to build business solutions

4.     Edify CoLab who will gain reputation as facilitators of business integrations

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

The challenge description calls for a thriving ecosystem of dApps, products and integrations that are better alternatives to centralised providers and solutions.  

Our proposal addresses this need by providing a development pathway for dApp based products that specifically meet the call for “solutions that help to solve environmental issues”.

This proposal will expose the global agricultural community to the capability of the Cardano blockchain to solve the problems with recording soil-based carbon sequestration, increasing interaction with the Cardano community and platform.

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

Risk – the involvement of business leaders might be challenged by pressing commercial business needs and delay the progress of the project.

• Mitigation – As soon as we have secured funding for the project we will secure multiple appointment times in the business leaders’ calendars to ensure that we have various options for our workshops

Risk – identify key technical partners to assist in describing the gap between capability and delivery of the smart contracts.  We will work with technical developers within the Cardano ecosystem.

• Mitigation – Engage with the developer community, e.g. Catalyst Swarm Cardano 4 Climate and Gimbalabs, during the proposal submission phase of Fund 9 to identify appropriate partners

Risk – Describing the solution that delivers the outcomes required by the business use case in terms that will lead to a coherent scope of work for the development phase of the project in the future

• We will partner with developers to learn what technical development needs to occur to technically deliver the solution, and how to describe it in a scope of work

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

This is a feasibility study to determine the capability of the Cardano blockchain to deliver a specific business use case.

The main deliverable will be the creation of a whitepaper that describes the gaps between technical capability and business need, and how these gaps will be closed.  The whitepaper will describe how these actions will enable the crafting of technical scopes of work for future business solutions.

Project roadmap

https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVOqbwVlg=/?share_link_id=2827221971

Project resources

After voting takes place and funding is successfully secured the following programme of work will be undertaken.  A project plan is provided on the Miro board project roadmap:

Public Update Channel: we will use our Twitter channel: @edifycolabs for updates on project progress

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

The total cost of this proposal is US$33,400.

It is made up as follows.

The objective of this proposal is to create a white paper for a specific business use case: the use of blockchain technology in the capture and recording of soil sequestration in the agricultural sector.

The participants in this proposal, with their hourly cost estimates, are as follows:

• Business consultant – an experienced business process consultant – US$200/hr
• Business analyst – an experienced business technologist to map business process needs against blockchain capability  – US$200/hr 
• Copy editor – review of the white paper – US$200/hr
• Sustainability expert – input from the sustainability community to the use case – US$150/hr
• Blockchain developer – review of the business needs and interpretation of blockchain capability – US$200/hr

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

Alan Casey

www.linkedin.com/in/alanhcasey

Alan is a specialist in technology – business process integration.  He will lead the investigation into the needs of the use cases, their interpretation in technical scopes of work and the drafting of the resultant whitepaper.

Manager of a sovereign national grid control centre during a period of technological and cultural change.

Founder and consultant in an organisational effectiveness measurement system deployed into a global advertising and marketing communications network.

Founder of a conversational AI company creating systems that evaluate and improve competence in key organisational skills.

Member of the Edify Community.

Fellow of the RSA.

I am presenting multiple proposals in this fund as well as in previous funds here is an explanation of the workload management.

I am part of a catalyst entity called EdifyColabs. This is formed of other catalyst members where appropriate. And it. is backed by our off-chain business Edify Business Ltd - website link enclosed. As such we have a direct team of 5 staff - all of which are working to deliver our Catalyst proposals as appropriate. we currently have 5 funded proposals running across F7 and F8 all of which are weekly programmes in our core delivery space of consultancy coaching and use case design and delivery.

Mark Constable

https://www.linkedin.com/in/constablemark/

25 years+ working in small business as a Leader, Founder, consultant and coach - Supporting impact focused business leaders in building future fit organisations through innovation.

Proven track record of helping clients in building high value, high performing organisations focused equally on both wealth and wellbeing.

Relevant Experience: 

Development and delivery of high impact leadership programmes for fast growth businesses.

Previous experience in technical research and writing whitepapers.

Member of the Edify Community.

Developer team

We will be partnering with experienced developers with whom we have existing relationships.

Julius Joel

https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliusjoel/

We are presenting multiple proposals in this fund as well as in previous funds here is an explanation of the workload management.

we are part of a catalyst entity called EdifyColabs. This is formed of other catalyst members where appropriate. And it. is backed by our off-chain business Edify Business Ltd - website link enclosed. As such we have a direct team of 5 staff - all of which are working to deliver our Catalyst proposals as appropriate. we currently have 5 funded proposals running across F7 and F8 all of which are weekly programmes in our core delivery space of consultancy coaching and use case design and delivery.

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

This proposal is the first phase of creating a Cardano blockchain based tool for use in the agricultural sector.  This phase is mapping out the business needs and testing them against the capability of the blockchain, and the identification and agreement on the development path, if necessary, to close any gaps between needs and capability.

Phase 2 will be the development and release of the blockchain soil based carbon sequestration tool, for which we will apply for funding in future rounds.  

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

We will use the following measures to track the project’s progress.

Project plan milestones

We have posted a project plan on this Miro board.  This plan has project milestones in it against which we will track the progress of the project.

The milestones that we will track are:

Number of participating companies

This measure will be determined by the specific use case of the project, being the number of business leaders who have agreed to participate in the project.  This will be confirmed on the project being funded.

Increasing the number of products available 

This whitepaper will set down the development pathway for a series of blockchain integrated products that will be made available to the global agricultural community.  This will massively enrich the Cardano ecosystem as the agricultural community come on board.

However, this will only be auditable after the completion of the future development of the application.

Public Update Channel: we will use our Twitter channel: @edifycolabs for updates on project progress

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

Success for this project will be the publication of a whitepaper that describes how Cardano blockchain products can be developed to deliver proof of soil-based carbon sequestration solutions.

‘Success’ will be the adoption of Cardano blockchain products by the agricultural companies that participate in the project.

[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

This is a new project

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Rating

SDG goals:

End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

SDG subgoals:

Achieve higher levels of economic productivity through diversification, technological upgrading and innovation, including through a focus on high-value added and labour-intensive sectors

Key Performance Indicator (KPI):

Universal Human Rights Index (UHRI):

#proposertoolsdg