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Client Profile

The Client – the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials Association (‘RSB’) – and its membership community represents a global movement of over 130 industry and sector leaders, environmental and civil society organisations, academic institutions, along with UN and government bodies. The organization represents a joint effort targeted at advancing the biocircular economy through a world-leading sustainability framework.

The key mission at RSB is facilitating the transition to a bio-based and circular economy for creating a world in which climate change has been mitigated, biodiverse ecosystems restored and livelihoods enhanced. The Client is striving to achieve this by leveraging its three core areas:

  1. Membership – enabling collaboration for greater impact.
  2. Programmes – building capability to make change happen.
  3. Certification – providing clarity on best practice.

The organization’s governing body – RSB’s Secretariat – is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.

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Key Challenge

One of the key focal points of RSB’s global network is accelerated decarbonization of hard-to-abate economy sectors, such as aviation, maritime transportation, etc. Striving to foster its positive on ecological situation in these industries, RSB decision makers developed what they called a ‘Book & Claim System’ – an initiative designed to lead the way in creating an efficient mechanism promoting wider outreach of sustainable eco-friendly fuels. 

In order to make the book & claim process straightforward, with convenient access for participants, RSB decided to design and build a specialised online platform for the purpose. As the Client did not have sufficient software development resources in-house, its decision makers started searching for an external software development vendor to award the project to. Ultimately the preference was given to GP Solutions.

Project Overview

RSB’s Book & Claim System

The RSB Book & Claim System is the key focal point of the entire project. It represents a cross-sectoral initiative for members and invited stakeholders that seeks to strengthen and accelerate the decarbonisation of hard-to-abate sectors, especially aviation and maritime industries. The key goal is to promote purchases of sustainable fuels. According to research, these can achieve 80% GHG emission reductions compared to regular fossil fuels. And if certified against a robust and holistic standards or RSB, sustainable fuels can also ensure that their production does not create negative consequences for ecosystems and overall environmental security.RSB Book

However, a major issue here is that investments needed to develop sustainable aviation and marine fuels’ technologies, production and supply chains are such that these fuels are only available at limited geographical locations, and at a higher cost compared to fossil fuels. This often makes it out of reach for the growing number of customers globally, which include airlines, corporate customers who want to reduce their emissions from business or cargo air travel.

When materials and products move along the supply chain, their attributes – including the sustainability benefits – are tracked, documented and verified via the process commonly referred to as ‘chain of custody’. RSB’s Book & Claim process provides a solution allowing customers to de-couple specific attributes from the physical product – like its sustainability benefits – and transfer them separately via a dedicated registry. This approach, which has previously been implemented successfully in the renewable electricity sector, is particularly valuable for sectors like aviation and shipping.

‘RSB Book & Claim System Explained’

RSB is leading the development of the Book & Claim system. Its work has been recognised by prominent regulatory organizations in the field, such as EU RED and CORSIA.

RSB’s Book & Claim Registry

The goal set forth for GP Solutions team was related to RSB’s Book & Claim Registry – a multi-role digital application which is a practical implementation of the RSB’s Book & Claim System. The functional component of the registry needed to accommodate a robust process for split financing of production and purchase of costly biofuels, initially in the aviation industry. The system concept is designed to allow interested corporate entities to partially invest into biofuel production and purchase in exchange for the so-called ’Book & Claim Units (BCUs), or ‘credits’. A BCU is digital asset which can be securely transferred to another account holder who wishes to claim it. As such, the Registry is a secure and credible space for various interested companies willing to participate in promoting sustainable biofuel distribution.

As soon as the required amount of biofuel is produced and purchased, the participating corporate entities receive certificates confirming each credit issue transaction in exchange for fiat currency. These certificates are personalised for the participating company and serve as proof of partial compensation for a specific biofuel-related transaction.

Implementation Highlights

The goal set forth for GP Solutions team was related to RSB’s Book & Claim Registry – a multi-role digital application which is a practical implementation of the RSB’s Book & Claim System. The functional component of the registry needed to accommodate a robust process for split financing of production and purchase of costly biofuels, initially in the aviation industry. The system concept is designed to allow interested corporate entities to partially invest into biofuel production and purchase in exchange for the so-called ’Book & Claim Units (BCUs), or ‘credits’. A BCU is digital asset which can be securely transferred to another account holder who wishes to claim it. As such, the Registry is a secure and credible space for various interested companies willing to participate in promoting sustainable biofuel distribution.

  • A complete custom user-friendly UI along with easily navigable UX experience that would be properly adjusted for the target audience – representatives of large global corporations;
  • Reliable bug-free performance powered by robust modern backend and frontend technologies;
  • Enhanced security infrastructure and precautions protecting the transactions and private data.

The project team was entirely staffed by GP Solutions. At various project phases it involved a number of specialists with various competences, including:

staffed by GP Solutions

In terms of core technology stack the team decided to go with a time-proven and widely used combination of React framework for the frontend,  Node.JS for the backend, along with MongoDB as the central data storing and processing solution. The development process also involved Agile / Kanban management approach to ensure management flexibility. It also came in handy since many of the finally approved project parameters were discussed and formulated on the go with the Product Owner and key stakeholders on the Client’s side.

As a result the team designed and developed a completely new solution compared to the previous version. Although rather straightforward in terms of functionality, it ensured high productivity and, most importantly, advanced security. In particular, the project team came up with a set of measures to facilitate advanced safety for highly demanding users forming the majority of the audience. These included numerous personal data protection options, data encryption, two-factor authentication and more. Besides, the system requires all the transactions to get confirmed by system administrators in order to take effect. Also, the RSB Registry was built to incorporate the ‘Four Eyes Principle’ for user account management. As part of the system any significant changes to any account need to be reviewed and approved by more than one person.

Notebook

Results

The initial MVP (‘Minimum Viable Product’) was developed and presented to the key project stakeholders within the first 6 months of development. 

The first live version of RSB Book & Claim Registry launched live in autumn 2023. It contains the full set of features required to fully perform its objectives.

The newly built solution was publicly presented during RSB Annual Conference 2023:  

GP Solutions at RSB Annual Conference 2023

GP Solutions at RSB Annual Conference 2023

The project is developing further with considerable plans going into 2024. In addition to air fuel transactions in the future the system will support transactions for maritime industry, while potentially expanding into car fuel production and other areas.

There are also a number of planned  integrations with external systems to enhance existing functionality. The range of potential systems to connect to includes popular CRM systems, data storages, data processing solutions, etc. The project team is also considering the introduction of blockchain technology to improve security of certain critical system processes.