With “Change That Counts,” Ando empowers users to plant planet-healing trees and pledges to match each tree planted for the first 100,000 trees
Ando, the sustainable banking fintech platform, launched a program in which customers can plant a tree by rounding up every purchase they make with their Ando Visa Debit Card. For as little as one penny, each rounded-up purchase equals one planted tree (the average cost to plant a tree, including administration of the program, is about 50 cents). Participants in the program already earn unlimited 1.5% cashback on every purchase every day, and as Ando CEO JP McNeill reminds:
“The national average for a debit card purchase is $38.00. Since the Ando Visa Debit card earns you unlimited 1.5% on every transaction, that’s $0.57 cashback on the average purchase. So really, every swipe earns you money and enables you to plant a tree, a win/win.”
Ando has partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation and Eden Reforestation Project to coordinate the actual planting.
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To jumpstart Change that Counts, Ando has pledged to match each customer-planted tree for the first 100,000 trees, resulting in 200,000 trees, or 11 times the number of trees in NYC’s Central Park. While the project will initially focus on planting new trees, Ando plans to evolve into protecting mature, existing trees, an effort that will have a more immediately positive climate impact.
“By using the purchase power of an Ando debit card to plant a tree,” said JP McNeill, CEO of Ando, “our customers are collectively making a tangible, quantifiable impact on reducing the amount of carbon pollution in our atmosphere.”
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A study published in the journal Science found that Earth has the capacity for an additional 0.9 billion hectares of continuous forest which would be able to capture the equivalent of 25% of the carbon currently in the atmosphere. One acre of mature trees absorbs the same amount of CO produced by a car over 26,000 miles (about two years-worth of driving). Planting new trees is seen as a critical component for mitigating climate change, along with other carbon-reducing measures.
Beyond the environmental benefits, planting new trees also creates local employment opportunities in the remote and economically challenged regions that are typically best suited for reforestation. Eden Reforestation Projects, which works with communities in Madagascar, Mozambique, Kenya, Nepal, Indonesia, Haiti, Central America and Brazil, provides more than 11,500 people with fair-wage employment. And their Nepalese project is proudly led by a female team.
Ando customers can track the trees they’ve planted, cashback received, and carbon they’ve helped capture through their personalized Impact Center on Ando’s mobile app, the window to the world-changing power of their money. Ando is the only banking service to commit 100% of company money and customer deposits toward companies that fight climate change. Also, Ando never charges a fee for any of their best-in-class, premium banking features.
Ando customers can enroll in the Change That Counts program through the Ando mobile app.
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