Last night I came across Tred, a prepaid debit card that helps you understand the carbon footprint of your purchases. As an environmentalist, this is a great concept and got me thinking of its limitations and how Monzo could partner with them.
I assume it’s currently based on a CO2 per £ value for each retailer, which seems quite broad and inaccurate, but by partnering line item date from a flux receipt with a product by product database of CO2 footprint, you could get a really accurate CO2 figure available to customers to make informed decisions on where to spend to improve the health of our planet.
The database would take some time to build and it also relies on Flux rapidly increased their major retail partners, of which the rollout seems slow at the moment, but an interesting concept in the medium term and be great to see Monzo find a way to incorporate this in app. I know there are other priorities for commercial reasons but would be a brilliant addition at some point.
phildawson
(Sorry, I will have to escalate this.)
#2
Not to shoot it down but I’m trying really hard but I can’t see how it can be even a little bit accurate without you manually specifing exactly what you purchased.
Even going by the merchant code category is going to be super vague.
Whilst Flux is a nice idea it’s only a handful of businesses. Only really going to be useful being a big spender at basically KFC, Schuh, or H&M.
Retailers don’t want to give this info away. Amazon have started hiding it in their emails.
I really want Flux to succeed but it’s decades away from being able to make this a reality.
Anarchist
(Press ‘Help’ search ‘Contact us’ or email help@monzo.com or call 0800 802 1281)
#5
And for those of us who have no desire to “understand“ our carbon footprint, but who want to improve it (reduce it) anyway; buy less stuff and go to fewer places. Or, for a really shorthand method; spend less.
Seeing H&M mentioned above, that takes you down another rabbit hole of ethical considerations --fast fashion, slave labour etc.
Spend less, but if you must buy, buy things that are built to last or can be repaired. That £5 t-shirt is £5 for a reason.
2 Likes
phildawson
(Sorry, I will have to escalate this.)
#7
I had the same thought I’m not sure how ethically and socially responsible Genesco (Schuh) is or that anyone trying to reduce carbon footprint would ever buy from H&M, and then there’s KFC.
Also, not quite sure why the original post has been flagged. It is a genuinely interesting idea, but it’s a really complex issue. I also don’t like the idea of offsetting --it just seems to allow the well-off to buy their way out of destroying the planet.
