- Commonwealth Bank have new carbon footprint feature on internet banking
- App shows how many trees a customer has destroyed based on spending
- Partnered with eco start-up to encourage sustainability from Australians
Commonwealth Bank (CBA) has included a new feature on its internet banking that tells customers how many trees they’ve destroyed with their carbon footprint based on monthly spending.
The bank is attempting to encourage more sustainable purchases by highlighting the damage its clients have on the environment.
CBA’s internet banking app displays the person’s carbon footprint for the current month and examples of the damage they are causing, including the CO2 produced equivalent to the distance of driving a car.
The bank calculates a customer’s carbon footprint based on the ‘transactions made on your CommBank credit or debit cards’.
It says the national average for carbon emitted in kilograms is 1,280 – while a sustainable figure is around 200.
Customers can pay a fee to help offset their CO2 footprint within the app.
The personalised data is an Australian first, and comes as the bank partnered with fintech start-up CoGo.
One Nation MP Mark Latham questioned the authenticity of the approach from the big four bank.
‘If they are so worried about dead trees as a result of bank spending why are these imbeciles running a bank at all?’ he said to Daily Mail Australia.
‘It just highlights their own woke stupidity and hypocrisy.’
Commonwealth Bank says the data is private and not given to CoGo, and that eventually, the data will be so specific it can be broken down to individual transactions.
‘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,’ CommBank Group executive Angus Sullivan said in a statement.
‘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.’
‘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,’ Mr Sullivan added.