Lifeworth Consulting » community currencies

Learn about alternative currencies and exchange systems for sustainability

Jem Bendell — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 09:59:44 +0000

Enabling the more efficient exchange and sharing of products and services, in order to increase human well-being while reducing the consumption of natural resources, is a key dimension to the sustainability transition. A less understood dimension of this challenge is the role of alternative currencies and exchange systems in enabling that efficiency. On Al Jazeera’s episode on the banking crisis last week I explained the role of such systems to help businesses and communities trade during recessionary times. Their potential role in helping the sustainability transition been recognised by the European Union in its initiative to establish a research and policy agenda for sustainable lifestyles. It is the right time for more companies, NGOs, consultants and policy makers to understand how they can engage in alternative currencies and exchange systems. Three events we are involved with in Greece, Sweden and UK in the next 3 months will give some additional insight.

In the First Policy Brief of the EU’s ‘SPREAD Sustainable Lifestyles’ project, they identified five pivotal issues for sustainable lifestyles. One of these is “the emergence of non-monetary systems: reward schemes, alternative currencies and the principle of reciprocity to incentivize people to rethink the value of services and goods in terms of their actual costs and benefits.” It recommends “a Toolbox for change makers” to “enable the transition” that should include “alternative currencies and reward schemes..”*

There is a growing sense that we are on the cusp of disruptive innovation in sustainable exchange, as EU SPREAD notes, “web and mobile technologies can play a critical role in building large-scale, sharing communities for the future.”* Data from the NGO I advise, Community Forge, show a significant uptake in the last 2 years, with now 400 currencies using its free open source software and 130 fully hosted on its servers.

If you are interested in these areas, then I recommend attending one of the following events in the coming months:

Sweden, 24^th August: a short workshop on community currencies with myself and Matthew Slater. Contact the organisers of Future Perfect for more information.

Greece, 10^th and 11^th October: a 2 day workshop on community currencies with best selling author and expert Thomas Greco, myself, Matthew Slater and innovators of local currencies in Greece. Contact the organisers of the European Sustainability Academy for more information.

UK, 30^th and 31^th October: a talk and then half day workshop on community currencies with Thomas Greco, at the Lancaster Campus of the University of Cumbria. Contact the organisers at Transition City Lancaster for more information (email: th@ reliablegreenweb.co.uk)

Later this year, at the University of Cumbria, I will be launching a trans-disciplinary programme of research, dialogue and training on alternative currencies and exchange systems, and how they might enable a sustainability transition. If you are interested in this agenda, Id be pleased to hear from you (jb at lifeworth . com).You can also follow tweets on this topic via https://twitter.com/jembendell

Thanks,

Jem Bendell

Director, Lifeworth

Professor of Sustainability Leadership, University of Cumbria (Incoming, Oct 2012)

* Quotes from: Emerging Visions for Future Sustainable Lifestyles. Preliminary policy considerations from the SPREAD Sustainable Lifestyles 2050 European Social Platform project. Developing pathways to more sustainable living. First Policy Brief, February 2012

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sick of the financial crisis? Become the cure!

Jem Bendell — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 18:59:16 +0000

Around the world, and somewhere near you, businesses and communities are creating their own means of exchange. They are realising we do not need to rely on banks and their costly credit to trade among ourselves. Your company and your community could benefit by participating in these schemes, or by starting one up.

In the coming months, Lifeworth, in association with the world’s leading provider of free open source software for community currencies, is co-running workshops at major sustainability events in Sweden and Greece, and lecturing on this topic in Australia. Scroll down to see details on the events nearest to you. A crisis is an opportunity for a new system to emerge, if we make it so!

Sweden

At the Future Perfect festival in Stockholm, world-leaders in sustainable enterprise, science, design, and media will gather at a world-class summer music festival on 23-26 August.

At Future Perfect, we (Lifeworth Consulting) are hosting a panel on monetary reforms and innovations for sustainability, and a workshop for executives who want to start, scale or participate in alternative means of exchange.

