Deutsche Bank has developed an app, currently in the prototype phase, designed to enable clients to track and manage their own carbon footprints, while combining these efforts with financial and investment goals.

The app, GreenR, was conceived by DWS Treasury Manager Lorena Saenz de Alba, as part of Deutsche Bank’s Intrapreneur Initiative. GreenR is designed to link directly to a client’s Deutsche Bank accounts and translate their last six months of bank transactions, “from where and what you eat, to how you move around,” into how much C02 they produce. The app will then present a set of challenges designed to reduce the client’s C02 footprint, such buying local products, or eating less meat.

The app is also designed to promote make the management of the client’s carbon footprint financially beneficial. It will enable clients to offset their remaining carbon footprints by providing a range of environmental project investments.

Saenz de Alba said:

“Typically you have the option to donate to specific environmental projects to offset your C02 output. This is money you won’t see again. Our idea is to instead have a range of investments focused on environmental projects that, for example, help to reduce C02 or to reforest, so you’re getting both an economic and an environmental return. And the money you’re investing comes from the savings you’ve made by making small, environmentally-friendly changes in your behaviour.”

Saenz de Alba believes that GreenR will appeal not only to clients’ desire to live more sustainably, but also to their emerging demand for innovative, digital banking products. She explained:

“GreenR isn’t just about getting people to invest in our products and being more environmentally conscious, it’s also a rare opportunity to understand the needs of this generation and to learn from them. Digital on-demand services are part of this generation’s DNA, and digital banking products are becoming more popular also. If Deutsche Bank can be a part of this evolution, we can strengthen the close relationships we have with our clients.

“Being able to offer services like GreenR will help us attract more of those clients that we’re not reaching at the moment – and help us become even more relevant to this specific client segment.”