Capitalsing on consumer concern about climate change, fintech startup ekko has set up a waitlist for a new debit card that beds sustainability into every transaction,
Using the ekko debit card, every five transactions a customer makes will pay for one plastic bottle to be collected before it enters the ocean and every 50 transactions will pay for a tree to be planted by the customer.
Customers can track their own personal forest, how many bottles they’ve collected and monitor their own personalised carbon footprint using a 'Carbonmeter' in the ekko app. The app also gives customers access to a curated list of sustainable partners, offering climate-friendly goods and services.
The company says it aims to plant over 50m trees and prevent over 500m bottles entering the oceans over the next five years.
The first Mastercard cards, issued by e-money services provider Paynetics, will roll off the production line in June.
Oli Cook, co-founder and CEO of ekko says: “We knew that to make a difference we needed to re-write existing models and build a new eco-system that made it effortless to make a real and tangible difference. We needed to create something where every one of our customers can see what they themselves are doing to help climate change, without actually needing to do anything different."