Green Finance - putting money to good use on Earth Day
The continued presence of cryptocurrencies and the dawning of the Metaverse are both strong suggestions that our society is hurtling faster than ever towards a virtual existence. However, we should not be in a rush to forget that our society built on natural resources has been in place for millennia. Replacing it in seconds is neither easy nor an option.
Our close relationship with nature is often seen as mythical but it is in fact financial too. For instance, the first million-pound cheque in the world was once signed for coal, and to suddenly declare that trading is no longer based upon gold would cause tremors across the entire global economy. Inextricably, our financial landscape is tied to the natural world and its resources.
Unfortunately, this has historically resulted in the pursuit of financial gain at the expense of the health of the natural world. Time and time again this has been seen in instances like BP’s Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in 2010 and the ivory trade being responsible for the loss of over 80% of African elephants in the last century. Currently, valuation of land in the rainforest so that it can be exploited to make way for cattle farming is rife.
Despite money-making actions therefore having a reputation for damaging our planet, this does not have to be the case. In fact, many financial companies are already proving this. With our natural world on a precipice, this Earth Day we’re keen to share examples of those who are leading the way in a bid to inspire further positive action.
Treecard
“Your flexible friend” was a popular catchphrase in the 1980s to represent bendy credit cards which offered a lot of spending possibilities, but since then society’s appetite for plastic has become saturated. From reverting to paper bags in shops, to sustainable metal water bottles, it seems that consumerism is reverting to more traditional materials everywhere. However, our chosen method for purchasing items remains predominantly in its plastic form whether it be a credit or debit card.
Treecard are changing this with their wooden debit card. Not only are they reducing the production of plastic cards, but they are also replanting trees every time that their customers walk 10,000 steps or purchase items. As an impact first business, they spend 80% of their profits on this cause!
Aspiration
Aspiration “believe humanity’s most valuable asset is planet Earth”. Not driven by greed, they are a financial firm which aims to leave nobody behind, whilst providing quality services for both enterprises and individuals alike.
For their regular customers, Aspiration achieves their lofty goals by planting trees every time their customers make a round up and through giving them insights into the carbon footprints of where they purchase from so they can better decisions in the future. When it comes to enterprises, Aspiration have set up carbon removal initiatives which they can pledge to support through carbon credits.
By innovating ways for both ordinary people and large companies to support the health of our planet, Aspiration have gained the support of Robert Downey Jr. and become B Corp Certified, just like our workspace provider, Work.Life.
MioTech
The applications of artificial intelligence (AI) seem to be endless. Some people believe this is why it poses a threat to humanity, whilst others think it can aid us. MioTech fall into the latter category.
With access to vast data sets, by pairing insights from individual companies, MioTech can assess business’ ESG ratings, carbon emissions and more. What sets them apart is their application of AI to predict how these will change in the future. Due to financial risk being increasingly volatile to ESG scoring, MioTech’s tools are proving to be especially popular for financial institutions and companies wishing to make better environmental decisions.
Visa
It’s not just disruptive startups who are aiming to protect our planet, large networks like VISA are taking huge strides too. Along with their own aim to become a net-zero company by 2040, they also issued a $500 million green bond.
Rather continuing to solely accumulate wealth, VISA is demonstrating that super-sized organisations can give back to communities and our planet. Through their green bond they have already managed to completely power their entire operations through renewable electricity sources, and achieve carbon neutrality.
Ethereum
As mentioned earlier, protecting Earth is a non-negotiable for every citizen of our planet but a move to a more virtual existence still feels inevitable. That’s why it is important for cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies to overcome their poor environmental reputations.
Only second to Bitcoin in notoriety, Ethereum have committed to taking huge strides in cutting their energy usage. Their recent move from proof-of-work architecture to proof-of-stake technology could in fact result in them becoming a more well-known name than Bitcoin. This is thanks to their new system significantly cutting energy usage to become a more sustainable crypto-landscape. Already, Tesla has halted accepting Bitcoin due to environmental concerns and it appears that others are increasingly holding the same sentiment when choosing cryptocurrencies.
Making payments count
Earth Day might be celebrated on a single day but every day the businesses mentioned above are taking the initiative to develop a better planet for us all. They do this by changing the narrative around commercial transactions from one which is solely defined by money-making, into one which includes sustainability.
It might seem overwhelming for every business to inject environmentalism into their transactions, but this doesn’t have to be the case. After all, effective analysis of transactions (which reconciliation plays a large part in) is a basic due diligence activity which all businesses should take. With solutions such as Aurum enriching and reconciling transactional data in seconds, any business can begin to build a better picture of the emissions related to their activities.
Keeping up to date with transactions is now not only important for the financial health of companies but also that of the planet. Why not play your part by evaluating your financial data with the help of our automated reconciliation software?