by Will Jones, Daily Sceptic:
NatWest is telling customers to stop eating meat and to drive electric cars after combing their accounts to calculate their carbon footprint. The Telegraph has the story.
A ‘Carbon Footprint Tracker’ on the bank’s mobile app uses the transaction data of customers and makes recommendations on how to reduce the amount of carbon production their shopping supports.
The bank has told customers to consider mending their clothing as opposed to going to high-street shops to buy new outfits, as well as stopping drinking dairy milk in favour of plant-based alternatives.
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It is also suggested that customers switch off tumble dryers, share car journeys, repair broken electronic devices themselves and wash their clothes in cold water.
Under the spending section of the bank’s app customers can switch between “my spending” and “my footprint”. Customers are told the impact of typical purchases.
In one example seen by this newspaper the app says: “If you spend £15 on a dress at a high-street shop, that could equate to a footprint of 16kg CO2.” Customers are also told how to cut their footprint, such as by buying clothes second hand.
Other recommendations tell customers to “save the planet” by turning off their central heating and taking fewer short-haul flights.
NatWest also outlines a number of ways customers may change their diets to become more eco-friendly, such as going vegetarian and partly vegan as well as cutting out beef and trying “meat-free Mondays”.
The bank’s app asks its users to try adding tofu and lentils to their diets as substitutes for eating meat.
Other lifestyle changes recommended by the bank include buying used furniture and renting or buying second-hand clothes.
