If we want the economy to change, we need to create behaviour change. Diana Finch is part of one of our Network members, Bristol Pound. Read her journey as she looks into improving Bristol’s economy:
We know our economy needs to change. It needs to become sustainable - only using resources and creating pollutants at rates that don’t damage the lives of future generations. It needs to become fairer – instead of channelling so much of the wealth to a handful of powerful people. Crucially, we are all part of the economy - and we all have to change our behaviour if we are to resolve the challenges we face as a society.
Imagine if there were a toolkit that helped us address all these problems. Well that is exactly what we are imagining at Bristol Pound. We’ve been looking beyond the current Bristol Pound model, which was developed 10 years ago in a very different time - a time before contactless, before ApplePay, before crypto, and before the climate emergency had been recognised so widely. We’ve been thinking about what we would do if we started from scratch now. The answer is something quite different. Our vision is still aligned with the original aims of the Bristol Pound - to create a greener, fairer, stronger local economy – but we are designing a new solution. Bristol Pay.
Bristol Pay would be a peer to peer payment platform with e-wallets for all citizens and businesses. But as well as the e-wallets holding money for financial transactions, they could carry a series of tokens. Picture your actual wallet. In it you might have some cash. But alongside that you might have, say, a card from a coffee shop chain for collecting stamps to earn a free coffee, a baby-sitting circle voucher and a trolley token. They all have value, though not exchangeable for sterling. You might have a debit card for spending money, and a Nectar card amassing points for future discounts.
With Bristol Pay, the council would encourage the use of e-wallets for paying local taxes. This would be perhaps partly to save money, as by cutting out the “middle man”, transaction costs would be kept low. But mainly it would be because it would enable citizens and businesses to engage with the tokens they would issue to help them achieve their environmental and social targets. Tokens could be earned, say, by behaviours that help address the 2030 zero carbon target, or encourage informal caring to lessen the demand on adult social care.
Other anchor institutions would also get involved. Bristol Water might have a token scheme to reward water saving. Bristol Waste might have one to reward people for carrying reusable bottles, cups and containers. The local NHS might have one to encourage people to do more exercise.
How would the tokens be used? One example is that they might generate discounts. For example the council could set up a scheme for local independent traders. These traders would offer discounts for tokens, and in turn use them to receive a discount in business rates. In this case, the platform enables a value for money toolkit to encourage people to both adopt more zero carbon behaviours and support the home-grown economy.
There could also be tokens for LETS or time banking projects, like baby-sitting circles, communities sharing DIY tools, or groups of allotment owners swapping produce. Many of these kinds of complementary currencies struggle to survive because of administrative costs. With a shared platform and governance system, there is no reason for these sorts of schemes to fail.
Because the e-wallets would be outside the banking system, we could design them to be truly inclusive. As society becomes increasingly cashless, those who don’t have bank accounts will be left behind if we’re not careful.
Diana Finch
Photo: Ibolya Feher
Finally - all that transaction data? Well instead of it being used to drive unsustainable consumerism through targeted advertising, it could be anonymised and used for good - to help plan the ongoing response to the environmental and social issues we face.
As you can see, we have lots of ideas. Do contact us to add your thoughts to the design process. Thanks!
Diana Finch – diana.finch@bristolpound.org
Website – www.bristolpound.org
Telephone – 0117 929 8642