Marui (OIOI), the large Japanese department store, issued a digital green bond in May. Not only did it use blockchain, but it was also directly issued to its customers as investors, with Securitize Japan providing the blockchain platform. Besides the digital bond, the green investment also has a blockchain angle.
It was a small digital bond issuance of just Yen 170 million ($1.1 million) with the investment available to Marui’s EPOS credit card holders. The 1% interest on the bond is partially paid in EPOS points and partly in real money.
The bond proceeds are intended to purchase a renewable energy power plant, although the small print also allows for energy efficient building upgrades. Marui is partnering with Updater (formerly Minna Denryoku or Minden) for the renewable energy plant. Updater has a blockchain-based platform, Enection 2.0, which tracks the source of renewable energy, allowing business buyers to pair electricity sales with energy attribute certificates (EACs) for green energy.
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