Green Visa card under scrutiny

News Article - 18 September 2008
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Visa is to launch a new credit card for business customers which is aimed to help those accounting for carbon emissions, but the plan has come under scrutiny.

The card will calculate and offset the carbon emissions of the items it used to buy, but can only group them into 24 categories, reports BusinessGreen.com.

Users can log into a website to look at their purchases and their carbon emissions measurement for each transaction and how that is to be offset.

The card will be launched in partnership with Repay International, which has a carbon footprint calculator for businesses.

"This new partnership means that we can offer members a green payment capability across Europe that addresses the increasing demand for sustainable initiatives," said Visa Commercial head Luc Janssen.

However, when asked by BusinessGreen.com how the carbon footprint of any item bought anywhere in the world could be known, Repay told the website: "We group products and services into one of 24 categories based on the merchant code of the transaction.

"The carbon emissions of a unit in that category are then offset."

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