Blockchain and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: Towards an Agenda for IS Research

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals have gained strong traction in the renewed global discourse on sustainability, and attribute a key role to digital technologies. Blockchain technology is now transitioning beyond the realm of cryptocurrencies applications, to embrace a wider array of applications, including the sustainability of supply chains and traceability of responsibly sourced goods. Despite the rise in the global agenda, and emerging research in other academic fields, Information Systems (IS) research on blockchain and sustainability is still scarce.
Based on a review of empirical studies, we use the perspective of the 17 United Nations SDGs to map research on blockchain and sustainable development, and lay the ground for a research agenda in the IS field. Based on this agenda, we showcase the exploration of some of the proposed research questions in an ongoing research project on the use of blockchain in the lifestyle and design industry in Denmark.