A Privacy-Preserving Blockchain Framework for Sustainable Supplier Evaluation in the Textile Industry

In recent years, there has been a growing emphasis on sustainability. Consequently, errors in supplier selection can compromise key aspects such as product quality and reputation while also risking regulatory penalties. At the same time, to demonstrate their sustainability, suppliers must share sensitive data, necessitating appropriate handling. Consequently, there is a strong need for a solution that can rapidly assess supplier sustainability while safeguarding sensitive information. This paper proposes a novel methodology for evaluating suppliers within supply chains, applicable across various industries. This approach aims to assign a sustainability index to each supplier, reflecting their performance in terms of environmental, social, and economic aspects. To ensure privacy and data confidentiality, the solution utilizes homomorphic encryption, which secures supplier information while allowing for the verification of both the sustainability index and the underlying algorithm by storing them on a public blockchain. This work successfully demonstrates the feasibility of integrating homomorphic encryption with blockchain technology to calculate sustainability indices from encrypted key performance indicators (KPIs) without compromising data confidentiality.