The research provided in this project is a first step into a possible introduction of an ECO-currency. It is clear that the proposition provided is merely a concretization of the research and opens up a world of new questions. The proposition shows that many practical issues still need to be researched, designed for and validated. Future projects could use the foundations this project has laid, to dive into these new questions, and continue the rationale.

Additionally, sources in support of this research are presented in an online blog, open to everyone to be inspired and triggered to continue with the thoughts and background this research provides.

To convey the importance of this research and the potential of rethinking the balance between the environment and the economy an animation video has been created and promoted online. A special website is created as a portal for this project. The three pillars which conclude the research are visually explained to inspire people and to spread the basic message. This report provides an overview of related topics and suggests directions for the project to be taken further. It reveals the great potential for future mechanisms to value our environment in our economy, steps remain to be taken towards this new balance on earth.

Eco-Currency Video on Vimeo
Eco-Currency.net
Eco-Currency on Facebook

This blog is about linking the economical ecology with the environmental ecology. In the current economic climate there are so much voices and opinions about it that it becomes difficult to see the forest for the trees. Visualizing Economics tries to bring some clarity, and is exactly what it’s URL implies. Mostly about America, but interesting nonetheless. Thanks for the link Philip.

An intersting article on New York Times website today.

UNITED NATIONS — Governments are largely ignoring a biodiversity protection treaty they signed 17 years ago, allowing the rate of species decline to continue at an alarming rate, the United Nations said in a report released today.

(…)

“The five principal pressures directly driving biodiversity loss (habitat change, overexploitation, pollution, invasive alien species and climate change) are either constant or increasing in intensity.”

The report does see progress in the creation of preserves, in particular in the number of protected marine areas announced in recent months, but the overall assessment of the treaty by its Montreal-based secretariat paints a grim picture, saying habitat losses have offset gains. Wetlands, salt marshes and habitats for shellfish seem to be suffering the most damage.

Read the full article here. It seems that the institution that was created for this purpose is failing. It is hard to pinpoint the exact cause in this context, but whether the involved nations are un-willing, un-able or both – it definitaly does not strengthen the institutionalized top-down way of managing these complex problems.

The research we have been doing at the eco-currency.net headquarters point strongly towards towards a different method to take care of these problems: collaboration. See this scenario, and this page to shine some refreshing – yet still very conceptual – light on the matter.

In the movie ‘Home’, by Yann Arthus-Bertrand a beautiful image of our earth is given. The movie starts of from how live began on planet earth and how only by a perfect balance between every form of life and every resource, the earth as it is today can be the way it is. This balance though is drastically changing through the acts of humans, resources that took 4 million years to find its position in this balance are ripped out of their balanced places which has drastic effects on the climate and the ecosystem of the entire world.

The movie shows how humans have managed to change earth so drastically the last fifty years that the ecosystem has changed and that this cannot go on like this. Luckily the movie has a happy ending where they show how much focus there is today on rebalancing the world.

The balance issue is the main reason for the eco-currency project to exist, the ‘balance’ we talk about in this project is that between economy and the environment. In this movie, the results of a humanity which is only focussing on economical growth is beautifully shown, without any notion of the effect, people keep ripping off the earth’s resources showing that in fact, there is no balance at all. Watch the movie for free.

Kickstarter is a funding platform for artists, designers, filmmakers, musicians, journalists, inventors, explorers etc. On this platform, creative projects can be displayed and a funding can be requested. People have to explain what they want to do and how much money they need. It’s close to the platform designed in one of the scenarios how to apply eco-currency; stewardship, where an online platform is used to show projects and to gain money.

The funding in kickstarter is always all-or-nothing. A project must reach or exceed its funding goal, otherwise, no money will be invested and donated. This stimulates the project proposers to sell their project and to think about how much you really need and is realistic to ask. Another pillar of the kickstarter concept is that creators keep 100% ownership, it’s not an investment or lending, its a donation. The kickstarter project is funded by a 5% fee.

The difference here is that kickstarted is for project proposers but also for donators. In the stewardship scenario, the funding comes from an external source. The online platform is only designed to determine how this money is divided; this means that the people who vote, don’t need to pay. This will attract a larger audience which strengthens the collaboration principle.

Interim exhibition set-up

Last week we used a little experimental set-up during the mid-term exhibitions to get some initial feedback on the stewardship scenario. A tangible version of our concept platform was presented. Visitors were free to propose projects and post them on the platform. Each visitor also got three votes (lego blocks) to place next to flags on the world map that represented the project proposals.

For a time lapse movie on how the exhibition evolved please check our freshly initiated platform www.webalance.org.

This is part of summer 2010 advertising campaign of Magnum ice cream. And we thought that backing the currency with environmental value instead of gold, as explained in this scenario, was a crazy and wild idea…

Marketplaces of the 21st century are increasingly conscious, the information society provides more transparency. With this the demand for more ethical business processes and actions. This has lead to major investments by large companies and the rise of many foundations (Shell foundation, McDonald’s). These ‘good deeds’ known as corporate philanthropy, are a very interesting alternative to fund a model to balance environment and economy. The Shell foundation’s total funds’ in 2008 were US$300 million which is the largest corporate ‘philanthropic’ foundation.

Nowadays we take for granted is that money produces interest, yet this is a relatively new phenomenon. Bernard Lietaer analyzes the problem of interest and makes the comparison with the growth of a tree:

“Interest on money constitutes one of the most systematic causes of our destruction of the global environment. Consider as metaphor, for example, the life of a tree (or any other living resource): Because of interest, the net present value of any income far away in the future is negligible. So, it literally pays to cut down a tree and put the proceeds in a savings account instead of letting it grow for another decade or century. Similarly, the only types of tree worth planting commercially are the fastest-growing varieties such as pine. (Nobody plants redwoods for commercial reasons.) So even when we plant trees, we are systematically losing biodiversity.“

Perhaps it is not for nothing that, for more than a thousand years, interest on money was prohibited and considered usury by all three major religions. Read more at Lietaers Community Currencies project.