Editors' blog
Hannah Bullock, 5 Nov 2008
The low winter sun that blinded me from behind the City buildings did look s...
Street cred
Green reward cards hit the mainstream
It all started last summer with Barclycard launching its Breathe credit card, offering a special low APR on bus and train tickets, alongside discounts on bikes, efficiency products and green electricity. Now a whole slew of schemes are coming on to the market, keen to exploit the growing consumer appetite for ethical spending.
Next summer, Barclaycard’s Breathe Easy scheme will give customers discounts on insulation materials and other energy-efficient home improvements. The lower interest rates should bring the monthly repayments roughly into line with the savings on energy costs.
According to Barclays chairman Marcus Agius: “Many homeowners are put off investing in greater efficiency by the cost of doing so, and the long time it takes for their investment to pay them back in terms of lower energy bills.” The card “is a good example of the role which financial institutions can play in helping consumers reduce household carbon emissions”, he claims.
The Co-operative Bank, for its part, has decided that shopping at Ikea, Lush and thetrainline.com is all good, clean spending. So it’s offering its Think card customers a low APR rate for purchases at such as these, with their leading positions on issues such as energy efficiency, fair trade and animal welfare.
Launched on the same day, CarbonCred takes a very different approach. It’s a virtual rewards card which allows customers to rack up points on any purchase at 1,000 major online stores including Boots, M&S and Argos.
The points can then be redeemed against a range of green products such as folding bikes and condensing boilers. Petra Parizkova, a spokeswoman for the project, admits that “it does seem a controversial scheme because it rewards people for spending more. But what we’re trying to do is reach the mainstream shoppers who wouldn’t normally buy green products, and open their eyes to what’s out there.”
It’s encouraging to hear that even The Sun is pitching CarbonCred to its three million readers, although its comment that “whether you buy a bottle of wine, a holiday or insurance, your everyday shopping can now have a positive impact on tackling climate change”, may cause a few winces of unease among seasoned ethical consumers. – Hannah Bullock
21 December 2007
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Guilt-free shopping?
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Registered charity number 1040519
Comments
The Emporors' new Green Clothes
I have just finished reading your article regarding this company. Here are a few truths:
1. This is just an affiliate site that thinks "carbon credits" are a good way to get people there. They are not interested in actually doing anything worthwhile - only earning money for themselves.
2. The value of their credits is considerably lower than the 50% that they claim you are getting - not one of those items you can purchase costs them close to that.
3. The company is registered at companies house at a completely different address to the one on the website
4. The website domain is not owned by the company (it is owned by Mr Stewart)
5. This is just an absolutely cynical approach to trying to get people to earn CarbonCred affiliate payments which is a hugely lucrative industry
I am absolutely fed up with so called "green" companies that simply exist to make money and cannot be honest about it. This company exists to make money only (not that there is anything particularly nefarious about that in my opinion) but lack the honesty or integrity to be honest and straightforward about it.
Will you take any notice? - I doubt it.
Will you remove the story so that others don't believe it? - I doubt it.
Response from CarbonCred
In response to your comment Mr Logan, and as the owner of CarbonCred, I wanted to come back in our defense:
Whilst there is a lot of controversy surrounding "green companies" we at CarbonCred don't think it is a fair representation to lump everyone into the basket, so wanted to share a few of our home truths about the reality of the company, as opposed to your intreptation.
Far from being just a money making scheme, CarbonCred was developed from a genuine passion to do something to positive towards climate change. In 2004 I sold up and went for the simple life. With a love of sailing my wife and I bought a yacht and set off. We got as far as the Caribbean, but something didn't sit right with us - sailing is so close to the environment and we could see the visible impact that climate change was having, so having developed a passion for the issue, so we discontinued our trip and returned to the UK to do something proactive!
That was two and a half years ago. We returned to try and engage the man and women in the street and build a service which enables them to start leading a greener lifestyle with minimal outlay or inconvenience.
