One of the key trends in the coming years is certain to be green banking? How can we know that the transactions we make are green and not damaging to the environment?
There are already several long-established sustainable banks such as Triodos and the Co-op, but they only seem to offer limited solutions.
One emerging fintech that hopes to fill the gap is Leeds-based startup Tred, which it has just raised more than £500K on Crowdcube to enable it to take its offering live next year.
Essentially Tred is a debit card /app system that enables its user to spend more sustainably. Its core feature is the card’s ability to track, trace and reduce the carbon footprint. It analyses a person’s purchases, assesses their carbon footprint and even makes suggestions as to how they can shop more sustainably.
There are other green features too such as the company will offset carbon expenditure by planting trees on a person’s behalf.
And yes, even the company’s card are made from recycled ocean plastic,
The company hopes to fundraise again later in 2021 and then launch its offering next year – you can join the waiting list online at tred.earth.
Co-founder Will Smith said, “Tred’s mission is to help everyone live a greener life. Most of us are trying to buy more sustainable products, reusable coffee cups, less red-meat etc, but people now want to buy products in a greener way. That’s why we’re launching a green debit card. Simply buy things as you normally would, but instead of funding fossil fuels, we’ll plant trees as you spend and tell you the impact of every purchase. We’ll then start to learn from your habits and give you tips on how to improve. Living sustainably can be difficult, we want to make it effortless.”
Cofounder Peter Kirby added
“The Tred debit card and app provide the perfect starting point—making it easier than ever before for people to track, reduce and offset their own personal impact on the environment. We will follow this soon, with new features like green investment, on the way to delivering a complete green money solution.”
