The City of Differdange is implementing a pilot project to reduce CO2 emissions linked to mobility, starting with the employees of the municipal administration. Called MobiDiff, it is based on the survcoin, an alternative currency issued as a reward for proven efforts to reduce the carbon footprint. The aim is to encourage the employees of the Differdange administration (+/- 800 people) to use soft mobility, whether on foot, by bike, by train or by bus, to make daily journeys from home- work.
Employees who choose to participate are rewarded in survcoins based on their individual contribution to reducing CO2 emissions. The core goal of the project is to increase the use of soft mobility among employees for their commuting, in order to reduce the high emissions caused by the use of private cars and traffic jams. The City Council is also counting on the positive impact on health of increased use of active mobility.
Users can spend survcoins they earned and accumulated in their electronic wallet with local businesses that are partners of the project: organic food products, coffee or sandwiches in participating cafes, flowers, plants, clothing items, bike maintenance …
The Commune of Differdange supports this decarbonising loop by reimbursing shop owners who participate in the pilot. If these rewards represent a real incentive to adopt walking, cycling or public transport for one's daily commutes, the pilot project nevertheless plans to encourage MobiDiff users to adopt sustainable behaviours favorable to climate through events (competitions, challenges and other gamified scenarios) focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, MobiDiff is meant to become a community committed to climate action.
The initiative of the municipality of Differdange, Luxembourg's third city, to implement the survcoin is part of its efforts in terms of climate action, in particular within the framework of Climate Pact and the European NetZeroCities project, in which it participates. It is also a question of responding to the problem of parking in the city center, in particular around the town hall.
MobiDiff is currently in beta phase, with about thirty users, in order to guarantee the proper functioning of the mobile application. Over the coming months, we will in a first phase scale the project to include all the municipality employees of Differdange, and in a second phase include everyone living, working and stuying in Differdange.
Check our support page dedicated to MobiDiff, where you will find video tutorials and our FAQ.
