Dutch Bank to Ease Climate Guilt With Credit Card
Date: 22-Sep-06
Country: NETHERLANDS
Instead of simply investing a portion of charge card proceeds into environmental funds, the card being introduced by Rabobank will look at the type of purchase, such as consumer goods, air travel or petrol, and pay into projects run by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
For example, buying petrol would result in a higher contribution than paying a similar amount for a meal.
"We wanted to come up with a way to balance consumer behaviours to a compensation mechanism," said Johan van de Gronden, head of the WWF in the Netherlands.
Contributions are based on the impact of purchases on carbon dioxide dioxide emissions, one of the main greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, which is used as a yardstick to gauge how individuals and businesses affect the environment.