This environmental currency is coming to DC

As consumers, the cost of our impact to the environment is “out of sight, out of mind,” said My Drop in the Oceans founder David French.”It’s very abstract, it’s very far.”
“Our proposition is to create a new [complementary] economic system,” he explained, that would internalize our environmental costs by rewarding sustainable purchases and making environmentally damaging products more pricey.

We need to have companies show a willingness to reward sustainable actions.

French was speaking at the Impact Hub DC Friday to pitch a new environmental currency called DIO to local stakeholders and businesses, in between meetings with local and federal officials.
Each unit of the currency is meant to represent “a dividend to each global citizen based on the value of nature,” he explained.
The currency is already in circulation in Geneva: there, a handful of businesses have agreed to let customers pay up to 5 percent of the price of purchase in DIOs.
Last year, My Drop in the Oceans distributed 10,000 luxury brand-inspired “Le Tri C’est Chic” bags to the denizens of Geneva, along with 45 Swiss Francs (about $49) worth of DIOs. That was their reward for collectively recycling 45 percent of their household waste.
Now the currency is coming to D.C., and all local businesses are invited to participate. “We need to have companies show a willingness to reward sustainable actions,” said French.
To join, businesses are invited to sign up on the platform. If they accept the DIO tender, they will offer rebates of up to five percent on their products, which will help inject the currency into the broader economy.
French said he chose D.C. as the currency’s second city because it can offer a bigger bang to the DIO.
D.C. brings together the private, public and NGO sectors — all important players in the fight for sustainability, French explained. “Washington, D.C. is a hub for global politics.”
The DIOs will be live here by the end of the year, he said.