Standard Chartered has partnered with Doconomy, a Sweden-based impact tech company, to introduce a digital tool that helps clients track, measure and manage the impact on carbon emissions and freshwater consumption based on goods and services they have purchased, as identified through their credit and debit card transactions.

The tool is based on the Åland Index introduced in 2016 to provide financial institutions with carbon footprint calculations for every transaction, which recently added freshwater calculations to its impact presentation.

According to the bank, the climate crisis is one of the greatest challenges facing the world today, and its impact on the environment and human health significantly affects sustainable economic growth. The collaboration has the potential to allow millions of consumers over time to gain further insights and knowledge into how their individual consumption affects the environment and the climate. It also marks a starting point for working together to further expand digital tools and support consumers in taking everyday climate action.

For any card transactions, the fully automated Aland index can calculate the carbon and water footprints on each of these transactions in kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent and water used per litre respectively. This is derived from the purchasing price and an emission factor, which varies for the different sectors depending on how the product or service is produced.

This output is then visualized for clients on Standard Chartered’s mobile banking application. The 47 sectors identified by Doconomy, corresponding to the most common sectors from which consumers buy goods and services, are further divided into various lifestyle categories (such as home, food and transport) to allow clients to see – on a monthly and individual transaction basis – how their impact weighs differently across various activities in life and take proactive steps to reduce their carbon emissions and water consumption.