The challenge
ekko is a mission-led fintech company working with payment providers, banks, ecommerce platforms, and merchants to meet growing demand for environmental action. They help consumers to see the carbon and nature footpr int – a market first – of their purchase at checkout and provide a simple way to help them fund trusted, impactful climate and nature projects in one tap . ekko wanted to provide their commercial partners with transaction-level carbon and nature footprinting based on emergent best practice , whilst enabling impactful, thematic links to conservation projects.
What we did
Bringing together our expert teams in greenhouse gas (GHG) footprinting, and biodiversity impact assessment, we created a footprinting model which estimates consumer spending impacts on both climate and biodiversity. We provided:
- Novel industry mapping of classification standards to the Merchant Category code system used for financial transactions.
- Expanded country coverage from the core EXIOBASE regions to 249 ISO regions to future-proof the methodology for country-level data drop-in.
- GHG footprints for more than 300 sectors in all geographies.
- Created a carbon footprint and a biodiversity footprint model and i ntegrat ed the Global Biodiversity Score methodology to ensure a robust methodological approach aligned to global best practice.
- Quantified spend-based impacts spanning carbon and biodiversity, including the key biodiversity loss drivers of climate change, pollution, land and freshwater area-use and change, and overexploitation of resources
The difference we made
By quantifying the climate and nature impacts of consumer spend, ekko was able to make clear links for their clients between consumer spend and investments in high-quality conservation, restoration, and impact mitigation projects. We enabled ekko to launch its updated Carbon Footprint with a broader scope of geographies and industry coverage, and to launch its novel Nature Footprint with leading payment providers, offering global scale to consumers and brands seeking to better understand their environmental impacts and opportunities to drive positive change. Through a combination of climate and nature expertise, and expert third party partnerships, Nature Positive and ekko continue to develop a world leading, and science-based approach to quantifying clim ate and nature impacts at checkout.
