Commonwealth Bank has announced an Australian banking first by providing personalised carbon footprints for customers based on their spending data in a partnership with fintech start-up CoGo.
The first phase of the partnership will allow a select group of retail customers to view their carbon footprint via the CommBank app and offset their previous month’s transactions by purchasing carbon credits. This new feature will be available to all retail customers next year.
As the relationship with CoGo deepens, this will expand to include select small business customers and we expect that customers will soon be able to see a breakdown of their emissions by month and category, and eventually at an individual transaction level.
Angus Sullivan, Commonwealth Bank Group Executive said: “By combining our rich customer data and CoGo’s industry-leading capability in measuring carbon outputs, we will be able to provide greater transparency for customers so that they can take actionable steps to reduce their environmental footprint.
“Our data capability will provide greater personalisation for customers overtime, including more granular information about their carbon footprint with the option to offset individual transactions.”
Carbon offsetting involves measuring how much carbon everyday activities, like driving your car, emit and then compensates your emissions through the benefits of green initiatives, such as Australian bushland regeneration.
Ben Gleisner, CEO and founder of CoGo said: “Businesses and consumers are looking for greater transparency around their carbon footprint. As an impact-led fintech, CoGo aims to help banks harness the power of millions of customers worldwide to make a powerful collective difference.
“We’re proud to be working with CBA on this Australian banking first which will not only empower Australian businesses and consumers to understand their carbon footprint, but take active steps towards doing something about that footprint as well.”
Small business customers will soon be able to obtain greater visibility of their monthly carbon emissions across their supply chain, providing them with a better understanding of their overall emissions and the cost to offset.
The new feature will be available to a select group of retail customers from today to test and develop the new feature ahead of the broader launch to all eligible customers next year.
To help customers understand more about carbon offsetting, we have worked with CoGo to develop a series of educational articles that explain in more detail what a carbon footprint is, how carbon offsetting works, and some easy tips on reducing your carbon footprint. Customers can check these out on the CommBank Sustainability Hub.
Today’s announcement adds to CBA’s suite of sustainable products and services including:
- Australia’s first dedicated green home loan the CommBank Green Loan;
- Partnering with renewable energy retailer Amber;
- Australia’s first sustainability-linked loan for agriculture;
- Property sustainability upgrade loans for commercial buildings.
“There are more opportunities for customers to take actionable steps to reduce and offset their emissions than ever before. From purchasing clean energy products via a 0.99 per cent Green Loan and accessing renewable energy at wholesale costs with Amber, to customers now being able to offset their monthly transactions via the CommBank app using CoGo’s technology,” commented Angus Sullivan.