From pink to green: Klarna unveils carbon footprint tracking for customers

Another day, another fintech unveiling a new environmentally-friendly outlook.

Klarna is the latest fintech to implement eco-conscious features to help its customers reduce their impact on the environment.

The Swedish buy-now-pay-later giant will now add carbon footprint insights for 90m customers across 16 markets.

It’s hoped the new feature will raise awareness for our impact on the environment as consumers and will provide shoppers with an estimate of the carbon generated by their purchases in the Klarna app.

“With fat, sugar and salt levels labelled on the food we buy, why shouldn’t our  CO2 emissions be just as visible? This type of information shouldn’t be a premium or luxury that consumers pay for, but rather an essential part of every shopping journey,” Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO of Klarna said.

“That’s why we’re upgrading our app to give all our consumers globally transparent access to their shopping carbon footprint. We all make decisions that affect the health of the planet and it’s essential that everyone has access to sound information to make smart climate choices in a simple and straightforward way.”

To introduce the new feature, Klarna has partnered with Doconomy, which has partnered with the likes of Mastercard and S&P Global to help raise awareness and offset their carbon footprints. 

Mathias Wikström, CEO of Doconomy, added: “With Klarna as a fintech frontrunner enabling all users to track, measure and understand their impact by presenting their carbon footprint on every purchase, there is great potential for positive impact!”

“The financial sector has developed tremendous efficiencies to create, aggregate and protect wealth. Now that same force can address the alarming planetary health. Adding a unique data stream to the customer offering is a brilliant step to educate the many.”

The new feature is being rolled out as part of Klarna’s one per cent pledge, with the fintech pledging one per cent of its most recent $1bn funding round, or $10m, to planet-friendly initiatives.

Klarna has ambitious plans for its own carbon emissions too. 

The fintech aims to reduce its emissions by 50 per cent 2030 and from 2021, Klarna will make annual financial contributions to high-impact climate projects, including carbon removal, reforestation and forest protection.