A Tertiary Review on Blockchain and Sustainability with Focus on
Sustainable Development Goals
Abstract
Blockchain as a disruptive technology and a driver for social change
has exhibited great potential to promote sustainable practices and help
organizations and governments achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs). Literature reviews on blockchain and
sustainability exist, but they often focus only on topics related to one
or a few SDGs. There is a need to consolidate existing results in terms
of SDGs and provide a comprehensive overview of the impacts that
blockchain technology may have on each SDG. This paper intends to bridge
this gap, presenting a tertiary review based on 34 existing literature
reviews, to investigate the relationship between blockchain and
sustainability in light of SDGs. The method used is a consensus-based
expert elicitation with thematic analysis. The findings include a novel
and comprehensive mapping of impact-based interlinkage of blockchain and
SDGs and a systematic overview of drivers and barriers to adopting
blockchain for sustainability. The findings reveal that blockchain can
have a positive impact on all 17 SDGs through technological innovations
though some negative effects can occur and impede the achievement of
certain objectives. 73 positive and 10 negative linkages between
blockchain adoption and the 17 SDGs as well as 45 factors that drive or
hinder blockchain adoption for the achievement of SDGs have been
identified. Research gaps to overcome the barriers and enhance
blockchain’s positive impacts have also been identified. The findings
may help managers in evaluating the applicability and tradeoffs and
policymakers in making supportive measures to facilitate sustainability
using blockchain.