SUSTAINABILITY hen David Lais co-founded ecolytiq, the central question was whether climate engagement was something banking customers wanted.
Now that ecolytiq has hit its five-year milestone, we reflect on a previous conversation with David, who says customer climate engagement is no longer a question of if, but when.
As Managing Director of the climate engagement solution provider, he’ s witnessed firsthand how financial institutions have continued to play a significant role in climate change – and why they’ re uniquely positioned to reverse course.
Banking’ s climate responsibility and opportunity“ For decades, banks have played a significant role in contributing to climate change – providing loans, insurance and other financial services to the fossil fuel companies responsible for a vast amount of the damage we see on our environment today,” says David.
Despite this history, David believes banks are“ in one of the best positions to make considerable progress and set in motion climate engagement and real action at a global scale”.
The opportunity lies in their unprecedented reach.
Financial institutions have“ a unique medium to engage credibly and persuasively with over 76 % of the world’ s population” and“ provide them with clear insights on their individual, personal carbon footprints based on transaction data”, David says.
Yet progress has been slow. A recent report from the Transition Pathway Initiative Global Climate Transition Centre revealed that only five of 26 global banks had disclosed quantitative results of climate scenario analyses to shareholders and clients.
“ While we are seeing the beginnings of banks making some change – across Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions with some international banks having made commitments to become net zero by 2050 or sooner – there is no doubt we’ re still miles off where we want to be at this point,” David explains.
The data transparency imperative For David, data transparency is the fuel needed to drive monumental change in the financial sector’ s approach to sustainability.
“ The next frontier for the market is for a whole-scale adoption of‘ radical transparency’, illustrating a deep commitment to honesty and integrity around sustainability,” he argues.
“ What we’ re facing in the market at the moment is a complete lack of a standardised framework that works at scale.”
This is where ecolytiq’ s approach stands out.
The company offers a three-stage climate engagement journey that begins with education – providing CO2e footprints for each transaction – before engaging consumers through personalised insights and ultimately
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