Episode 10 - Creating Greener and Healthier Communities with Stephen McPeake

Where Does It Come From? How our ’stuff’ impacts people and planet

Most of us do want to live greener, healthier lives but sometimes it just takes a little nudge.

Civic Dollars works in partnership with local councils and businesses to incentivise citizens to get out into parks and local spaces - with rewards such as vouchers or discounts. Yes it really is as simple as a walk in the park!

In this episode Jo Salter, Where Does It Come From? podcast host and founder of the ethical clothing brand of the same name, talks with Stephen McPeake. Stephen is CEO & Founder of Civic Dollars, a health based community currency that is being used to improve public health and wellbeing by incentivising greater use of local open spaces.

Stephen has been working on Smart City technology for the last 9 years and on the theory behind Civic Dollars since 2018. Using research and expertise from universities and corporations on nudge theory and digitising community currencies he has developed a platform that can provide a multi faceted nudge solution to improve public health.

Civic Dollars launched in Belfast in June 2021 and will go live in Leeds, Dublin and other UK cities later in the year.

Find out more at:

Civic Dollars - https://civicdollars.com/

Local media coverage - https://www.ulstertatler.com/2021/07/earning-civic-dollars-is-a-walk-in-the-park/

Here's links to the research from the team at Queen’s University Belfast’s Centre of Excellence for Public Health that Stephen mentions in the discussion -

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12889-018-6305-9

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mark-Tully/publication/267784802_The_Physical_Activity_Loyalty_Card_Scheme_Development_and_Application_of_a_Novel_System_for_Incentivizing_Behaviour_Change/links/54b7f49e0cf28faced60fbef/The-Physical-Activity-Loyalty-Card-Scheme-Development-and-Application-of-a-Novel-System-for-Incentivizing-Behaviour-Change.pdf

https://www.qub.ac.uk/research-centres/CentreofExcellenceforPublicHealthNorthernIreland/Research/PhysicalActivityResearch/ThePALStudy/

Where Does It Come From? - https://www.wheredoesitcomefrom.co.uk/