MC GreenPay a wolf in sheep’s clothing?
Mastercard has announced its new GreenPay credit card. Does anyone else smell a really timely and clever marketing gimmick?
Indeed, Payment News reports that the highly touted credit cards rewards will in this case go toward the purchase of carbon credits instead of airline miles or cash.
The concept of purchasing carbon credits, also known as carbon offsetting, is a bit of an unpioneered frontier. There are numerous companies, some more reputable than others, accepting money in exchange for the responsibility of “retiring” a certain amount of carbon emissions, in correlation with the amount of money paid. This essentially boils down to investing dollars into projects that promote energy efficiency and other eco-friendly principles in agriculture, forestry, coal mining, etc.
New cardholders will receive a signing bonus of 10,000 pounds of carbon offsets - enough to counterbalance the equivalent, so claims MasterCard, to a car’s annual carbon emissions for a year. Every net dollar spent on the card to pay for gas and household utilities will yield 10 pounds of carbon offsetting. For every net dollar spent on the card for other expenses, five pounds of carbon offsetting will be generated. The article claims cardholders can become “carbon neutral” by using the card and paying no annual membership fees.
Carbon neutral is a lofty goal aspired to by such productions as the most recent Academy Awards and MTV Video Music Awards ceremonies, as well as the Universal Studios film Evan Almighty. Carbon offsetting is the hottest thing going.
However, most environmental enthusiasts will probably tell you:
A) Carbon offsetting has yet to reach its prime and may not be ready for its own credit card.
B) One environmental principle: less is more. In the words of Sheryl Crow, “It’s not having what you want. It’s wanting what you’ve got.” Credit cards may not fit into the equation, there - except in emergencies.
C) The best thing of all is to replace gas-powered vehicles with hybrids, biodiesel or other alternative energy sources. Same goes for the utilities. Solar panels and rain barrels are the new hot household items, in some cases eliminating the need for utilities entirely (and thus the need for carbon offsetting).
What do you think? Is GreenPay long overdue? Or is it a quick fix of the conscience for people who really don’t want to change their lifestyle?
