Schools have, for years, used poster-boards with children's name on them, with columns in which sticker stars are placed. When children do something good, a star is added. Everyone always sees who has the most stars. We should do this with adults.
It could be a government run website that gives stars
for recycling batteries, newspapers, tin cans, etc. You could also get stars for tutoring children who are struggling with reading in schools, or even adopting children.
Sure, people shouldn't do good behavior, JUST because they will get recognition, but that doesn't mean they should not get it.
People who don't care about recognition will keep doing it, and others will try and get the most stars. Another benefit of this, is socially concise people could date only those with 5 or more stars, if they wanted.
I think that these stars would be good goals to work for.