In almost all aspects of our lives we have perfect information
available instantaneously. My phone can tell me
everything about my finances, where precisely I am on a map and the best way to my next destination, all with a click of a button. But this availability
of information and transparency almost completely disappears
when it comes to consumer products. If you go to the seafood counter
at your local supermarket, you can probably choose
between several different types of fish. But chances are,
they won't be able to tell you who caught the fish,
where precisely it was caught, whether it is sustainable
to catch it there and how it got transported. And that holds true
for almost everything we buy. Every can of soup, every piece of meat, every T-shirt. We as humans, right now, are destroying the only thing
we really need to survive: our planet. And most of the horrible problems
that we're facing today, like climate change and modern slavery in supply chains, come down to decisions. Human decisions to produce something
one way and not another. And that's how we, as consumers, end up making decisions
that harm the planet or our fellow humans. By choosing the wrong products. But I refuse to believe
that anybody here in this room, or frankly, anybody on this planet, really wants to buy a product that harms the planet
or our fellow humans if given the choice. But you see, choice is a loaded word. Choice means there's another option. Choice means you can afford that option. But choice also means you have enough information
to make an informed decision. And that information nowadays
simply just doesn't exist. Or at least it's really,
really hard to access. But I think this is about to change. Because we can use technology
to solve this information problem. And many of the specific technologies
that we need to do that have become better and cheaper
over the recent years, and are now ready to be used at scale. So, over the past two years, my team and I have been working with one of the world's largest
conservation organizations, WWF, and we've founded a company called OpenSC, where SC stands for supply chain. And we believe that by using technology we can help to create transparency and traceability
in supply chains, and through that,
help to completely revolutionize the way that we buy
and also produce products as humans. Now, some of this is going to sound
a little bit like science fiction, but it's already happening. Let me explain. So, in order to solve
this information problem, we need to do three things: verify, trace and share. Verify specific sustainability and ethical production claims in a data-based and automated way. Then trace those
individual physical products throughout their supply chains, and finally, share
that information with consumers in a way that truly gives them a choice and lets them make consumption decisions that are more aligned with their values. I'm going to use a real product and a supply chain where we've made
all of this a reality already: a Patagonian toothfish, or Chilean sea bass,
as it's called in the US. Number one, verify. Verify how something is produced. But not just by saying,
"Trust me, this is good, trust me, we've done
all the right things," but by producing evidence
for that individual physical product, and the way it was produced. By producing evidence for a specific sustainability
or ethical production claim. So for example, in the case of the fish, has this fish been caught in an area
where there's enough of them, so that it's sustainable
to catch it there and not in a marine protected area? So what we're doing here is we're taking almost real-time
GPS data from the ship -- the ship that's fishing -- and that tells us where the ship is and where it's going at what speed. And we can then combine that
with other types of data, like, for example,
how deep the sea floor is. And combining all of this information, our machine-learning algorithms
can then verify, in an automated way, whether the ship is only fishing
where it's supposed to, or not. And as sensors become cheaper, we can put them in more places. And that means we can capture more data, and combining that
with advancements in data science, it means that we can now verify specific sustainability
and ethical production claims in an automated, real-time
and ongoing manner. And that really lays the basis
for this information revolution. So, number two, trace. Trace those individual physical products, so that we can truly say that the claim that we've verified
about a certain product actually belongs
to that individual product that we as consumers
have right in front of us. Because without
that level of traceability, all that we've really
verified in the first place is that somebody, somewhere, at some point caught a fish in a sustainable way, or didn't harm the employee
when asking them to produce a T-shirt, or didn't use pesticides when growing
a vegetable that didn't actually need it. Only if I give a product
an identity from the start and then trace it
throughout the whole supply chain, can this claim and the value
that's been created by producing it in the right way truly stay with it. Now, I've talked about cheaper sensors. There are many other
technological developments that make all of this much more possible
today than every before. For example, the falling costs of tags. You give a product a name, a serial number, an identity, the tag is its passport. What you can see here
is a toothfish being caught. This is what's called a longline fishery, so the fish are coming up
onto the boat on individual hooks. And as soon as the fish is on board, it is killed, and then after that, we insert a small tag
into the fish's flesh. And in that tag, there is an RFID chip
with a unique serial number, and that tag follows the fish
