VANCOUVER, B.C.–In response to climate change, Mogo Finance Technology has issued Canada’s first prepaid Visa card to offset the carbon footprints of spenders.
MogoSpend account will offset one pound of CO² for every dollar spent using the card, according to CEO Dave Feller. The fintech company said the concept was prompted by research at the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom that showed 72% of carbon dioxide emissions can be linked to consumption.
In an interview, Feller said data from Statistics Canada on domestic greenhouse gas emissions and household expenditures indicate Canadians leave a carbon footprint of one-third of a pound of CO² or other greenhouse gases for every dollar spent.
Mogo is partnering with Vancouver-based Offsetters for the climate-change-tackling element of the card, which may see Mogo help fund wind farms, solar power installations or energy efficiency, according to Feller. While a regular consumer might typically pay $20 to offset a ton of CO², Mogo will get a wholesale rate. Feller declined to say exactly how much the offsetting would cost the company.
‘The Big Point’
“The big point here is linking spending to the environmental impact,” Feller said. “Obviously we all know the focus on climate change and really, at the end of the day, it’s kind of directly linked to consumption and therefore it makes sense that you tie it directly into how people are primarily consuming through spending.”
Mogo, which launched in 2015, is betting the new card will attract new clients, not only because of the offsetting angle, but also because it doesn’t charge a fee, offers users a way to control the overspending that contributes to both financial difficulty and climate change because it’s prepaid, and gives them 1.5% cashback on domestic purchases, according to the company.
Spending $3,000 a month through the card would generate about $45 in cashback or more than $500 year, the company said. Foreign currency purchases earn 3% cashback, it said.