Month: May 2023

Originally published on TriplePundit

Mastercard is among the leading businesses pushing for a more environmentally sustainable future — and as far as the company is concerned, the momentum for these efforts is coming directly from consumers.

“Consumers are really the key drivers of change for brands and corporations,” Cristina Paslar, Mastercard’s executive vice president for ESG Products, told TriplePundit. “We have policymakers, yes, but I would say the strongest voice is actually the consumer point of view and the consumer demand. Consumers can vote with their decisions, with their purchases and with their preferences.”

Answering consumer calls for more sustainable choices 

Nearly 65 percent of U.S. consumers see climate change and resource scarcity as serious and imminent threats, with over half willing to take personal action, according to a 2022 survey. Globally, charitable donations at environmentally-focused charities increased by 26 percent from 2021 to 2022, ranking second in year-over-year growth among all charitable causes, according to the Mastercard Economics Institute.

To address this growing interest, Mastercard has taken steps such as working with global industry players to develop a sustainable card program for all card issuers globally, including a directory of sustainable materials and vendors for card products. Starting Jan. 1, 2028, all newly produced Mastercard plastic payment cards will be made from more sustainable materials and approved through a certification program, in a first move for a payment network.

Mastercard’s sustainable card offerings are available to consumers in more than a dozen countries globally. The company has engaged more than 330 financial institutions to issue cards with approved materials, and more than 60 financial institutions have issued cards with approved materials made from recyclable, bio-sourced, chlorine-free, degradable and ocean plastics. Six billion credit and debit cards are produced annually, typically from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which includes dangerous chemical additives including phthalates, lead, cadmium, and/or organotins, which can be toxic to children. These cards are replaced on average every three to four years, with discarded cards going to landfills across the world.

“We closed last year with more than 170 million sustainable cards ordered to date, which was beyond the 120 million we expected,” Paslar said. “That shows that more and more of our customers are thinking, ‘Yes, why not have a card that, instead of being made from virgin plastic, is made of a sustainable material?’”

Mastercard also created a Carbon Calculator in conjunction with the Swedish fintech startup Doconomy, which provides consumers with the means to view the estimated carbon footprint of their purchases in order to better understand where their choices have the greatest impact.

Card issuers, which include banks, credit card companies, credit unions and other financial institutions, also recognize these shifts in consumer preferences, Paslar said. And they’re looking for “natural” ways to inform and empower consumers to make more sustainable choices with the products and services they purchase.

“We see high engagement from the card issuer side, where they see how they can play this role in informing, inspiring and enabling their consumers,” she explained. “But at the same time, we have good signs that consumers are actually engaging with this type of solution.”

Bringing the public and private sectors together for transformative change 

Of all Mastercard’s efforts to counter climate change and promote sustainability, the most prominent and potentially far-reaching is the Priceless Planet Coalition, which encourages collective action across the public and private sectors to combat climate change.

Launched by Mastercard in January 2020, the restoration effort led by Conservation International and the World Resource Institute aims to restore 100 million trees. The coalition has grown into a global network of nearly 140 partners and a portfolio of 18 high-quality restoration projects on six continents, as well as the island of Madagascar and the Philippines.

The projects were selected with an emphasis on those with the most potential for positive impacts on climate, local communities and biodiversity. The 18 projects range in size from a goal to plant 100,000 trees in Martin County, Kentucky, where deforestation from strip mining has degraded water resources, to planting millions of trees on the island of Madagascar, which has lost 25 percent of its tree cover since the turn of the century.

Efforts like Priceless Planet are also a way for coalition partners to connect with the public around sustainability, as Mastercard survey research indicates that tree-planting and reforestation efforts are “very relatable” for consumers, Paslar said.

“We have 136 partners, and the key to maintaining a strong partnership is to always provide assets and ideas about how we can work together in a way that we feel is commercially sustainable,” Paslar told us. “By commercially sustainable, I mean that the end consumer — the cardholder who is holding our Mastercard cards that are issued by the banks and used at the merchants — they actually care about the climate. They care about having sustainable choices, and they care about doing business with brands that are truly acting and engaging on sustainable solutions.”

This article series is sponsored by Mastercard and produced by the TriplePundit editorial team.

(Image credit: Sabin Ray, World Resources Institute)

(Image credit: Aaron Minnick, World Resources Institute)

(Image credit: Andrew Wu, World Resources Institute)

At Covia, our commitment to ESG helps us meet the various needs of our stakeholders through innovation built on valued partnerships.

To support our customers and stakeholders, we take a comprehensive approach to product innovation, quality, and assurance. We encourage our Team Members to embrace creative problem-solving and collaboration, and we’re investing in the tools needed to deliver solutions for our customers and the markets we serve. We’re expanding our current innovation capacity, as well as investing in new capabilities and competencies to support industry-leading innovation.

