Iceland's Íslandsbanki is to enable users to track their carbon footprint through their mobile banking app.
The bank is embedding Carbon Insights, Meniga's inaugural green banking product into its digital banking offering, providing users with an estimate of their overall carbon footprint based on their spending profile, broken down into spending categories and time periods. The tool will also offers tips for users to alter their spending behaviour and boost their personal savings.
The carbon footprint of transactions and purchases is calculated through the Meniga Carbon Index, created by a team of data scientists using environmental research and databases on the carbon emissions of goods and services. The Index contains the carbon intensity value of approximately 80 spending categories, as weighed against a currency unit. When a purchase is made in a specific spending category, the carbon intensity value of that particular category is multiplied by the purchase amount, which provides a carbon footprint estimate.
A recent survey conducted by Meniga revealed that 80% of consumers experiencing its technology now want to use their banking apps to help them estimate their carbon footprint.
Georg Ludviksson, CEO & co-founder of Meniga, comments: “With more and more people around the world growing anxious about the consequences of climate change, the need for solutions and initiatives that empower people to take action to help protect our planet has become a business imperative.
"As custodians of our personal finance data, banks are in a unique position to play a key role in helping the rapidly growing movement of carbon conscious consumers make informed choices in their daily consumption.”