Does Monzo support the fossil fuel industry?

Monzo Chat
24

Just one of Facebooks data centres cost over 1 billion and is 340-acres that is continually expanding. It runs 24/7 and therefore it must be contributing in both daily running and build?

This is the question I was asking. Seeing someone who has a whole website about it should mean that they love being questioned about it (in a constructive way as I did) as it helps them spread awareness about their cause. They must be knowledgeable in this area, so hopefully it makes for a good discussion where things can be supported with facts and such and people can learn from it too.

I’m not sure why your comment is so hostile when mine was a justified question that I clearly stated had no malice.

25

Often you need to join a beast to defeat the beast.

If everyone who wanted to change our ways for the betterment of the environment stopped using social media/having websites then sure, maybe there’d be some lowering of usage, but the message wouldn’t be getting out and arguably the benefits are squashed by the costs.

Having a website/blog may be a necessary ‘evil’ where the benefits outweigh the cost.

I think it’s an odd route to take with someone at least trying to be better for the world, but that’s just my opinion.

Hats off to the poster, I say.

5 Likes
26

I would really recommend bulb, very good communication from them

1 Like
27

Also if you do want to confirm if investec is green or not, just reach out to their customer support? Let us know

28

Hi, I am happy to answer questions about climate change :slight_smile: although I agree with many of the responders, in that if you start focusing on every aspect of our life, you’ll soon realise our damaging our existence is. However, each one of us can reduce our impact, through small incremental changes. At least, this is my opinion, and the mantra I live by (and work by :slight_smile: )

You’ve mentioned Facebook, so I’ll talk about it, although this applies to other companies like Apple and Google. You may be aware that Facebook uses green energy, and an innovative cooling technology that minimises energy use. I don’t know which data centre you are talking about above, but the one they opened in July 2019, Papillion, uses 100% renewable energy. Their target is 100% renewable energy to power the whole business by 2020. In 2019, they reached 75%. They talk about this on their website.

My host, Aruba, does the same. They use 100% renewable energy (hydro, solar and wind power) to power their data centres, from local certified providers, which is the reason why I chose them for my blog.

With my blog and social media channels together, I reach on an average 1000 people a week, and if I am able to influence even 5% of my audience every week, I’ve contributed positively to the world, and this, for me, offsets the negative impacts of my blog. I have not calculated exactly how much CO2 I’ve saved by influencing 50 people a week, maybe I can, but that’s not what pushes me to have a blog/social media presence. I am ok with knowing I’ve made a positive difference. As I said, I’ll never be perfect, but I am trying.

Any other questions feel free to ask :slight_smile:

9 Likes
29

I wasn’t intending to be hostile, it’s just a bit tiring when people make fact-free statements and expect others to do the hard work of looking up the actual facts. This was not a question, it was a fairly pointed statement:

I find constructive discussions are ones where both sides put in the work to look into the facts behind the issues instead of making broad assumptions.

6 Likes
30

Hi there :slight_smile: I’ve checked their website and they state clearly that the do invest in oil&gas and coal and mining, among other activities which I do not support. I admire their transparency but their investment policy and fossil fuel policy are not in line with my values, which is why I am going to open an account and an ISA with Triodos.

I’ve checked the other providers that Monzo uses for ISAs and they are not transparent in how they invest the money or in whether they invest in fossil fuels.

2 Likes
31

If someone asked me for the solution to the ongoing climate emergency this is, word for word, what I would respond with.

The best solution would be for everything/everyone to only use renewable energy from tomorrow - clearly that’s not actually going to happen. However if tomorrow everyone in the US decided to eat one less portion of red meat per week, everyone in the UK switched their savings to a provider that doesn’t invest in fossil fuels, etc. etc. …

Yes we clearly need to make changes immediately but it doesn’t have to be a light switch in order to be effective.

2 Likes
32

Yes I agree with you, 100%, which is why I’ve stated facts clearly in my reply.

