Launched in 2018, Doconomy is now the global leader in the growing impact industry, enabling transactional carbon calculations for banks worldwide. Its Åland Index methodology is implemented in the global platform of Mastercard, rolling out the CO2 metric offering to over 2.9 billion cards. The Doconomy Impact API processes over 1.5B transactions worldwide.

These results have been achieved through an original partnership strategy, scaling a game-changing creative idea to a global standard. Based on consumer and business insights, supported by scientific facts, this strategy was diligently applied, leading to an ecosystem of impact data services.

To address mindless mass consumption and educate around impact, the creative team launched the Åland Index beta version in 2017 in partnership with the Bank of Åland, the world’s first methodology for CO2 impact per credit card transaction. It positioned Ålandsbanken as a sustainability frontrunner, achieving global recognition as a creative idea that transformed the credit card into a vehicle for more informed purchase decisions.

The objective was to turn the creative idea into a scalable global business, making environmental impact calculations accessible to global banks, driving behavioral change, directing capital, and incentivizing conscious consumption.

Success is measured in KPIs divided in two verticals:

1. Number of clients and calculations performed, markets size, user reach, media reach and market preference.

2. Our B2B2C model's progress is measured in our clients’ success metrics such as awareness, engagement, reduced CO2 impact, increased deposits, revenue, client acquisition cost and NPS.

The existential challenge faced by Doconomy is to connect consumption to its impact on the planet, providing a sustainable lifestyle for all, to future proof life on the planet. The Åland Index presented a theoretical solution, but it needed to be efficiently scaled.

The business challenge was scaling a creative idea into a global solution, providing a standard in environmental impact calculations.

Interpretation: Doconomy had to rewire the already existing commercial systems, connecting individuals’ financial lives to their impact on the planet.

Target market: Primarily global banks and other financial institutions. As an end-point, all cardholders in the world.

The desired outcome

- Create a world standard for applied impact for transactions.

- Build global cardholder reach.

- Recruit global businesses & sustainability pioneers as partners.

- Consequently helping all to track, measure and reduce their CO2 impact to meet the reduction targets.

Research confirms strong consumer interest for climate-friendly banking services, but also reveals a lack of tools available. Our insights stem from both public data and joint research with the UN, WWF, IKEA, Mastercard and Stockholm School of Economics.

Our strategy was to partner with leading banks, using a One-to-Many approach for distribution, to build and implement fully automated environmental impact calculations on global scale.

We created powerful, unorthodox strategic partnerships:

1. Mastercard – global distribution with 2,9 billion credit cards.

2. UN Climate Change – science based global climate expertise.

3. S&P Global Trucost – leading institution for environmental impact and CO2 societal cost.

The partnerships strategy was to attract diametrically different expertise to a mutual goal: setting the standard in calculating the environmental impact linked to financial transactions. Further scaling this, the Doconomy Impact API allows connections to services providing product-level environmental impact calculations for even greater accuracy.

The creative idea was to reinvent the credit card as a vehicle for conscious consumption by creating the Doconomy Impact API, the world’s first API for environmental impact calculations, efficiently scaling the Åland Index methodology globally.

By enabling all banks to connect with the Doconomy Impact API we aimed to rewire the financial system creating the breeding ground for digital services that will trigger positive behavior change at scale. Banks and brands around the world can now engage users daily to track, measure, and reduce their environmental impact in line with CO2 reduction targets. The idea was driven by the need to educate the many and insights about the lack of accessibility, comparability, educational impact metrics, and automated calculations.

By 2022, the Doconomy Impact API has sold carbon impact calculations to 32 banks representing over 500 million users, with 167 million active users in 33 countries on 5 continents. The API has processed 1,5 billion transactions worldwide.

Earned media attention reached a combined value of over 60M€.

Doconomy attracted over 25M€ in investments from global companies (Mastercard, Citi Ventures, Ingka Group), is valued today at 100M€ and forecast 1 billion user reach by Q1 2023.

The API is driving significant gains for banks (listed in the confidential section). Among these, increases in net revenue and retention rate for checking accounts as well as stronger performance of savings accounts integrating the API, when compared to similar products without the API.

In June 2022 Sweden will become the first country in the world to enable carbon calculations for all credit card transactions, based on the Doconomy Impact API.

Long-term strategic pillars:

- B2B2C approach, corresponding to a one-to-many distribution strategy, driving a rapid increase in reach in spite of the small size of Doconomy.

- Diverse partnerships, bringing together financial institutions, civil society, sustainability pioneers and global data providers; “to stand on the shoulders of giants”.

- The SDG framework, guiding product development and partnership prioritization.

- Behavioral science shaping UX design excellence through SDKs, accelerating B2B2C service focus.

The strategic pillars evolved together, supporting a dynamic pace of launches:

2019: Doconomy Impact API and carbon emission limit (DO Black).

2020: a portfolio of SDKs for banks and product level carbon footprint calculations (2030 Calculator).

2021: Mastercard Carbon Calculator implementation, H2O impact factor and lifestyle assessment tool (Lifestyle Calculator) in partnership with the UN.

This framework enabled Doconomy to stay true to its mission, providing a sustainable lifestyle for all, while flexibly acting on an emerging market’s opportunities.