Inside BlockStart programme – a look back from Plastic Free Certification

Plastic Free Certification is a Certification service capable of demonstrating the environmental commitment in the transition process to “Plastic Free”

As part of their journey on BlockStart’s 2nd Acceleration Programme, as an SME adopter, they were looking for new opportunities for collaboration with technology providers of DLT/blockchain solutions that could improve their business. This is the testimonial of their experience in our programme.

In one paragraph, what is Plastic Free Certification?

Plastic Free Certification is an innovative startup that supports the companies in the reduction of disposable plastic until its complete elimination. Plastic Free Certification has written a revolutionary certification standard, the Plastic Free Standard, and it is the sole owner and the certifying body of the Standard.
We help companies in the process of elimination of disposable plastic by involving gradually the entire production chain.

What is Plastic Free Certification passionate about achieving?

Plastic Free Certification wishes to create and to share value, considering environmental, social and economic sustainability. It really believes in the cooperation between human beings. The team is such a laboratory of ideas for an individual change that leads to an ecological renewal, a social revolution.
In a few words: “Be the change you want to see in the world”, that’s how we are working to achieve our dreams and to make them true.

Can you tell us why you have decided to apply to BlockStart’s 2nd Call for end-user SMEs?

The certification process requires the processing of sensitive customer data, which is used for years, both for the first certification and for the annual renewal. It therefore becomes essential to be able to guarantee our future customers that their data will be processed using a safe and reliable technology, such as the Blockchain.
The auditing process that takes place before the certification is issued is a delicate phase in which the authenticity of the data must be guaranteed both towards the Auditor (external party) and towards the customer.
The blockchain fully responds to all these needs.

What major challenges have you faced during the implementation/testing of BlockStart’s blockchain-based solution?

Being a new technology, initially the challenge was to understand how to fully utilize the advantages offered by the blockchain in our certification process, selecting the documents that needed protection through the tool offered by the partner of the Blockstart program. All blockchain-based solutions have an intrinsic complexity that must be fully understood in order to be used in a specific application context.
In the testing phase we had to analise in detail all the phases of the certification process to understand in which points and in what ways to use the solution of our Blockstart partner .

What kind of impact do you think the blockchain-based solution you have implemented in the scope of BlockStart may bring to your company?

Thanks to the Blockstart program, our Startup was able to know and understand the infinite possibilities deriving from the use of the blockchain, opening new scenarios also on future aspects that could revolutionise the certification process, such as Smart Contracts and NFT Token that, even if not they have been implemented in the pilot phase, they are for us a recent discovery made thanks to this program. In addition, we had the opportunity to meet 3 DLT developers of the Blockstart program who may be our partners in the future.

Where do you see your company in 5 years?

Plastic Free Certification wishes to become a point of reference for the plastic free revolution. It had the opportunity to certify clients all over the world, because the attention to the issue of the disposable plastic and the pollution of the Planet is growing fast. So, in the next years we’d like to improve our plastic free solutions for the companies but also to boost the environmental and social sustainability developing a research institute to find solutions to the reduction and the recycling of waste, cooperating with universities and environmental organizations all over the world.

Want to know more about the blockchain-based solution adopted by Plastic Free Certification?

Visit Knowtary‘s webpage or watch the video below to learn more about the “Knowtary” solution implemented by Plastic Free Certification in the scope of BlokStart’s 2nd Acceleration Programme.