I found the full “White Paper” PDF for Green Steps ARK (titled White Paper – version 03, Oct 2021) on ResearchGate and can summarize its key ideas. (ResearchGate)
📄 Core Purpose & Vision
The ARK is a gamified social network and educational platform designed to support bottom-up climate change adaptation and sustainability by strengthening local communities, encouraging environmental stewardship, and fostering behavioral change. It aims to drive “triple health” — personal, environmental, and community well-being — using technology and a scalable social business model. (ResearchGate)
🧭 What ARK Actually Is
- Name meaning: Activate body & mind, Restore the environment, Know your bioregion.
- Core concept: A structured, step-by-step learning journey for individuals and communities with
- a gamified learning interface,
- a global collaborative best-practice library, and
- community projects tied to real-world ecosystem stewardship. (ResearchGate)
📊 Major Strategic Goals / Project Phases
The white paper breaks down the ARK mission into three strategic phases that align with specific United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): (ResearchGate)
1. Strengthening Local Communities
- Builds small impact communities as the foundational units of global social change.
- Utilizes gamified learning about education for sustainable development to connect people and raise ecological awareness.
- Supports SDGs 4 (Quality Education) and 17 (Partnerships for the Goals) by facilitating collective learning and collaboration. (ResearchGate)
2. Pioneer the “Internet of Nature”
- Creates planetary-scale connections through stewardship of commons (shared ecosystems like forests, watersheds, parks).
- Encourages development of bioregional identities — fostering deeper place-based ecological understanding and responsibility.
- Ties into SDG 13 (Climate Action) by driving planetary health through engaged learning and community stewardship. (ResearchGate)
3. Ecosystem Service Remuneration & Conditional UBI
- Proposes a meritocratic ecosystem service remuneration model where contributions to ecological stewardship generate economic value.
- Envisions conditional universal basic income (UBI) tied to measurable ecosystem service contributions.
- Aims to address wealth distribution under SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities) by creating new economic incentives for ecological care. (ResearchGate)
🧠 Platform Features
While I haven’t extracted the entire PDF (due to content access limits), the abstract and description indicate these core features of the ARK platform: (ResearchGate)
- Gamification to make learning engaging and behavior-changing.
- Collaborative library where facilitators and educators share best practices.
- Community building tools for offline and online connection.
- Technology-supported learning paths tailored to local environments (bioregions).
🌍 Underlying Philosophy
The ARK white paper presents a holistic philosophy that blends: (ResearchGate)
- Environmental science (terrestrial bioregions and ecosystems),
- Social education and learning theory (behavioral change and community discourse),
- Technological scalability for widespread adoption, and
- Economic innovation through ecosystem-centric value models like meritocratic remuneration.
📌 In Summary
The Green Steps ARK White Paper proposes an ambitious educational and social platform that:
- harnesses technology + gamification to promote sustainability,
- builds local communities with global ecological impact,
- fosters bioregional awareness, and
- explores new economic models that reward ecological stewardship globally. (ResearchGate)