Imagine a totally blue world…

Why Blue?

What does Blue stand for?

Why do we believe in Blue — and why should you?

Chairman Michiel Frackers shares his vision. Two years ago he founded the Blue Foundation.

And now he is taking the first step to build a better world with Bluenote. Bluenote will launch the world’s first open-data protocol to turn buildings “Blue.” It will benchmark and verify energy, emissions and financial performance in real-time.

Michiel Frackers — breaking the deadlock

My involvement in the Bluenote project stems from my time as an investor, during which I encountered more and more Internet-of-Things companies. Often they were technically appealing or commercially interesting, but rarely both. The same goes with cleantech technology; usually promising, but in the end often disappointing in terms of economic or even social returns.

On a larger scale, unfortunately, it is not much different. In Germany, the Energiewende has become so expensive that no other country dares to make the same choice. And two years after the climate agreement of COP21 in Paris, virtually no concrete measures were taken to combat climate change.

In his inspiring book The Blue Economy, Gunter Pauli describes applications that are ‘blue’: economically, ecologically and socially sustainable. The basic premise is that an advancement in one of those areas, doesn’t necessarily have to come at the expense of the others.

Gunter Pauli

Since COP 21, I have, in line with that blue line of thought, worked with a group of like-minded entrepreneurs, experts and investors in the not for profit foundation Blue City Solutions. Without being bound to the constraints of an investor, who always strives for the highest return in the shortest possible time, we searched for projects that can tackle the biggest problem on earth: climate change. We did this according to the ‘Blue’ model, i.e. internationally scalable (not only accessible for a select group of people), with a healthy financial return and always limiting CO2 emissions.

Bluenote — the first step

Now with Bluenote we are getting started. And we are going to do the impossible.

As a government initiative, business project or as a classic startup, this project is impossible. Authorities can not initiate such a project because it falls outside of regular policy instruments. In addition, the cross-border and non-sectoral approach is difficult to organize for a government agency.

Large companies can not do this because they work poorly with competitors, are by definition not neutral, are perceived as biased towards their own solutions and obviously have a strong drive to maximize profitability.

But we strongly believe that this is a mission worth undertaking — with a strong chance for success. For several reasons:

Bluenote tackles the largest pollutant first. According to the UN, more than two thirds of the world’s population will live in cities by 2050. At present, office buildings in cities are the largest singular source of CO2 emissions, with all the consequences. According to the New York Green Bank, for example, commercial real estate accounts for 70% of all CO2 emissions in New York City. Worldwide, commercial property is estimated to be responsible for 25% of all CO2 emissions. Commercial real estate is the low-hanging fruit of the energy world, this industry can improve much easier than others (like the manufacturing industry). The real estate world is, to say the least, not known for its technological advancement, so the simplest solutions (such as insulation) are often introduced very slowly. The fact that tenants pay for their energy consumption and not the property owners does not help. Blockchain offers the best method to make this system successful worldwide. Cutting out the intermediary, the Bluenote token as payment method, the decentralized protocol (without a central database) and the decentralized governance (the public verifies and sets ​​the value of the data) — all this is only possible on the basis of blockchain.

Building Blue

For us this undertaking is of paramount importance. We believe Blue is the way to live — and the way to build a better, sustainable world.

But we are not just building this by ourselves — for ourselves. Blue — and Bluenote — must be a collaborative effort. The more we work together — the more we can spread the ideals of a Blue world.

Join us in taking this first step towards creating a truly Blue world — we need you! You can contact us here.