throughout the whole supply chain and makes it really easy
to sense its presence at any port, on any truck
or in any processing plant. But consumers can't really read RFID tags. And so, when it comes to filleting
and packaging the fish, we read the RFID tag and then remove it. And then we add a unique QR code
to the packaging of the fish. And that QR code then points back
to the same information that we've verified about the fish
in the first place. And so, depending on the type
of product that we're working with, we may use QR codes, bar codes, RFID tags or other tag technologies. But there are also technologies that are at the brink
of large-scale breakthrough that make tags themselves obsolete. Like, for example, analyzing a product for trace elements that can then tell you quite accurately
where it is actually from. Then there's blockchain. A decentralized technology
can act as a catalyst for this revolution. Because it can help mitigate
some of the trust issues that are inherent
to giving people information and then asking them
to change their consumption behavior because of that information. And so, we use blockchain technology where it adds value to what we're doing. But importantly, we don't let the limitations
that this technology still has today, like, for example,
with regards to scaling, we don't let that stand in our way. And that brings us to the third point. Share. How to share the information
that we've verified and tracked about where a product is from,
how it was produced and how it got to where it is? How to share this information is really different
from product to product. And different from where you buy it. You behave differently
in those situations. You are stressed and time-poor
in the supermarket. Or with short attention span over dinner, because your date is so cute. Or you are critical and inquisitive when researching
for a larger purchase online. And so for our fish, we've developed a digital experience that works when buying the fish
in a freezer in a fish specialty store and that gives you all of the information
about the fish and its journey. But we also worked with a restaurant and developed a different
digital experience that only summarizes the key facts
about the fish and its journey, and works better in a dinner setting and, hopefully, there
doesn't annoy your date too much. Now, that brings us full circle. We've verified that the fish was caught in an area where
it's sustainable to do so. We've then traced it throughout
the entire supply chain to maintain its identity and all
the information that's attached to it. And then, we've shared
that information with consumers in a way that gives them a choice and lets them make consumption decisions that are more in line with their values. Now, for this fish example,
this is already rolled out at scale. This season, the entire fleet of the world's largest
toothfish fishing company, Austral Fisheries, is tagging every single fish
that they catch and that ends up in their premium
branded "Glacier 51" product. And you can already buy this fish. And with it, you can have all
of the information I talked about today, and much more, attached to each individual fish
or portion of the fish that you may buy. But this is not a fish or seafood thing. We're working on many, many
different commodities and products and their supply chains across the globe. From dairy to fruit and vegetables, to nonfood products made out of wood. As a consumer, all of this
may sound like a huge burden, because you don't have time
to look at all of this information every time you buy something. And I don't expect you to, because you'll have help with that. In the future, we'll leave the decision
of which specific product to buy increasingly up to machines. An algorithm will know enough about you to make those decisions for you,
so you don't have to. And maybe it will even do
a better job at it. In a recent study, 85 percent of those buying a product
through a virtual assistant said that they, on occasion, actually went with the top
product recommendation of that virtual assistant, rather than the specific product or brand that they set out
to buy in the first place. You just say you need toilet paper, it's then an algorithm that decides
which brand, price point or whether you go with recycled or not. Well, nowadays this is usually based
on what you bought in the past, or whoever pays the most to the company
behind the virtual assistant. But why shouldn't that be also
based on your values? Knowing that you want
to buy planet-friendly and knowing whether and how much
you're willing and able to pay for that. Now, that will make it easy and seamless, but still based
on granular effects and data to choose the right products. Not by necessarily doing it yourself but by asking an algorithm that knows how much you care
about this planet. Not by necessarily doing it yourself but by asking an algorithm that is never time-poor or distracted, or with short attention span
because of the cute date, and that knows how much
you care about this planet and the people living on it, by asking that algorithm to look
at all of that information for you and to decide for you. If we have reliable
and trustworthy information like that and the right systems that make use of it, consumers will support those
who are doing the right thing by producing products
in a sustainable and ethical way. They will support them every time by choosing their goods over others. And that means that good
producers and processors and retailers will get rewarded. And bad actors will be forced
to adjust their practices or get out of business. And we need that. If we want to continue to live together
on this beautiful planet, we really need it. Thank you. (Applause)
