The second webinar in our series filled the hour with compelling thoughts and ideas around the topic of Carbon Conscious Banking.
Setting the stage
Meniga’s CMO & VP Business Development Bragi Fjalldal was once again the moderator and opened the webinar by providing a bit of background into our motivation for hosting a webinar around the hour’s topic…
“There is no shortage of surveys that attest to the fact that concerns about climate change have never been greater despite the ongoing global pandemic.”
This category of consumers, concerned about the future of the planet and motivated to take action, is what we call Carbon Conscious Consumers.
According to Bragi Fjalldal, carbon-conscious consumers need both tools to understand the impact they have on the environment and the means to do something about it. Moreover, they want these solutions on a digital platform that is easy for them to interact with.
Trends shaping our modern world
Chris Skinner, author, and creator of The Finanser, built off of Fjalldal’s intro as he detailed 5 things that are presently coming together which are changing our way of life.
- Digital Transformation — Everything is now digital and is ingrained in every aspect of our daily lives, from work to entertainment to socializing.
- Climate Emergency — There is a collective worry about the future of our planet.
- Inequality and Inclusion — The cost of digital exclusion is expensive and breeds inequality. By providing digital access to the poor and marginalized makes a more vibrant economy.
- Digital Transparency — If a business, bank or government is behaving either good or bad, the world will know of it immediately.
- Stakeholder Capitalism — A new world where instead of shareholder capitalism, businesses and banks are accountable to society.
Birna Einarsdottir, CEO of Islandsbanki explained how Purpose Driven Banking has been on her mind for the past 10 years and how the bank’s employees and management team have built it into the fabric of their company and strategy for the future.
How can a bank work with the UN Sustainable goals?
Together with their employees, Islandsbanki identified 4 areas from the United Nations 17 Sustainable Goals to focus on: climate action, gender equality, education and innovation.
Birna Einarsdottir asked the perennial questions for today’s banks: How can we encourage our customers to be more carbon conscious and how can we reward our customers when they are?
Motivation matters
CSR officer of Worldline, Sebastien Mandron explained how they’ve become the first global payment company to become carbon neutral. Since making the decision back in 2015 they have committed to reduce and neutralize their co2 emissions.
Mandron explains that institutions need to first invest in infrastructure to provide ways for people to take action, but that what we really need are for people to change their habits.
"How a citizen emits CO2 is because of pleasure…travel, food etc. We need to make people aware, and only from there can we make an impact"
Chris Skinner expressed the view that banking customers will be motivated by monetary incentives while Birna Einarsdottir cited marketing research which indicated that banking customers were actually motivated to take action on behalf of the environment. This motivation was especially found with young people. She also pointed out that services such as Carbon Insight would soon become something that customers expected from their banks.
Islandsbanki has already launched an impressive range of green products. This product range contains Green Mortgages, Green Car Loans, and Green Bonds. Carbon Insight is a natural addition to the bank’s portfolio of green financial products.
Key Takeaways from the webinar on Carbon Conscious Banking
- New business models are emerging that take account of the environment
- Growing number of customers are driven by a concern for the climate and the planet
- Banks are growing their portfolio of green financial products
- Banking customers will take for granted tools that enable them to measure the impact of their personal consumption on the planet and the climate
- Banks can be a source for good by empowering people to take high impact action
We thank Birna Einarsdottir, Chris Skinner, and Sebastien Mandron for their insights. It is our hope that by providing banks with Carbon Insight we are able to empower people all over the to understand, minimize and offset their carbon footprint. The time for climate action is now, there is no planet B.
Click here to watch the replay of our webinar and stay tuned for more to come!