Tariffs, Greenwashing, ESG Scrutiny: Sezoo Says It’s a Proof Problem and UNTP is part of the Solution

2025 has brought a fresh round of tariff talk, some politicised, weaponised, and loudly opinionated. In the midst of all that palaver, John Phillips and Jo Spencer from Sezoo were thinking about digital trust. They're almost always thinking about digital trust.

Between tariffs, shifting market access requirements, a rise in anti-greenwashing regulations and ESG scrutiny, the ability for businesses and their suppliers to prove their claims has come into sharp focus. Prevailing models of data control still revolve around a single source, a single truth, often even a single platform. In terms of supply chain transparency, Phillips and Spencer, the founders of Australian digital trust consultancy Sezoo, never bought that.

Before the UN Transparency Protocol (UNTP) had a name, they were already building the tools and thinking needed to make trust scalable. Decentralised. Verifiable. What they saw in UN/CEFACT Vice Chair Steve Capell's cross-border whitepaper Recommendation No. 49: Transparency at Scale in 2023 wasn’t just alignment—it was affirmation. Someone else was on the same path.

UNTP offered the missing context.

"We saw Steve Capell’s paper on UN/CEFACT Recommendation No. 49 and thought, finally! Someone else gets that decentralised proof is the only sustainable model," said Spencer. "They’re working on actual trade problems, not just theory. And they are in Australia, too."

Two years later, after two rounds of public comment and much international collaboration in which Phillips and Spencer were able to take part, the final draft of UN/CEFACT Recommendation No. 49: Transparency at Scale – Fostering Sustainable Value Chains is ready. It is up for formal review at the 31st UN/CEFACT Plenary in Geneva. More on that here.

Spencer and Phillips say the timing of Recommendation 49 and its implementation protocol, the UNTP, come just as digital trust is becoming a requirement, not an aspiration.

“The UNTP leverages decentralised identifiers and verifiable credentials, on top of existing supply chains. DIDs and VCs are becoming the basis for all modern trusted data sharing ecosystems,” said Spencer. “UNTP has its own spin on how it makes use of this trustworthy tech.

"This stuff used to be theoretical. Soon it will be the only way to comply. If you’ve got a carbon tariff, or you’re claiming ESG compliance, or trying to avoid greenwashing fines, you’d better have verifiable data to back it up.”

Track Record: From Payments to Protocols

Sezoo’s origin story starts long before the current wave of transparency mandates. Phillips and Spencer were steeped in adjacent systems work. Spencer came from a deep tech and financial services background, working on payment systems and secure, cryptographically-authenticated transactions inside ANZ Bank. Phillips led governance and storytelling work across emerging digital trust frameworks, including Australia's contributions to Trust over IP, the New South Wales Digital Identity initiative, and various global projects.

Together, they've worked on:

• Business cases for public-sector digital identity programs
• Story development and coordination for UN/CEFACT initiatives
• Governance architecture task forces for open trust ecosystems
• Proof-of-concept testing to assess real-world system viability

“We got into this to move past the hype,” said Phillips. “Blockchain buzz wasn’t helping anyone prove anything. We wanted claims you could trace.”

In fact, that mindset led to the name Sezoo (a play on “says who?”), because that’s what trust infrastructure is really asking: Who’s making the claim? Do they have the authority? Can it be verified?

Tariffs are one Trigger

If you’re going to impose tariffs, you need to know where something actually came from. Not what the shipping label says. Not what the importer claims. What you can prove.

"Tariffs, ESG, even product recalls, they all involve the same challenge around proof," said Phillips. "Can you prove where something came from? Can you trust the source, without depending on just one party saying so?"

"The same transparency ESG demands is now critical for compliance, trade and risk management," said Phillips.

And it’s not just about goods, they both point out. Information has a supply chain too. If data about a shipment has changed hands five times, who vouches for the version you're looking at?

UNTP and its extensions allow entities to issue, verify, and consume claims without relying on a single hub. That’s how you scale trust without creating another monopoly.

"Centralised networks create new bottlenecks," said Spencer. "They replicate the problems we’re trying to solve."

It’s no coincidence Phillips and Spencer found common ground with UNTP. It’s a shared diagnosis of the problem. And a shared commitment to solving it with systems that don’t just scale—they sustain.

Next Step: Building the Registry of Trust

"One problem with identity is confirming authority," said Spencer.

This concept is now informing participation in a new UN/CEFACT project developing a Global Trust Registry. Phillips is co-chair and Spencer is contributing in the areas of design, adoption, and the use of open standards.

They’re now helping design the system that lets the world ask—and answer—“says who?” at scale. Read: A New Step Toward Verifiable Trade — and Australians Are at the Helm

It's the kind of trust layer the global market now requires, when trade, compliance and sustainability are all demanding

Join the Pyx Community!

• 📢 Chat on Pyx Zulip – Join real-time conversations with the community
• 💬 Join the Pyx Forums – Engage in discussions about the UNTP and related topics