About Green Dollars

Green Dollars is an alternative trading system

Wairarapa Green Dollars was formed in 1991. The mission of the Wairarapa Green Dollar Exchange Inc is to facilitate the exchange of local goods and services amongst the Wairarapa community, using a complementary mutual credit currency. Our aim is to strengthen local community and social climate.

Origins of the Wairarapa Green Dollars L.E.T.S. System

The Wairarapa Exchange began in 1991 offering a LETS service (Local Employment & Trading System) to members. Markets were held in members' gardens every month or so and "chits" (cheques) were collected and processed by an administrator using a local computer database.

In 2006 the Wairarapa Exchange joined CES and moved the database on-line, where members can log on from either a desktop or a smartphone and enter their own transactions and maintain their own lists of offerings and wants. CES is a public domain exchange system, meaning that it is run by those who use it to trade and not by any entity with interests separate from the communities in which it operates. In 2008 the Exchange launched the WAIS Voucher Scheme. These Vouchers enable the whole Wairarapa Community the opportunity to use a community currency.

Wais Alternative Currency and the Local Employment and Training System (L.E.T.S)

L.E.T.S. is a system of barter or trading which uses locally created currency between members to value their trading. The unit of exchange is called WAIS, which equals, more or less, the NZ$ in value. WAIS are a measure of trading between members. They're recorded in members’ accounts and may be held in the form of WAIS Vouchers. L.E.T.S. was designed by Michael Linton in the early 1980s on Vancouver Island, Canada, as a response to high unemployment in the community and to give value to people's skills when federal dollars became scarce. Now it exists more for other reasons, such as an antidote to globalisation, enhancing identification with local community, providing a sustainable economic trading system and valuing people's skills that are not frequently honoured in the conventional cash system. The main feature is that wealth created by trading and using WAIS stays right in the community. WAIS is complementary to the conventional economy.

WAIS:

• is available to anyone who wants to work
• is better than a barter system
• there are no risks
• you can trade with many people
• is good for your community
• is available to anyone who has a skill or goods someone else needs
• creates jobs by giving credit
• works alongside the Kiwi dollar
• creates wealth which circulates locally interest free

FAQ's: WAIS CURRENCY VOUCHERS

The WAIS Voucher Project was established to build economic resilience by supporting local businesses and producers, reducing our carbon footprint and helping unemployed and underemployed people. It will raise awareness about the way we spend money and the fact that a voucher spent locally keeps building wealth as it circulates, instead of leaking out to the global economy. WAIS Vouchers are a complementary currency for the Wairarapa, like a gift voucher or a book token: A 1 WAIS voucher (worth 1 NZ dollar) that can only be redeemed at locally owned participating stores.
The mechanism works as follows:

You buy the currency in one of the issuing outlets, receive it in change or (for Wairarapa LETS members) withdraw it from your account.

You spend the currency in any of the accepting outlets including WAIS markets.
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How do you spend it?

You can spend the WAIS Vouchers in any of the participating outlets. However, it can also be used for any payments within the Wairarapa community if the recipient is willing to accept them. So feel free to use them to pay for any goods or services, as gifts or pocket money or any other way that seems to make sense! Shops are encouraged to pay their local suppliers with it as well as their employees if the employees are willing to accept it. It should then be treated as a taxable benefit.

Is it legal?

It is legal as a voucher, but it is not legal tender. This means that there is no obligation to accept it and it will only be accepted in participating outlets. From a tax perspective, anything paid for in WAIS Vouchers is accounted for in the same way as a NZ dollars.

Where can I buy it?

You can buy the WAIS Vouchers two issuing outlets so far;
The Wairarapa Green Dollar Exchange office in the Wairarapa Community Centre, 170 Dixon Street, Masterton.
At any Wairarapa Green Dollar market.

Where can I spend it?

You can spend it in any of the participating stores. These stores will indicate on their shop window whether they take WAIS Vouchers. The participating stores are listed on this website.

Is it safe?

Each WAIS Voucher is printed in high quality on distinctive paper with, serial numbers and other security features. How do you keep it in circulation? By using it! As change, to pay local traders, suppliers, employees or even friends, to make charitable donations to local organisations, etc..

Isn't this just going to appeal to Leftists?