Panel: “Currencies of Transition: monetary reforms and innovations for sustainability.”

Chair: Professor Jem Bendell (Lifeworth Consulting, Community Forge and Griffith Business School)
Ben Dyson, director of Positive Money, which campaigns for a systemic solution to monetary crises, by full reserve banking.
Josh Ryan Collins, New Economics Foundation, the Brixton Pound and co-author of “Where does money come from?”
Lynnea Bylund, Board Member, Ormita, the international business barter network.
Matthew Slater, Board Member, Community Forge, a leading provider of open source software for community currencies, and editor of Community Currency magazine.

The panel will address the questions: Is a fair and sustainable economy possible with our debt-driven money system? If not, what needs to change? What is being done already? What can we do to get involved, personally and professionally? How can we make this a movement? What mistakes can we avoid?

Workshop: “How alternative exchange systems work and how to get started”
Trainers: Professor Jem Bendell and Matthew Slater
The trainers work with Community Forge, which provides free open source software for community currencies. This video explains why, what and how Community Forge operates.

To book your tickets to the festival, visit http://www.futureperfect.se

Greece

In Greece right now there is an exciting air of change and thirst for new ideas and innovations. On the 10th October Lifeworth’s Jem Bendell will co-lead a half day seminar with Matthew Slater of CommunityForge.net on creating and participating in alternative exchange systems and community currencies. They will be joined by Greeks who are pioneering these solutions to the current crisis. On the 11th, Matthew Slater will offer a software training for those wanting to implement a local currency.

The seminars are part of a 2 week sustainable business summit to launch the new European Sustainability Academy in Crete. Information on the final days of the summit, including these workshops on alternative exchange systems, is here. Contact the European Sustainability Academy for more information or to book.

Australia

“Currencies for the Sustainability Transition” is a speech that Professor Jem Bendell will give in Brisbane at the Necessary Transition Conference at Griffith Business School, on the 26th-28th September. Contact the centre for more information on tickets.

Collaborative Consumption and Beyond

Jem Bendell — Wed, 09 May 2012 19:54:58 +0000

Do you have a car pool at work? Car-sharing revenues in North America have been predicted to reach US$3.3 billion by 2016. There are many start-ups in this field, including Zipcar, which floated last year for US $174M. Enabling the more efficient exchange and sharing of products and services, in order to increase human well-being while reducing the consumption of natural resources, is a key dimension to the sustainability transition. The increasing penetration of the internet means new systems of exchanging and sharing products and services, are growing, in many areas. Facebook’s CEO has even emphasised the potential for developing new sharing enterprises as key to its future financial success, after floatation.

These developments in “collaborative consumption” bring a new dimension to the existing forms of alternative exchange systems, such as business barter networks or countertrade agreements, and community currency systems that help connect underused assets with unmet needs. Countertrade accounts for around 20% of world trade, while one national barter network now involves 1 in 5 small or medium sized companies in Switzerland, amounting to over US$1.5 billion a year. The new sphere of peer-to-peer financial-lending has taken off, and predicted to reach US$5 billion next year. It appears to be a time of disruptive innovation through new forms of sharing, exchanging, renting and co-owning.

Some of these activities are important to sustainable development, and, therefore, to the broad field of responsible enterprise (whether we label our work corporate social responsibility, sustainable business, social enterprise, shared value, responsible or impact investment, or some other term). For business executives to contribute to a positive sustainability outcome from these developments requires enhanced understanding of how to explore ways to become involved, including by adapting their own business models.

Which means there is an educational need, for those of us interested in enabling the sustainability transition. Lifeworth Consulting is conducting research on these developments, for presentation in July at the EABIS colloquium at IMD (in Lausanne), and in September at the Necessary Transition conference at GBS (in Brisbane). So, if you are currently employed, and would like to receive the results of this research, please participate in our 5 minute survey, it would really help:

http://www.lifeworth.com/survey-responsible-enterprise-collaborative-consumption

Please, click that link!

Thanks, Jem Bendell

Lifeworth founder and Adjunct Professor @ GBS