Copenhagen’s official tourist board Wonderful Copenhagen on Monday announced the launch of “CopenPay”, a new scheme which allows the city’s visitors – as well as locals – to transform green actions into currency for cultural experiences.

Actions such as cycling, participating in cleanup efforts, or volunteering at urban farms can now give access to Copenhagen experiences including complimentary guided museum tours, free kayak rentals, and a vegetarian lunch made from local produce, Wonderful Copenhagen said in a press release.

The project will run during Copenhagen’s high season from the July 15th to August 11th.

Participating attractions and organisations include the National Museum, National Gallery of Denmark, Museum of Copenhagen, running club Sparta, Green Kayak, Copenhill, and the Donkey Republic bicycle rental platform. A full list can be found here.

The aim of the scheme is to “inspire visitors to make conscious green choices and help bridge the large gap between the desire to act sustainably and their actual behaviour,” Wonderful Copenhagen said in the press release.

“We want visitors to make conscious, green choices and hopefully end up getting even better experiences while they visit. Through CopenPay we therefore aim to incentivize tourists’ sustainable behaviour while enriching their cultural experience of our destination,” the tourism organisation’s CEO Mikkel Aarø-Hansen said.

“It is an experimental and a small step towards creating a new mindset amongst travellers and one among many initiatives we are doing to make travelling more sustainable,” he added.

Under the scheme, actions such as cycling, participating in cleanup efforts, or volunteering at urban farms can be redeemed for participating experiences. Some 24 attractions are currently participating, as shown on the CopenPay website. 

To take advantage of the offers, visitors must provide proof of the redeemable “green action” – for example, by presenting a rail ticket at the entrance or arriving on a bicycle.

“We must turn tourism from being an environmental burden into a force for positive change, and one important step in this transformation is to change how we move around on the destination, what we consume, and how we interact with the locals. With CopenPay we want travellers as well as local attractions to focus on the change and the choices we need to make” Aarø-Hansen said.

The scheme was praised by the Danish capital’s mayor, Sophie Hæstorp-Andersen.

““I am thrilled to see an initiative like CopenPay that combines our rich cultural life with a strong commitment to sustainability. By converting green actions into currency for cultural experiences, tourists are given a unique opportunity to explore Copenhagen in a way that benefits both the environment and the local community. This aligns perfectly with our values and ambitions to promote sustainable solutions in Copenhagen,” she said in the Wonderful Copenhagen press release.

Some 82 percent of tourists say they want to act sustainably but only 22 percent change their behaviour in line with this, according to the 2023 Kantar Sustainability Index.