Questions? Ideas? Dialogue welcome.

The ARK is an open, learning project. If you read the Public Impact Brief and would like to explore or question certain aspects in more depth, we invite you to join our public dialogue. There you can:

• Ask questions to clarify your understanding
• Discuss functions and impact logic
• Contribute ideas, criticism, or suggestions

To the AI-supported dialogue with the ARK crew

Clicking opens a public group chat.

Public Impact Brief

1. Brief overview

The ARK is a social learning, participation, and qualification system that empowers people, communities, and institutions to implement regenerative activities effectively, visibly, and permanently. The ARK connects:

• Education
• Collective action
• Ecological regeneration
• Social and, in the long term, economic recognition

At the heart of it all is a simple but often unresolved question:

How can socially necessary, regenerative activities

be learned, coordinated, and sustained in the long term?

2. Starting point

Many sustainability and education initiatives remain limited because:

• Learning is disconnected from the real world
• Commitment remains project-based and short-lived
• Responsibility is not clearly defined
• Common goods and care work remain invisible

ARK addresses this issue by systematically linking learning, action, responsibility, and recognition.

3. What does “ARK” mean?

ARK describes three interconnected dimensions of impact:

• Activate – activating and empowering people
• Restore – regenerating ecological and social systems
• Know – understanding bioregional, ecological, and cultural contexts

The ARK is therefore not a single tool, but a learning development and action system.

4. Impact Logic & Development Phases

Phase 1 – Learning communities

Goal: Anchoring learning and action locally & connecting isolated institutions and nonprofits purposefully

• Establishing learning and action communities
• Linking education and concrete action
• Utilizing shared best practices

Result: Competence for action, social cohesion, trust, momentum

Phase 2 – Internet of Nature

Goal: Develop bioregional responsibility

• Learning in the real natural and living environment
• Documentation of species, locations, and ecological relationships
• Building bioregional identity

Result: Responsibility for ecological systems beyond individual consumption decisions

Phase 3 – Remuneration for regenerative activities

Goal: Enable new forms of social recognition

• Development of a conditional income model
• Remuneration for verifiable regenerative, social, and educational contributions
• Recognition of:
  • Ecosystem services
  • Common good work
  • Knowledge and care services

Not an unconditional basic income,

but income for socially necessary contributions that remain largely unpaid today

5. Public impact

The social added value of the ARK lies in the revaluation of learning, work, and actions that are valuable for the well-being of us all:

Regenerative activities are no longer considered voluntary extras,

but rather the foundation of sustainable societies.

The ARK in practice

How learning, community, and bioregion interact in concrete terms

The ARK is not scaled through central programs, but through real projects on the ground. Schools, communities, and civil society actors use the ARK to permanently link learning, participation, and ecological responsibility.

6. What kinds of projects are created with the ARK?

ARK projects are place-based learning and participation formats, e.g.:

• Learning and adventure trails on water, biodiversity, or landscape
• School and community projects in public spaces
• Bioregional education formats across community boundaries
• Combinations of analog experiences and digital mapping

Practical examples:

• Womb Waters Ober-Grafendorf (learning in the local community about water bodies, urban nature, and human-nature interaction)
• Interreg Project Mura Calling (cross-border learning about the region, water bodies, ecology, and history)
• Peter Pan in Herzogenburg (learning in the home community about urban nature and history)
• Josef Schöffel Nature Conservation Award (application as an innovative tree register for the protection of old trees)

7. What role does the smartphone play in ARK?

With the ARK, the mobile phone is transformed from a distraction into a learning and design tool:

• Natural and cultural elements are mapped directly on site
• Places, species, stories, and contexts are recorded as points of interest (POIs)
• Photos, observations, and contextual knowledge remain publicly accessible
• Learning combines movement, perception, and digital documentation

The smartphone is not used for consumption, but for an active relationship with one’s own living space.

8. How do schools or communities start an ARK project?

Not with a grand concept, but with a specific location.

Typical starting points:

• a stream, park, schoolyard, or town center
• an ecological or cultural theme
• a school class, project group, or interested community

The entry point is low threshold and grows with experience.

9. How does a project become something permanent?

ARK projects are designed so that:

• Results remain visible, documented, and reusable
• Learning locations are maintained and further developed
• Knowledge is anchored in schools, communities, or regions

The key to this is clearly defined roles and qualifications.

10. Can the functions of ARK be learned in a practical way? (Mentor training)

Yes. The Green Steps association offers compact, practical training courses that teach key functions in approximately 3 hours each:

Learning location mentor training

• Facilitation of learning groups (e.g., school classes, learning locations)
• Designing place-based learning activities
• Using smartphones for mapping and documentation

Community mentor training

• Working with public places and common goods
• Establishing and maintaining learning and adventure trails
• Combining education, participation, and care

Ecoregion mentor training

• Embedding local projects in bioregional contexts
• Connecting several communities or learning locations
• Scaling without centralization

The training courses enable an immediate start to practical work with the ARK.

11. For whom is the ARK particularly relevant?

Schools & educational institutions

• Students as active learners in the real world
• Teachers as mediators or learning location mentors
• Interdisciplinary and cross-curricular teaching
• Connecting schools, communities, and nature

Communities & municipalities

• Education as part of local and regional development
• Meaningful citizen participation
• Maintaining and activating public spaces
• Long-term formats instead of individual projects

Civil society & NGOs

• Visualizing cross-organizational cooperation
• Contributing thematic expertise as a community or eco-region mentor
• Scaling projects with regional impact

Regional networks & initiatives

• Building bioregional identity
• Cooperation across community or institutional boundaries
• Learning along real ecological connections

Applying the ARK means: learning on site, mapping with a smartphone, qualification through roles – and lasting impact.

12. What does Phase 3 (conditional basic income) have to do with education?

Short answer:

Phase 3 builds directly on educational processes – it rewards what learning makes possible: competent, responsible action in the community and in ecosystems.

Education as a prerequisite for Phase 3

In the ARK, education is not preparation for work, but rather:

• Learning how to carry out regenerative activities
• Learning how to maintain common goods
• Learning how to take responsibility in the context of place and bioregion

Without education, there can be no Phase 3.

Phase 3 does not reward participation, but rather verifiable contributions that can only arise through learning processes.

The Logic across all phases 

Phase 1 – Learning by doing

• People learn in real places
• Education becomes practical, collaborative, and visible
• Skills are developed (ecological, social, organizational)

Phase 2 – Learning in the system

• Learners understand bioregional connections
• Knowledge is networked (species, places, patterns)
• Education becomes systemic instead of isolated

Phase 3 – Education becomes socially effective

• What has been learned flows into concrete contributions:
  • Care of ecosystems
  • Educational work
  • Common property management
• These contributions are recognized and remunerated

Phase 3 is therefore not a social measure, but an education-based logic of recognition.

Questions? Ideas? Dialogue welcome.

The ARK develops through dialogue. If you would like to explore content in greater depth, critically question it, or contribute your own perspectives, we invite you to become part of the public impact dialogue.

To the AI-supported dialogue with the ARK crew

Clicking opens a public group chat.