If you’ve had to go through the process of calculating your bank’s carbon footprint, you’ll know that it can be a laborious task.

The calculators show carbon footprints as tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), and provide a breakdown of emissions by source. But they often come with their limitations – i.e. they lack a solid data foundation, users have to manually input their actions, or they don’t have functionality that enables users to track footprints over time.

The outcome is users not feeling empowered to take meaningful action to reduce their carbon footprint. However, banks are the best placed out of anyone to change all of this – for the benefit of both their customers and their business.

What makes an effective carbon calculator?

Before we get into where the opportunity lies for banks to provide a better way forward for the carbon conscious consumer, let’s first look at what a carbon calculator needs to be effective:

• Inspire meaningful action – The main objective of carbon footprint calculators is to create awareness and motivate positive action.
• Balance accuracy and usability – Some carbon calculators are too simplistic to be meaningful, while others are too complex to be practical.
• Show consumption areas – It’s pointless to show a carbon footprint unless it’s broken down by categories, so users can see where they need to change their habits.
• Data-driven – The more data that is used to calculate the footprint, the more accurate the estimate becomes – and the more compelling the case to take carbon-reduction action.

Why carbon calculators present such a big opportunity for banks

The short answer is transaction data. No other organizations have access to the breadth of data that banks do; so, in theory, banks can deliver a carbon estimate for their customers to a degree of accuracy that others can’t achieve without users inputting the information manually.

As a business opportunity, providing a carbon calculator means empowering customers to act on climate change, thus driving engagement and loyalty. Customers have a compelling reason to engage with their bank beyond checking their balance and sending payments. This has obvious benefits for a bank and could lead to a natural upsell of green banking products.

A ready-made carbon calculator

Meniga’s Carbon Insight tool is a carbon calculator for banks which enables users to:

1. Analyze their footprint over different time periods
2. Benchmark their footprints against other users
3. Explore actional advice on how to reduce their carbon footprint across categories
4. Improve the accuracy of the footprint with user input
5. Challenge themselves to adjust their consumption patterns and save money at the same time.

It’s this rich user experience which sets it apart from other carbon calculators. Plus, it draws data from our Carbon Index – which is based on publicly available databases and the latest in environmental science – to provide a reliable carbon footprint calculation.

Carbon Insight has been made specifically for banks. All you need to do is plug it in and enjoy the benefits. 

Understand how you can integrate our carbon calculator into your online banking service by reading the Carbon Insight product profile.

See Meniga's Carbon Insight in action