A number of innovations in the payments industry are enabling customers to become more ‘green’ with their purchases. Credit card companies such as Visa are taking their detailed knowledge of an individual’s purchases to create incentives and programs to allow the cardholder to become more environmentally friendly.

The latest partnership involves Visa and RePay International, a company that helps manage carbon emissions of products. The initiative allows business customers to sign up for a carbon neutral card that will automatically calculate the carbon emissions and offset them with a green project. Similar initiatives run by Barclays, Co-operative Bank and Rabobank promote responsible purchases or try to neutralize the environmental damage of products.

With detailed information on a customer’s spending, financial institutions are in a unique position to evaluate an individual’s environmental impact. Knowing that someone has a mortgage for a 5000 sq.ft house, a loan to buy an SUV, spends $200 a month on utility bills and $500 on fuel will allow a rough estimate of their carbon footprint. Keeping privacy in mind, banks can and should use this information to help customers make more educated choices.