Design Principles for Blockchain-based Applications in Green Bond Reporting

Abstract

Emerging sustainable capital markets are crucial in reaching global climate goals. These markets' credibility depends on the trustworthiness of data used to report the green impact of projects financed by sustainable financial instruments such as green bonds. To ensure credibility and thereby support these types of markets, the information systems field has the potential to create designs that leverage emerging technologies (in our case, blockchain) for green bond reporting. In this paper, we employ a design science research method to derive a set of design principles. These design principles discuss the most relevant blockchain concepts and reflect the characteristics of today's green bond process. Through an artificial evaluation and demonstration of the design principles, we report on how to make informed design decisions to develop blockchain applications for green bond reporting. These findings are also significant for practitioners to develop new services or re-design current processes.