Blockchain For Sustainability: Exclusive Interview With FCE Group AG CEO Gregory Arzumanian

For 30 years, Gregory Arzumanian, the CEO of FCE Group AG, a Swiss-based company, has held on to the belief that sustainability is the key to the survival of any business.

Gregory's search for a technological solution to the problems that are associated with unsustainable business development led him to blockchain technology in 2016. Inspired to leverage its enduring promise of transparency, he founded the FCE Group AG, a blockchain solution company formerly known as FoodCoin, in 2017.

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Gregory for an interview about sustainability and the life-long objectives of FCE Group AG in the blockchain industry.

Mr. Gregory, can you briefly tell us about yourself?

My name is Gregory Arzumanian. I’m the founder and CEO of the Swiss-based company FCE Group AG.

What is your route to blockchain technology?

I am a serial entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience running various business projects worldwide. I have led various projects related to supply chains, food, manufacturing, and IT consulting.

But all my projects had one thing in common. I have always tried to fix the problem associated with unsustainability.

Starting in 2015, I began to generalize my professional experience as I began to notice patterns of causes and effects in various industries.

Ultimately, I concluded that the fundamental factor behind most business problems is the lack of transparency, which leads to a lack of trust and, as a result, unsustainable business development. And this is a general rule for almost any industry. I began to look for technological solutions to this problem. In 2016 I got acquainted with blockchain technology, and it fascinated me.

You believe that there is a need for sustainability using blockchain. What are the problems it seeks to solve? And how is it a sustainable solution?

Although the blockchain is still a very young technology, we have already passed the stage of "blind faith" that the blockchain is the only "cure" for all problems. Blockchain is a "notary" that guarantees data transparency and accessibility. The best use for this functionality is to ensure sustainability at every stage of business processes.

When discussing sustainability in business processes, I mean transparent and guaranteed access to the data for all stakeholders. These can be business partners, suppliers, consumers, regulators, validators, and controllers.

Can you tell us about the founding of FCE GROUP AG?

The original name of the project was Foodcoin. Together with my team, we launched a pre-ICO event in 2017.

A few days after the launch of the project, I received an invitation from Switzerland Global Enterprise to visit Switzerland and consider it as a place to develop my project. In the same year, I created Foodcoin Group AG, which we later rebranded to FCE Group, which is an acronym for Foodcoin Ecosystem.

Can you tell us how the FCE ecosystem, the TransparenTerra platform, and CAFFEE work?

Transparenterra is a digital platform that restores trust by bringing together sustainability experts, business owners, impact investors, and consumers. It provides trust-as-a-service and features tools like an ESG calculator, CAFFEE, and a secure marketplace. The platform is powered by FCE net-zero blockchain and aims to make sustainability more accessible and measurable.

Caffee is a tokenization service for carbon credits that uses the FCE net-zero blockchain to provide traceability and verification of offset certificates. It is designed to offset the carbon footprint of everyday activities and supports carbon offset projects.

CAFFEE leverages web3 and ReFi technologies to access a decentralized market for carbon credits with lower costs and instant settlement times.

Why do you call the FCE blockchain Net-Zero, and how do business users and individuals benefit from it?

The FCE blockchain is called net-zero because it minimizes energy consumption and offsets the environmental impact of every single transaction.

By leveraging the FCE Net-Zero blockchain, business users’ and individuals’ transactions become net-zero. It makes their operations more sustainable. Also, they can claim the CaFFee tokens to their MetaMask Wallets and print out the carbon offset certificates and add them to the company sustainability report.

What are your thoughts on the current state of the ReFi?

Regenerative finance is a business practice that aims to restore and build rather than exploit and destroy. It seeks to make positive change possible, with the financial return as a by-product. Regenerative finance sees money as a means, not as an end. It's about circulation replacing accumulation.

The growing adoption of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in investing is a positive trend, but it's mostly about reducing negative impacts.

While it's very new, I guess ReFi is a massive trend that will bring blockchain technology to new highs for all good.

How does adopting the FCE blockchain solution contribute to the environment?

FCE Ecosystem includes the Transparenterra Platform, CAFFEE carbon credit tokenization solution, and Net Zero blockchain.

This is a comprehensive solution for the best sustainable business practices for already-running and just-established companies. The motto of the Transparenterra Platform is "To Restore Trust."

All our solutions aim to provide transparency and trust. We strive to create a professional platform where all parties will consider the planet as a major stakeholder. And all business interactions will be considered through this lens.

What can you say about the investment opportunities in this sector? Are institutional investors eyeing it already?

All FCE’s solutions are about impact. Impact investing is a growing field where impact investors direct capital to enterprises that generate social or environmental benefits. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) put the estimate at $2.1 trillion.

The global impact investing market was expected to grow from $354.41 billion in 2021 to $423.46 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.5% and is expected to grow to $823.83 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 18.1%3

Institutional investors, such as banks, insurance, and pension funds, explore their unique role within the impact investing market. These institutional investors seek market segments where impact goes hand-in-hand with financial return or even delivers impact alpha, i.e., excess return beyond market benchmarks. Amid the global environmental situation, I believe that impact investments are a new strong, and rapidly rising trend that reveals before our eyes.

How does FCE Group AG envision the future of blockchain technology in the sustainability area, and what are the company's plans for further development?

I firmly believe blockchain, IoT, and AI are a Trinity of the Sustainable Age. They are complementary and necessary to provide an ultimate business environment in a digital age.

The explosive development of technology rapidly raises questions of trust, making blockchain even more of a must-have solution for any data provider. And today, almost any company turns into a data provider. Therefore, I am very optimistic about the future of blockchain technology, especially its net-zero solutions.

Any parting words?

I believe that we are on the threshold of a new renaissance of blockchain technology. At this stage, the technology will be marked by mass adoption and industrial solutions. All this will certainly bring great changes in both the economy and social policy around the world. We live in an era of great change. And that means great opportunities.

I wish all readers to look at the current challenges in this way and use them for their own benefit and the benefit of all people and the planet. Only a new global awareness of ourselves as a part of innovative technology and the environment will allow us to rise above the current uncertainty.