I am happy to be involved in conversations with anyone really, regardless of whether or not they support the cause, I do this at work too. When you work in climate change people look at you for inspiration and i found that if you fail somewhere people stop following you and start criticising you. At least this is my personal experience.That’s why I always try to think about every aspect of my life where I can improve, not only because I care deeply about it, but also because I care about ‘leading by example’.

Thanks for taking the time to reply, it means a lot knowing that there are people that care about the topic :slight_smile:

2 Likes
33

The deals you get that are green are they comparable to the best deals from British Gas etc? You’re probably costing yourself money in that regard in order to be green, have you considered picking the better deal and donating the extra to the causes you support?

2 Likes
34

That’s some strange thinking there…

Say British Gas is £70 a month and being green costs £100. You’re suggesting paying a company who doesn’t sit right with your beliefs and donating £30 to your cause. Rather than giving all your money to your cause.

Either way your spending £100. Only giving £30 to your cause whilst still supporting companies against your belief is a strange way to look at it.

5 Likes
35

I understand where you’re coming from, perhaps I could have elaborated on that sentence a little more. I don’t like Facebook at all and I hardly use it due to all the other bad/shady stuff that they do.

As a result, it hasn’t reduced my outreach to the wider world and I’m certainly not disconnected. Therefore if I wanted to get onboard the anti-fossil fuels campaign this would be the thing that would tip me over the edge into deleting my profile and not using Facebook at all.

1 Like
36

Hi :slight_smile: I take it you are talking about my energy provider at home, not the host of my blog, correct?

Octopus energy have a tracker tariff, they follow the wholesale energy market prices. Through the Octopus tracker tariff, you can see that some days it’s slightly higher than the Big 6 (e.g. British Gas), but the monthly average is almost always slightly cheaper than the Big 6. So to answer your question no we don’t pay more, if anything sometimes we’ve ended up paying less. We have also compared our previous energy bills, when we were using EON to our current bills with Octopus and there has never been a significant variation, not even in the winter months.

To me, using a green energy provider is a way to signal the market that this is the direction you want the economy to go. I am not changing the economy massively by using a green energy provider, but I am somehow, which is one of the reasons why I’ve decided to do it. I am not saying your suggestions is wrong, I am saying that for me, supporting an energy provider directly sends a more powerful signal than supporting one of the big 6 which still invest in fossil fuels and investing the difference somewhere else.

2 Likes
37

That’s awesome and just the detail I was looking for, thank you. You however missed the chance for a shameless plug by linking to your blog :wink:

38

I’m with Octopus and recently received an email that they’re launching “Super Green Octopus” where I believe that they guarantee it’s 100% renewable energy. I’m not sure if you’ve read the difference in this service (I haven’t) but sadly for me it worked out around £15 more per month :cry:

FYI I found Octopus through Monzo, they partnered with them and helped people switch at the
click of a button a while back :slight_smile:

1 Like
39

Same here. Octopus has been great so far. Wow - joined them via Monzo in mid-Feb 2019! :mantelpiece_clock:

3 Likes
40

Yeah, probably around the same for me too. I love their spin the wheel thing every time you submit a meter reading :smiley: I’ve sadly not won anything yet though :sob:

41

I often think about this quote by Tom Morello from Rage Against The Machine. He was discussing capitalism rather than environmentalism but it still applies.

“When you live in a capitalistic society, the currency of the dissemination of information goes through capitalistic channels. Would Noam Chomsky object to his works being sold at Barnes & Noble? No, because that’s where people buy their books. We’re not interested in preaching to just the converted.”

7 Likes
42

I wonder what your stance is on using Facebook when they have invested in a conglomerate in India that includes oil refinery?

Facebook-Reliance Jiro

You could argue that Reliance is a separate company but they are very close bed fellows.

43

What I think is interesting here is that this is a good example of Monzo’s platform approach giving power to the customer. It’s less a question about Monzo (which is a neutral intermediary here) and more about Investec.

In the future, it’d be interesting to have a way to compare values-based criteria in the app, so users could select interest bearing pots that met certain criteria.

5 Likes