Environmental Price Tag – EARTH CURRENCY (ERT)
Emotion on Communication
“There should be 2 price tags: one in money and the other on the environment. It’s upto consumers to decide the value.” – Vanessa Yuan and Joris Vanbriel, ecoBirdyOften, when talking about cost, it goes to one point: where is it made? For example,our products are made in Italy and Belgium. We apply social and environmentalresponsibility at every step of our practice. For every decision we make, the naturalimpact is a concern and priority. The costs then indeed are high but we believe it isworth it because the cost on the environment is low.Also, a more sustainable product is not necessarily more expensive. That’s amisconception.For decades, most industries focused on how to produce faster and cheaper, withoutconsidering the impact on nature and the ‘end-of-life’ of a product. Many technologieswere invented to maximize consumption: sell better, sell more. They might bebeneficial to us (human being’s civilized life) but it’s irresponsible on the environmentif we don’t consider a product’s lifecycle.The words sustainable and sustainability are often used to mislead, and there are noeasy alternatives. We need a clear measurement system, and we must look atsustainability in measurable parts: material, transport, production, packaging andend-of-life.A constructive and accurate measurement system would be helpful to differentiate aproduct’s sustainability – product Life Cycle – from the raw material to the productionprocess, the distribution chain, the post-consumption until recycling (or biodegrading).All of the energy involved could be calculated to get a complete report about thenatural impact of a product on the energy used. The lifecycle analysis (LCA) of aproduct shows in detail the environmental impact of production, logistics, andend-of-life.But this system must include the status of the resources’ availability globally to keepthe balance (mass balance). If all industries replace material A with material B, wewould then face a material B shortage soon, even if the material is sustainable andgrows back easily. There should be a control on overproduction to not break thebalance of our ecosystem.Such a system would also require collaboration between industries, countries, andgovernments. It is a challenge for governments to move interests from growingeconomies to growing natural resources. It would be a dream!To influence the decision-making process in favour of the earth, the EnvironmentalPrice Tag is always displayed together with the Financial Price Tag.A QR code is displayed along with the Earth Currency (ERT) and is linked to all thenecessary information about the environmental impact of the product. Clearlyexplained and traceable.In an era where new digital coins (crypto) appear almost every day, there is a lot ofknowledge about developing tokens and systems to valuate. The knowledge will beapplied to develop a new “Earth Impact Currency” (ERT) that maps all variables andwork on a non-profit basis. This has the advantage that it will fund the developmentand can roll out the implementation on large scale.Then, it’s up to the consumer to value the product based on the financial cost and thecost to the environment.