The DO Black credit card with a CO2 emission limit, grew from the insight that an impactful tool was needed to help people understand and act in line with the severity of reaching the UN reduction goals of the IPCC-report 2030 goals. This credit card goes against all commercial logic, limiting the spending power of consumers. It's the first time anything but monetary value defines consumption. A radical tool for radical times, bringing together two giants representing diametrically different perspectives. Injecting responsibility at the core of consumption.

2018 Doconomy launched a service called DO, a mobile application linked to a payment card, cretaing a profile of user’s consumption-based climate impact. This profile is created by applying an impact value to categorized products and services (Åland Index). Doconomy aim to change consumer behavior by creating awareness of daily choices impact, enable more conscious decisions and provide credible options to offset their climate impact, delivering on the Doconomy brand promise: Everyday Climate Action

But how could a small Swedish startup be perceived as a leader in climate action and engage potential customers worldwide promoting a commitment to CO2 reduction goals? The brief was to position Doconomy with limited resources as a disruptive, unique and credible agent for change.

The desired outcome is to establish Doconomy as the most innovative and tangible solution addressing climate change, resulting in awareness, user adoption and productive new partnerships.

There’s a definite, data substantiated, emotional driver connected to climate change, but there’s a lack of concrete solutions and tangible tools that engage and activate consumers.

DO Black is a radical new tool against climate change. It’s the first card with a CO2-emission limit, stopping you from overspending, not based on available funds but on the impact caused by your consumption.

The innovation combines three functions. Adapting the ability to measure the impact of every transaction (Åland Index), the set CO2-emission limit calculated per country/capita, and the payment system integration of CO2-emission limit overriding the accounts financial credit level.

The intention is to make a tangible solution, resulting in awareness, user adoption and productive new partnerships impacting every transaction.

This simple yet tangible idea of a CO2-emmission limit will forever change the payment solution industry. Injecting responsibility at the core of consumption.

Research from our pilot market identified several opportunities. 98% of Swedes believe to be impacted by climate change, and 78% want to mitigate this on personal level. 70% say habits are an obstacle. We conducted workshops with WWF, Ålandsbanken and Stockholm School of Economics to identify challenges, cultural frame and define audience opportunities.

The strategy to reach the target audience (young adults) was to develop a tool that enabled them to drive change and support the targets in the Paris Agreement.

The collaborative approach uniting two giants the UN and Mastercard creating an alliance of the willing was important to reach and credibility.

The collaboration enabled development of the first card with a CO2 limit. The limit is calculated with public data, from UNFCCC and World of Data (Oxford) amongst other, to set the monthly limit of CO2 emission from consumption/country/capita in accordance with 50 % reduction in UN’s IPCC-report.

DO Black scales with ease and CO2-limit per country is calculated with public data connected to the global platform of Mastercard.

Over 40 banks from all over the world are already in contact to discuss collaborations/white label solutions, and other credit card companies have reached out to discuss a potential collaboration to implement the idea.

Placement only in earned media and with partners communication.

2018, March, tech pre-study for Doconomy

2018, June, Tech dev of first platform

2018, September, first negotiations with UN

2018, October, communications launch of Doconomy

2019, February, MOU from UN

2019, March, Approval from Mastercard

2019, April, Launch of DO Black

2019, April, Production initiated DO Black

2019, October, DO Black delivered

Long-term outcome is to increase awareness and contribute to drastic reduction of CO2-emissions from consumption with 50% by 2030.

The CO2-limit innovation is a scalable stand-alone application, adaptable to different markets, relevant all credit card and payment solutions. The CO2-limit, although mandatory on DO Black, can be offered as an optional function on existing accounts.

Intention to make Doconomy perceived as a (1) helpful solution, (2) resulting in awareness, (3) user adoption and (4) productive partnerships.

1. “DO Black” is in production with CO2-limit per country/capita calculated.

2. Awareness built with earned media reach of +20.000.000 and keynotes at sustainability/fintech summits worldwide.

3. All initial targets have been exceeded, with 4 000 user registrations in Sweden alone.

4. +40 banks worldwide and credit card companies have reached out to discuss collaboration. Ms. Espinosa, UNFCCC has a publicly endorsed Doconomy and Mastercard has defined Doconomy as “the future of sustainable payments”.