Sphere's climate tech to reach 66m cardholders in Asia

The Australian FinTech company Sphere has announced its carbon action technology will be made accessible to up to 66 million cardholders in Asia through collaborations with several banks in the region.

Two Vietnamese banks, Techcombank and Sacombank, are set to provide the new service to their customers, with Sacombank planning to offer the service from May 2025. This move follows collaborations with Malaysian banks Maybank and Public Bank, enabling Visa cardholders to monitor and manage their carbon footprints via their banking apps.

Sphere's Chief Executive Officer, Shaun Lordan, indicated the initiative to extend Sphere's technology to work alongside merchants and payments platforms both in Australia and the Asia Pacific region. This expansion aims to automate climate emissions reporting while enabling consumers to take environmentally significant actions at the point of sale.

"It's great to see our innovative climate tech being adopted by international banks who can offer millions of customers the opportunity to better understand their carbon footprint and take positive climate action," said Shaun Lordan, CEO of Sphere.

The technology implemented by Sphere is designed to assist merchants and payment systems with their climate-related Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting needs. Sphere aids these entities in comprehending their carbon emissions through high-quality data, reducing their emissions, and investing in quality offset projects where necessary. Crucially, this approach also allows them to offer consumers informed purchasing decisions and carbon footprint monitoring at the checkout.

Sphere's platform is built on an API and modular construct that allows easy integration for financial institutions and merchants. This technological solution combines Australian-developed card payments technology with research from Swinburne University of Technology, a key equity partner with Sphere.

The expansion in Asia includes a partnership with Visa's Asia Pacific and Central Europe, Middle East and Africa regions, providing Sphere with access to hundreds of banks across up to 100 markets worldwide.

The aim of Sphere's climate technology is to support cardholders in managing their carbon footprints related to day-to-day card spending. This includes offering options to offset emissions through micro-investments in verified carbon reduction projects, which carry at least an A rating.

Using artificial intelligence and machine learning, Sphere's technology offers consumers a detailed analysis of their everyday spending, ultimately providing them with an accurate carbon footprint assessment, advice on emissions reduction, and opportunities for micro-investments in carbon reduction initiatives to make carbon action easy.

"Given that around 70 per cent of global emissions come from the things we buy every day, we want to drive genuine change at the individual level on the world's path to net zero," commented Mr Lordan.

"Consumers are looking for ways to make better and more informed buying decisions with around 95% of considering the sustainability of a product to be important, and 62% willing to change their purchasing habits to reduce environmental impact. If customers want to take further action, we provide them with the opportunity to easily offset their emissions with micro investments in quality environmental programs with a minimum A rating," Mr Lordan elaborated.