Preventing Greenwashing with AI and Blockchain, UMS Team's Innovation Wins Silver at NEIRA 3

Student team from Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta (UMS) won a silver medal in the national level essay and business plan competition NEIRA Competition III. The innovation they presented also supports efforts to prevent greenwashing.

The NEIRA (National Empowerment, Innovation, Research, and Art) Competition is an event organized by the Sentosa Foundation in collaboration with the Forestry Cultivation Student Association at Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM). The competition, held on 29 to 30 August 2026, carried the theme "Synergy of Youth Creativity and Intellectuality for a Sustainable Indonesia."

The UMS team is the result of collaboration across study programs. Its members include Alif Galuh Ristika (Accounting), Ilham Ridho Ardhana (Accounting), and Muhammad Hasbi Assidiqi (Information Systems).

In the national competition, the UMS team presented a groundbreaking concept titled "VERITAS EIRR (Green Adjusted EIRR)." EIRR stands for Economic Internal Rate of Return.

This innovation grew out of the pressing need for investment feasibility assessments to no longer rely on financial profit alone, but to also account for environmental impact. "Impacts such as energy consumption, carbon emissions, and waste management," said Alif, a member of the team.

The design of VERITAS EIRR brings together strengths from across disciplines in a comprehensive way. From an economics and accounting standpoint, Alif and Ilham built a project cash flow framework to ensure investment valuation could be measured precisely.

On the technology side, Hasbi designed the technical infrastructure, making use of internet of things sensors for real time data collection, blockchain technology to guarantee data validity and security, and artificial intelligence (AI) analysis to detect sustainability risks and prevent greenwashing practices.

Greenwashing refers to a marketing strategy in which a product is claimed to be environmentally friendly, when in fact the product doesn't actually account for environmental aspects throughout its production chain.

Under the guidance of lecturer Fajar Khollilulloh, S.E., M.Acc., the solution was designed to align with the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly Goal 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure), Goal 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), and Goal 13 (Climate Action).

"This concept was also developed in line with the sustainable finance roadmap and the Financial Services Authority Regulation (POJK) concerning industry environmental reporting," Fajar said.

Writer: Gede Arga Adrian

Editor: Maysali Sudarwati

Translator: Farizal Luqman Majid