I have personally invested a huge amount of money (my pension) in CarbonCred, as have my family and other shareholders, all friends. Like all business start ups, they know it is a high risk proposition. I have worked for 18 months for nothing, every employee that works at CarbonCred has taken a pay cut to work with us and be part of the mission. One moved from New York, at their own expense, leaving a very well paid job, spending two months working as an intern, because they understood the vision and passion that was driving the business, which so far, has been received exceptionally well by large corporations, the media and the public.
To clear up a few of your other points...particularly in terms of just exisiting to make money:
1)We do split the income from the retailers 50/50. Secondly, we have a company policy that we make no profit on any products or services in the rewards section. Both of these are open to audit and we welcome any investigation.
2)It is not unusual to have different registered and trading addresses; but as it happens, we recently moved into new offices (old shipping containers at that, and therefore recycled offices). Companies House will be updated in due course.
3)The web domain is indeed owned by me as I am the majority shareholder in the company - as you will find in the majority of start-ups.
Whilst there maybe many things and other 'green' companies you can criticize, you cannot doubt our commitment, integrity or motivation to do our bit. One day we may make some money, but in the meantime, we are hugely disappointed that you seem so cynical about our efforts. With that in mind, we would like you to give us the chance to find out more about us. If you contact us, we will happily fund a personal visit for you to London, to our offices, at your convenience, so you can look in the eyes of our team and see first hand the zeal and commitment and sheer graft that sits behind a seemingly innocuous web site.
We look forward to welcoming you to meet the team. Please contact us.
Duncan Stewart
Founder and Associate
CarbonCred
Response to CarbonCred owner
I do believe that a small part of you may think you are helping. But I just don't see how any of this is going to actually make the planet a greener place. All I see is a few people trying to do cash in after BarclayCard breathe. Unfortunately the common man needs incentive to do anything to help the planet hence if you put two and two together you get a reward system I guess.
Still. How is this particular reward system ACTUALLY going to help the environment? A few eco-friendly goodies? Please. Giving away a few less damaging to nature handouts won't make a difference. It smells extremely hypocritical to me.
I've read about a different rewards system coming out soon called Green Rewards, which will reward people for doing green things and using green products in the first place. By trying to make people live greener lives in the first place, instead of rewarding them for keeping to their ways, you would have a better chance of making a difference.
Your way is a method of cashing in on people's guilt. I'm with John.
and one last thing...
What about charities? The only people who're making any money out of this are you, and the retailers. If you really cared about the environment you'd invest in protecting the environment in some way, and convince the companies associated with you to do the same. But I guess their guilt is alleviated already, buying into your "green" program.
Another message from a skeptic
I have sent a mail to your company regarding my posts here, and have requested a visit to your company to see for myself, seeing as Mr. Stewart is very sure of his company and its vision. I have however received no reply at all.
If you actually mean what you wrote, then I would be glad to come have a look at your company and would post here retracting any negative comments I have made if I am proved wrong.
Last post here
Hmmm, still no response either here or in my email from this "green" company.
I guess everything the owner of CarbonCred wrote was a crock. Astoundingly I am not surprised.
NatWest YourPoints
NatWest credit card has recently stopped using Airmiles as a loyalty scheme and now offers 'YourPoints' for deals on foreign holidays. I wrote to them asking that they stop promoting air travel and ask that they make available discounts using 'YourPoints' on products that reduce home energy consumption - insulation, solar hot water panels, ground source heat pumps etc. They replied that "we are not encouraging people to take more flights, but offer them a way to take flights they would have taken anyway, but having them paid for as a reward for using their credit card as normal." Their reply went on "whilst I note your request that we make arrangements for NatWest YourPoints to offer discounts on home energy conservation, we have no plans in place to extend the NatWest YourPoints scheme."
If only 1% of total credit card purchases would be returned to the credit card customer to go towards the cost of home insulation improvements or renewable energy equipment this would supply over £1 billion per year to make Great Britain become more energy efficient and help greatly reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Regrettably most credit card reward schemes currently lower the cost of air travel and overseas holidays - promote energy consumption and higher C02 emissions.