Novus, a UK-based neobank has launched a new feature within their banking app that shows users carbon emission calculations alongside their bank transactions, in collaboration with fintech company ecolytiq and payment-processing giant Visa. This service provides banking customers with more transparency and control over their spending based on each purchase made using a Visa card. Novus is the first bank in the UK to implement ecolytiq's latest "Sustainability-as-a-Service solution", setting a new bar for the future of sustainable banking in the country.
ecolytiq leverages its 25 transaction categories and over 1200 subcategories, as well as its enormous database of collaborative research and publicly available emissions data, to arrive at their country-specific carbon emission estimations. However, it still faces a key issue in that banking transactions provide very little data on what was actually bought. For example, a Tesco transaction could range anywhere from fossil fuels to fresh domestically-grown fruits making the task of calculating emissions difficult. To address this issue ecolytiq has implemented ecoEngage, a feature designed to refine the carbon computations using integrated feedback loops where customers provide information about their spending habits. For example, the app may ask you how many kilos of meat products you buy during your weekly shop. These principles are then contextualised using Comparables and Insights to help Novus customers alter spending habits toward more sustainable expenditure giving them control of the far-reaching climate repercussions of their purchases at no extra cost.
But is carbon footprinting that important? Yes. At least the science seems to think so. Our understanding of effective ways to mobilise consumers to mitigate climate change is gradually improving as more research on consumer behaviour is conducted. However, the current consensus is that most consumers are incapable of determining which behaviour changes are actually making a difference. That's why in a recent paper titled Consumer behavior and climate change researchers at Aarhus University deemed that "most [of the] focus should be on making climate-friendly behaviour the easy behaviour, by securing a correct reflection of carbon footprint [making] climate-friendly products compare favourably to unfriendly alternatives".
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