Today marks the 51st Earth Day. The annual event began in 1970 and has grown ever since. As we can all agree, as exciting and innovative a technology as blockchain and decentralized networks have proven to be, we, as an industry, have some adverse environmental consequences we must address.

As a founder of Power Transition, our mission is to help the world transition to a zero-carbon economy. We've seen the efficiency of Hedera first hand. Our energy microgrid solution has successfully provided more efficient energy to 48 homes and apartments in the United Kingdom, with immediate energy savings of 30-40% per home.

In another proof of concept for EV charging networks, Power Transition reduced charging costs by up to 50% by using Hedera Token Service as its payment rail.

Hedera is our public ledger of choice. Not only for the practicality of its performance or low transaction fees but also for its environmental impact and unique long-term ability to be sustainable. We estimate that Hedera is orders of magnitude more energy-efficient than other blockchain-based, proof-of-work networks and is comparable with VISA.

It is paramount that we collectively help correct the narrative that blockchain and distributed ledgers cannot be energy efficient. As such, we've put together a report, Can a Blockchain be Green? to articulate the key areas to consider for sustainability. In the report, we propose that for a technology to be sustainable we must consider its long-term environmental, societal, and economic impact. Hedera, with its unique governance model and efficient hashgraph consensus algorithm, is uniquely suited to meet these requirements today and in the future.