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I had an idea once to create a credit card where a configurable percentage of spending went towards carbon offsetting. The goal would be reduction in personal

by tcbawo 7y ago

I had an idea once to create a credit card where a configurable percentage of spending went towards carbon offsetting. The goal would be reduction in personal carbon footprint and eventually going negative. This would require both measurement of carbon-producing activities based on spending (eg. gasoline), but also a cost-effective means of carbon sequestration. Not my field of expertise, but taking advantage of people's desire to do good w/o expending energy seems like it would be the way to go.

pier25 7y ago
So like a self imposed carbon tax?
- hn_throwaway_99 7y ago
  There are already lots of services that do this, and some that can be tied to specific purchases like airline flights (just Google "purchase carbon offsets"), but that said I really like the parent's idea of automatically tying it to a credit card. Don't know if this exists already.
- tcbawo 7y ago
  That was the thought, yeah. I was thinking of something like Mint for the environment, paired with an optional credit card so you can contribute as you go vs. get a 'bill' afterwards
  - smadge 7y ago
    An actual carbon tax is necessary, though. The game theory/economics of a voluntary “tax” don’t work out.
    - tcbawo 7y ago
      Sure, I don't think it's an either-or proposition. However, I think there is a sizable population of people that aren't interested in waiting around until a government policy would be enacted. The purpose would be to inform/educate people on their carbon footprint, to build a community around reducing their carbon footprint, and give a large group of people an opportunity to contribute in a small way that would hopefully have large aggregate results.
smadge 7y ago
People should instead channel their desire to do good into political action to advocate policy to confront the climate crisis. Any voluntary system is susceptible to freeloaders who would be receive the benefit of reduced greenhouse gasses without the cost which would be self imposed on the ethical people.
neural_thing 7y ago
I think the lowest friction way to do it is to just spend the interchange (the roughly 2% of purchases that credit card companies get from merchants that usually funds cashback/rewards) on carbon capture. With your blessing, I can talk to some credit card company execs about this idea. Credit cards are powerful signalling tools, I can easily see a "Green Card" catching on, especially if people don't see any additional fees on their bill.
- tcbawo 7y ago
  I think there are two hard parts: determining the carbon footprint of most activities/expenditures, and finding the most effective means of carbon sequestration. But, I think it aligns incentives in many good ways.
drdeadringer 7y ago
About 11 years ago one of my first credit cards was almost exactly this. It was a VISA, the company behind the credit card was called "Brighter Planet". Projects funded included wind farms and methane recapture on cow farms. On their website you could estimate your carbon footprint based on things like car usage, air travel, electricity bill, housing square-footage, and like this. For whatever reason the company fell apart but the VISA credit card is still in action.

by tcbawo 7y ago

pier25 7y ago

So like a self imposed carbon tax?

hn_throwaway_99 7y ago
There are already lots of services that do this, and some that can be tied to specific purchases like airline flights (just Google "purchase carbon offsets"), but that said I really like the parent's idea of automatically tying it to a credit card. Don't know if this exists already.
tcbawo 7y ago
That was the thought, yeah. I was thinking of something like Mint for the environment, paired with an optional credit card so you can contribute as you go vs. get a 'bill' afterwards
- smadge 7y ago
  An actual carbon tax is necessary, though. The game theory/economics of a voluntary “tax” don’t work out.
  - tcbawo 7y ago
    Sure, I don't think it's an either-or proposition. However, I think there is a sizable population of people that aren't interested in waiting around until a government policy would be enacted. The purpose would be to inform/educate people on their carbon footprint, to build a community around reducing their carbon footprint, and give a large group of people an opportunity to contribute in a small way that would hopefully have large aggregate results.

smadge 7y ago

People should instead channel their desire to do good into political action to advocate policy to confront the climate crisis. Any voluntary system is susceptible to freeloaders who would be receive the benefit of reduced greenhouse gasses without the cost which would be self imposed on the ethical people.

neural_thing 7y ago

I think the lowest friction way to do it is to just spend the interchange (the roughly 2% of purchases that credit card companies get from merchants that usually funds cashback/rewards) on carbon capture. With your blessing, I can talk to some credit card company execs about this idea. Credit cards are powerful signalling tools, I can easily see a "Green Card" catching on, especially if people don't see any additional fees on their bill.

tcbawo 7y ago
I think there are two hard parts: determining the carbon footprint of most activities/expenditures, and finding the most effective means of carbon sequestration. But, I think it aligns incentives in many good ways.

drdeadringer 7y ago

About 11 years ago one of my first credit cards was almost exactly this. It was a VISA, the company behind the credit card was called "Brighter Planet". Projects funded included wind farms and methane recapture on cow farms. On their website you could estimate your carbon footprint based on things like car usage, air travel, electricity bill, housing square-footage, and like this. For whatever reason the company fell apart but the VISA credit card is still in action.