Carbon Footprint Tracker Qorus Banking Innovation Awards 2023

When we noticed that there was a gap for customers, we made a conscious decision to partner with sustainability fintech Cogo to ensure we could our Carbon Footprint Tracker to market quickly . The Westpac Carbon Footprint Tracker provides customers high-level insights into the carbon footprint associated with everyday purchases, such as takeaway food, transport and groceries. The Carbon Footprint Tracker enables customers to compare their estimated carbon footprint with Australian individual and household averages in similar categories. Customers can see a comparison to their previous month’s overall estimated carbon footprint and their monthly average trend overtime. To help customers take the next step with these insights, we launched a Sustainable Living Hub to help inform and educate customers on how they could live a more sustainable life. The hub features links to useful articles and resources. How is it calculated in the App? The Westpac App uses two pieces of data to calculate customers estimated monthly carbon footprint: the transaction amount, and the transaction’s industry category, which has an associated emissions factor calculated based on Australian industry average data. Each eligible transaction is multiplied by an 'emissions factor' (how much greenhouse gas that type of activity emits per dollar spent) to work out the estimated carbon footprint for that transaction. Cogo ongoingly provides up-to-date emission factors, mapped to their comprehensive database of industry categories (e.g., home energy, petrol, groceries, fashion, etc.) for Australia. Customers estimated carbon footprint is based on the total transaction amount, and not the individual items making up that purchase. How can it be tracked? Westpac customers can see a snapshot of their estimated total carbon footprint for their eligible accounts in the Carbon Footprint Tracker in the Westpac App. They can also review their footprint by category and track how their estimated footprint changes month to month with comparisons to Australian individual and household averages.