2021 Sharing Green Economy Organization of the Year: Open Litter Map and Litter Coin

I witnessed something yesterday that was truly amazing. What I was witnessing was history in the making. It was a moment that humanity turned the corner on cleaning up the planet. It was a group of people from around the world defining in real time the new green labor economics of the future on a live Zoom call. These global citizens were engaged in the use of, and the design of a smartphone app called Open Litter Map which uses its own cryptocurrency called LitterCoin. The economics are still at the early stages of what I would fully define as complete Sharing Green Economics (SGE’s) but there are key components of it that are necessary for creating open participation, transparent data, and some kind of reward for doing litter cleanup, either for intrinsic value or monetary incentives. The endeavor is not only sustained by its crypto currency but also through a catalyst and DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) called Cardano. At this point in time, Open Litter Map and Cardano may not have the level of cutting-edge DAO elements, robust governance, and the advanced project-based components that organizations like Hypha DHO and its SEEDS currency have. And, they might not have all of the regenerative and sustainable blockchain pioneering that The Common Stack has. However, the extraordinary green labor relevance of Open Litter Map is in the doing. And the doing starts with Citizen Science. Citizen Science, which is massively underrated, is just the first step towards something greater. Because Open Litter Map is not only about gathering photographic, quantity, type, and location of plastic and other garbage that litter the urban and suburban landscape, but also about picking up, and disposing of the debris. This allows people from all over the world to participate, and this is a game changer for the environment. And, this is what makes Open Litter Map and Litter Coin the 2021 Sharing Green Economy Organization of the Year. Hope and action have arrived. 2022 will be the year that we finally turn the corner on climate change and the environment, because decision makers will finally understand that real change happens when you include people who want to participate.