The city of Seoul has come up with a rewards program that’s encouraging households to cut the air conditioning and turn off the lights
When Hong Tae-young received a text message from the government of Seoul, she was worried it might be a parking fine. But rather than asking her for money, the city was giving a ₩50,000 ($43) reward for reducing her household carbon emissions as part of South Korea’s “EcoMileage” scheme.
Hong, 38, had forgotten she signed up for the program which rewards the energy-saving measures of its members with redeemable points to spend on energy-efficient products.
“I found out about it by chance. There was a campaign stand near where my family was having a picnic,” said Hong, who signed up to join the ranks of two million other Seoulites subscribing to EcoMileage since its inception in 2009.
After several months, the stay-at-home mother of two had enough points to spend on a solar panel. She made saving energy into a family activity. Her kids turned off lights. The air conditioning was on only for the hottest, most humid days.
“The kids said I was overly enthusiastic, but when we got our second gift certificate, they felt it had paid off,” said Hong. “I was excited to have the extra money.”
EcoMileage is simple. Cut your household water, gas, or electricity consumption by more than 10 percent and earn points to spend on energy-saving products like LED bulbs and public transit cards. The points, which are trackable online, are only awarded if you beat your previous year’s consumption for the same period—and with an EcoMileage credit card, they can be spent or else converted into cash.
“We needed a campaign to shape the pattern of energy consumption at its root,” said a City Hall official who helps to manage EcoMileage. He added that households generate up to 70 percent of greenhouse emissions in Seoul.
Rarely does a shop in Seoul not offer loyalty points of some sort, a fact of life in consumer-hungry South Korea. But with EcoMileage, people can now get points simply for turning off the lights or replacing tungsten lights with LED bulbs. When EcoMileage users living in the same apartment building collectively reduce their energy use, the city awards the building up to ₩12 million to spend on energy-efficient upgrades.
“EcoMileage has made me pay attention to things I never use to bother about,” said Hong, the housewife. “I’m more careful about separating my recyclables. I’m more conscious of how many plastic bags I use.”
From 2010 to 2013, EcoMileage users like Hong reduced their carbon emissions by 686,599 tonnes, according to a Seoul Metropolitan City survey—1.5 percent of Seoul’s carbon emissions in 2010, equivalent to 98 million trees.
It never used to be like this. Today, half of South Korea’s fifty million citizens live in or around Seoul, but until the first half of the 20th century, the city was still a sprawl of old thatched houses. The lightning development which followed the 1950-53 Korean War helped transform South Korea into one of the world’s richest countries.
Such a rapid rise came at a cost. The average temperature of the earth rose by 0.74 °C from 1908 to 2007, according to the OECD. Within that period, the average temperature in Seoul increased by 2.4 °C—three times the global figure.
The EcoMileage team, six City Hall officials, first targeted students to raise awareness of the scheme among younger age groups before using kiosks like the one that attracted Hong.
EcoMileage operates on just ₩5.3 billion a year, most of which comes from a Seoul City budget of around ₩600 billion. Samsung, LG and Hyundai are some of the private companies that help subsidize the scheme by funding the redeemable rewards.
But the system, although creative, is not perfect. The program’s manager said there had been “questions” about its longevity; an annual 10 percent reduction in household energy consumption cannot last forever.
Next year, however, the project will increase its incentives with exponentially higher rewards for people who reduce emissions by more than 15 percent, and lower rewards for people who don’t reach 10 percent.
Tapping into consumer instincts also comes at a price. If the long-term goal is to change the way Seoulites think about energy consumption, short-term incentives may not have a long shelf life. “People are more interested in what rewards they can get,” said the City Hall official, maintaining that even if people learn to cut their household emissions, they might not appreciate the dangers of climate change.
“In three to four years, the Seoul government will need to overhaul the whole system,” he said. “The amount we need to budget is on the rise, which puts us under financial pressure. We are trying to encourage the budget-setters to back us, by showing them what EcoMileage can do.”
It may have its flaws, but tangible reductions in carbon emissions for a two-million person subscriber base indicates that EcoMileage can work. And what’s worked in Seoul could also work in New York, where officials have listed EcoMileage as a “Best Practice” within its comprehensive online “Innovation Exchange” bank.
Hong, the EcoMileage user, said that although she had found it hard to keep reducing her energy consumption, the scheme has encouraged her to be more environmentally-minded.
“My world view has changed,” she said. “Sure, we get our gift certificates, but there’s a more rewarding side.”
By Sofia Lee
