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Personal Carbon Economy



According to scientific research, even with all the Paris Climate Agreement proposals fully implemented by 2100, humanity is still far away from cre Greger ating a sustainable life. What if we decentralize the carbon offsetting responsibilities and scale it down to the individual level? What if Carbon dioxide can be marketized and monetized in personal scale? What new carbon policies, businesses, and products will emerge?

This project speculates a possible economic model and design interventions into a not so far-fetched near future of personal carbon cap and trade.

Project site: personalcarboneconomy.com 
The challange: 
Build a world structure for 0 carbon


The outcome:
-Carbon policies and departments;
-New carbon currency (Carbon Credit);
-A new economic system based on personal-scale carbon responsibilities 
-Carbon capture tools and lifestyles
-Carbon sharing business (World Carbon Bank);
-More to come...

Skin Farming Jacket

Here is the story of the Personal Carbon Economy future.

With a few decades of effort, regions and countries finally signed the Carbon Agreement and built the Department of Carbon in 2040. Its mission is to use the collective power of individuals to make up the gap between the industry carbon reduction plan and a carbon sustainable life. Those regions released a new currency, called carbon credits, and now add a carbon price to every human activity. In addition, every citizen has a daily carbon cap. If you exceed your carbon cap, you can make up the difference as a monthly payment to the Department of Carbon or offset carbon emissions on your own.

Inventors devote themselves to new carbon sequestration technology research and developing tools to equip people to offset their carbon emissions. CO2 Gadgets Magazine specializes in publishing personal scale carbon sequestration tools, which becomes the number 1 most popular magazine of the year.


CO2 Gadgets Magazine

Instead of paying high carbon bills to the government or offset on your own, people can purchase carbon credits at much lower prices from the World Carbon Bank, an individual carbon exchange platform. It connects you to Individuals and businesses worldwide, who earn extra carbon credits by offsetting carbon dioxide. The World Carbon Bank provides new job opportunities for climate refugees and turns heavy carbon emitting businesses into sustainable ones.




Carbon sustainability has become a value system rather than a purely political behavior. Citizens are prompted to live symbiosis lifestyles with algaes. By Carbon Garden Dress, people cultivate Spirulina using body temperature to offset their carbon emissions, and then harvest Spirulina for nutrition instead of emit more carbon dioxide to buy other food.









In contrast, low-income workers live in this  human-algae symbiotic lifestyle as a side-job for extra income. Citizens are able to recruit workers to wear algae jackets and capture CO2 for them. The matured algae will be recycled by global algae corporations to produce biofuel.






︎Check out the exhibition


CREDITS:
Fashion Designer: Cystal Titus
Graphic Designer: Yangyifan Dong
Photograher: Tengwen Hu, Nino Panes
Book Deisgner: Bonny Guo
Model: Anson Ling, Sarah Weitzman, Sophie Shao, Zachary Garfield, Nino Panes Thanks to all advisors: Sara Dean, Stuart Kendal, Finn Bruntorn (digital currency and economy), Doctor Klaus Lackner (Synthetic Trees carbon absorbing material)

RECOGNITION:

Fast Company World Changing Ideas Awards 2019, Honorable Mention 100 Design of the Year, Award360 & Design360 Magazine

WIRED Japan, Creative Hack Award 2019, Finalist
Core77 Design Awards 2018, Design Concept, Runner UP
San Francisco Design Week Award 2018, Bio-tech Award Winner