Tide removes 100% of emissions

UK SME banking provider Tide has removed 100 per cent of its emissions as of last year.

Claiming to be the first fintech in the world to do so, Tide has removed its emissions with durable carbon removal, and is now committing to becoming fully net zero by 2030.

The digital business finance platform will also support its UK members, which make up around 9 per cent of UK SMEs, and its growing network of Indian SMEs on their journeys to net zero.

“Businesses need to take action now, not tomorrow, on climate change,” Tide CFO and head of net zero Ian Sutherland said.

“At Tide, we are taking decisive action to curtail the spiralling effects of greenhouse gases on the Earth’s atmosphere. With this, Tide commits today to balance the books on CO2 for good.”

Tide has made three pledges to deal with the impacts of climate change, the first two of which will make the company net zero by 2030: to remove 100 per cent of emissions with durable carbon removal from 2022 onwards and to reduce 90 per cent of 2021 emissions per employee by 2023.

With its third pledge, it is committing to making net zero simpler for its members by developing support for them to get there.

“While we at Tide may not make much of a difference on our own, by also supporting our growing international network of SME members, we will,” Sutherland continued.

“Especially in the UK, where faced with cost-of-doing business challenges and the need for greater energy security, we believe there's a huge opportunity for smaller companies to transition to renewables and achieve greater energy and resource efficiency,” he added.

The company plans to roll out an initiative later this year to help its more than 500,000 members worldwide start their journey to net zero with products, features and content to help them.

It believes it can achieve a further one million tonnes of durable carbon removal from the atmosphere by 2030 through its member businesses.

Tide’s purchases can be viewed on CDR.fyi, the largest open registry on high-permanence carbon removal.

“Durable carbon removal — alongside deep decarbonization efforts — is key to counteracting climate change. But the carbon removal market is still in its infancy,” CDR.fyi co-founder Kevin Niparko said.

“We need more companies to commit to purchasing durable carbon removal to help our planet avoid the most devastating effects of climate change.” 

According to the Niparko, Tide’s delivery of 3,711 tonnes of removed CO2 is one of the largest deliveries of carbon removal in history.

“Tide is leading the way for other financial technologies to take responsibility for 100 per cent of their emissions and invest in carbon dioxide removal,” he added.