Throughout our ESG journey, we have developed a portfolio of products and services that support people and the planet, including dust suppression technology for worker safety and health, glass-grade sand for sustainable packaging, micronized silica for home insulation and sand for water filtration. While many of our existing products improve everyday life, we are continuing to look for ways to innovate additional solutions that contribute to enhanced quality of life.

“We have a vision to dramatically increase the vitality index within the business,” explains Lan Deng, VP, Technology for Covia. “For us, that will mean a focus on driving sales coming from new products and applications that launch over seven years. These new products will deliver sustained competitive advantage, growth potential and cash to the business.”

Covia’s dedication to investing in innovation goes far beyond building a strong innovation portfolio and launching new products and applications. We are dedicated to investing in innovative leadership to diversify our talent base and building a stronger company. To this end, Lan believes there are a few characteristics shared by innovation leaders: risk tolerance, learning agility, collaboration, and teamwork.

“One should not be afraid to take risks to explore and try new things; the ability to learn quickly is important as well,” she said. “From idea inception to product commercialization, cross-functional collaboration is the key.”

Recently Covia hosted an Innovation Tournament, which was created to immerse a cross-functional, cross-geographical group of Covia Team Members in a challenging process to identify realistic innovation opportunities for Covia. The dynamic process began with teams generating ideas before the meeting. These ideas included incremental improvements, new product ideas, cost reduction efforts, and more. During a two-day session, teams formed around the ideas that held the most potential. Ultimately, 14 ideas were voted to the top for further development.

Lan believes that agility and commitment are a common trait for the people working within Covia. “What impresses me most is the agility and can-do attitude of our people,” she said. “Covia Team Members make things happen despite obstacles and constraints, and they do it fast.”

Energy Impact Partners (“EIP”) has announced the completion of fundraising for its inaugural Elevate Future Fund I LP (“Elevate”), one of the largest funds of its kind, with $111.9 million of limited partner commitments.

Southern Company was a founding investor in EIP and Chris Womack, current president and CEO-elect of Southern Company, will co-chair Elevate’s advisory board.

Elevate is focused on driving diversity in the energy ecosystem by providing capital to underrepresented founders of clean technology companies and supporting diversity and minority-owned businesses in the associated supply chain. The fund also invests in other parties in the larger energy ecosystem in order to achieve the mutual goal of accelerating a clean energy transition while increasing diversity, equity and inclusion in the broader venture capital network.

“Together with EIP, we celebrate the completion of fundraising for the Elevate Future Fund,” said Chris Cummiskey, executive vice president and chief commercial solutions officer for Southern Company. “Today, less than 3% of venture funding goes to minority entrepreneurs. That must change. We remain exceedingly enthusiastic about the important work of this fund to support diverse entrepreneurs who are creating critical energy solutions for a more sustainable energy future.”

Added Cummiskey, “We are steadfast in our commitment to the ongoing success of Elevate, and we are pleased to serve in an advisory capacity.”

Underscoring its commitment to advancing clean energy solutions and workplace diversity, Southern Company and its subsidiaries are actively engaged in collaborations with various companies funded by Elevate, including ChargerHelp! and Rheaply.

ChargerHelp! is an electric vehicle charging station and maintenance company. Southern Company subsidiary Georgia Power is currently collaborating with ChargerHelp! on a series of local employee trainings and an 18-month pilot focused on electric vehicle infrastructure and renewable technologies.

Rheaply is a cloud-based resource exchange platform that enables organizations to trade materials and resources more efficiently, avoid carbon emissions and reduce spending. Southern Company subsidiaries are collaborating with Rheaply to leverage this resource management solution. Nicor Gas has piloted Rheaply software, and Georgia Power, Southern Company Gas and Southern Company Services are currently working with Rheaply to implement a similar pilot program in Georgia. Additionally, Southern Company is exploring the potential for additional deployments of Rheaply’s solution more broadly.

“Having Southern Company’s support at the helm of what we’re building at Elevate is invaluable,” explains Anthony Oni, managing partner at EIP. “Their commitment to helping our companies test, learn and scale provides us with important data, insights and partnerships to better support underrepresented founders. They exemplify the EIP model of collaboration, and we look forward to many more partnerships that support diversity, equity and inclusion within the energy ecosystem.”

About Energy Impact Partners

Energy Impact Partners LP (EIP) is a global investment firm leading the transition to a sustainable future. EIP brings together entrepreneurs and the world’s most forward-looking energy and industrial companies to advance innovation. With over $3 billion in assets under management, EIP invests globally across venture, growth, credit and infrastructure – and has a team of over 80 professionals based in its offices in New York, Atlanta, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Palm Beach, London, Cologne and Oslo. For more information on EIP, please visit www.energyimpactpartners.com.