Banks have been pledging to get greener for a while, but consumers who have had little to actively link their payments to climate action now are putting apps in a prime postion.

Apart from long-standing support with charity donations, such as to the WWF, people's actual spending has been disconnected from the green world. Some things are changing though, recently Mastercard has made pledges on the environment, a new payment app, ekko, is now aiming to be the first UK fintech to join the Mastercard Priceless Planet Coalition and US-based Bank of the West, a subsidiary of BNP Paribas, has partnered with environmental organisation 1% for the Planet.

The latest offering is from ekko, with every five transactions a customer makes paying for one plastic bottle being collected before it enters our oceans and every 50 transactions paying for a tree to be planted by the customer. Customers can track their own personal forest, how many bottles they’ve collected and even monitor their own personalised carbon footprint using their Carbonmeter in the ekko app.

ekko have partnered with Mastercard to launch the debit card and will become the first UK fintech to join the Mastercard Priceless Planet Coalition, launched last year with a commitment to plant 100 million trees by 2025.

Mastercard has also pledged to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 at the beginning of the year with Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) approval for its GHG goals.

In the US, Bank of the West, a subsidiary of BNP Paribas, has partnered with environmental organisation 1% for the Planet in this latest move to support a more sustainable planet through policies and investment. It has already restricted the financing of fossil fuels, ‘big’ tobacco, palm oil and other activities harmful to the planet.

The real change here is that consumers can actively track, using an app, the link between their spending actions and the environment – a concept that is likely expand greatly in the coming years.

Share Story: