Abstract

The massive destruction of the natural environment is rapidly eroding the world’s capacity to provide food and water, threatening the security of billions of people. In order to facilitate green lifestyles – understood in terms of both pro-environmental behaviors and green self-image on the one hand, and to build sustainable local and global communities, on the other, we put forward an idea of a novel action-reward system based on an application solution, namely Greencoin. In this paper, the framework of the pilot system, underpinning its earnings and value, is introduced. The novelty of the Greencoin system is in introducing an application adjusted to the local needs, that is, based on gamification and aims at encouraging, facilitating and rewarding citizens who undertake pro-environmental actions. In this context, we have formulated and answered two research questions, namely: what practical pro-environmental activities an individual can practice and evidence, as well as what rewards can be offered to an individual for performing such activities in the Greencoin application. To explore these topics, we adopted the literature review (along with the content analysis) method as the methodology for the research. The results concern a broad and multifaceted review of the literature on individual pro-environmental behavior through multiple disciplinary and subject-matter lenses, outlining the corresponding system of rewarding its participants (citizens) with non-monetary and monetary benefits that are to be used in the Greencoin pilot. The study contributes to the topic of smart cities, in particular digital and mobile eco-innovations, resulting in significant progress toward the goal of sustainable development by promoting and facilitating a more efficient and responsible use of natural resources.

Authors (3)