Aspiration, a bank that offers fossil-free deposits and products like a debit card that pays cash back for purchases made at socially responsible stores, is in the business of helping people manage their money more ethically.
“We’re in a time and place now where, fortunately, most Americans want to do something in their daily lives around addressing their carbon footprint and fighting climate change,” says Aspiration CEO Andrei Cherny.
The company launched another tool, Aspiration Impact Management , in 2017, which gives customers a “people and planet” score based on data about the places where they shop.
Carbon Insights uses economic and emissions data from hundreds of industries and commodities to calculate the total emissions of producing each dollar’s worth of a particular item, and gives consumers feedback so they can make different buying decisions.
While changes have to happen at a societal level to deal with climate change, the company believes that individual consumers have a role to play as part of the larger system.