Probably "yes" at the outset, but as the Vouchers become better known and more commonly used, it will spread throughout the Wairarapa community. Also, WAIS Vouchers will be given to individuals and charities as gifts, which will ensure wider use. Complementary currencies really come in to their own as social support mechanisms during economic recession, times of inflation and unemployment.

Isn't it just silly money which won't make a difference?

Initially, it won't make a difference from an economic perspective, as the number of WAIS Vouchers released is minimal compared to the size of the Wairarapa economy. However, it will start raising awareness about the broader underlying issues and as result help Wairarapa residents understand some of the challenges we are facing and the benefits of a focus on local resilience. In the longer-term, when WAIS Vouchers prove to be successful, they will have a much bigger impact as more Vouchers are released in the community, similar to the situation the US county of Berkshare where over $1.5 Million have been issued or the WIR in Switzerland which is used by 16% of Swiss businesses.

Is this going to replace the dollar?

No, it is a complementary currency, not an alternative currency. The aim of it is to ensure that we emphasise the availability and quality of locally produced goods and locally owned businesses, without turning away from the benefits that a more globalised economy can also bring.

Will the introduction of WAIS Vouchers have an inflationary effect?

No, as there is no additional currency added to the total pool because for each WAIS voucher that is brought into circulation either a NZ dollar or a WAIS(LETS Green) Dollar is taken out of circulation.

Why use it if I can only spend it in local shops as there are a lot of products I can only get in chain stores?

There are some products that are more likely to be found in chains, but you would be surprised at the quantity and quality of products available in local shops. And contrary to popular belief, local shops are not necessarily more expensive. Also you can use WAIS Vouchers where you can and save your NZ$ for where you can't. Why not give it a try?

Why isolate ourselves?

We're not isolating ourselves but we're building resilience from the environmental and economic challenges ahead while strengthening our community. We still welcome many aspects of the national and global economies, without which we would not be able to thrive as a community.

Is the Wairarapa doing this alone?

The Wairarapa is one of a growing number of communities creating their own currency. There's nothing new about complementary currencies, and there are hundreds of them in circulation around the world. We are incubating ideas for our region and other communities to copy and adapt for their own community resilience during times of economic change.

Members Handbook

Members receive a free printed copy of this book. Click here to open a .pdf copy of our 2013 printed handbook.

The Current Green Dollars Committee as of November 2024

Chairman Hayden McGrail
Secretary Person Uno       Treasurer Second Person
Newsletter Editor Person The third
Website Administrator AJ Hunter

Committee Members
Another Chap     

A gallery of images of showing the activities of Green Dollars. Click any image to see a larger version. Click within the image anywhere to close it.

Green Dollars currency can be redeemed for goods and services supplied by Green Dollars merchants.

Green Dollars Guardian Helen Dew

Wais Traders Logo 2023

Green Dollars merchandise

Green Dollars merchandise

Green Dollars merchandise

Green Dollars merchandise

LINKS AND AFFILIATED ORGANISATIONS

• CES Login - Members login
• CES Mobile Login - Simplified login for small devices
• Community- Exchange - Our CES on-line database where members manage their own accounts.
• WAIS Blog - Our blog for fresh WAIS news.
• Wairarapa Timebank
• Lyttelton Timebank Lyttelton Timebank
• Real Solutions - Kiwis building resilience in local communities.
• Living Economies - An educational network offering communities alternatives to money.
  
• Wai Not Go Green? - For Wairarapa Folks Passionate About Cleaning Up This Earth.
• BerkShares Inc BerkShares are a local currency for the Berkshire region of Massachusetts.
• E F Schumacher Society The Schumacher Center for New Economics works with local currencies.
• Lewes Pound A local currency used in Southern England.
• Wikipedia - About LETS

Click on the PDF icons below to either view the chosen PDF document in your browser, or download it to read later.

Newsletters

Copies of the Green Dollars Newsletter, from Dec 1990 until the present.

Green Dollars Newsletter December 1990

Green Dollars Newsletter May 1991

Green Dollars Newsletter June 1991

Green Dollars Newsletter July 1991

Green Dollars Newsletter August 1991

Green Dollars Newsletter September 1991

WAISwords October 1991.pdf

Other documents:

Misc

Miscellaneous documents that don't fit in to the preceding categories.