As readers of our Credit Card Monitor Update know, Barclay’s recently announced their Gconomy Visa Card, which rewards customers for environmentally friendly actions like recycling. Bank of America also offers an eco-conscious card – the Brighter Planet EarthSmart Points Visa – which works to build renewable energy projects across the US.

While I can appreciate firms’ desire to green themselves up and appeal to eco-conscious consumers, I find it a bit ironic that these the cards themselves are made with petroleum-based polyvinyl chloride acetate (PVCA), which is non-recyclable. Indeed, according to a study by TruCert Ltd., commissioned by MasterCard, the CO2 footprint of a card is 21 grams, including the energy and water consumed in production, roughly the equivalent of five bank checks, 13 dollar bills, or the gas to drive a Hummer 150 feet.

It would seem to me that if firms wanted to truly offer a green product,  they might do some combination of the following:

  • Print these eco-cards on a recyclable medium such as aluminum (if that’s possible) or PET. This might be more expensive, but eco-conscious people would probably pay for it.
  • Offer rewards points that could be used to purchase carbon offsets
  • Make them exclusively web-based (that is, no paper statements or mailers)

It’s one thing to talk the talk of “green” cards, it’s another to design a green experience around the card that eco-conscious consumers can wholeheartedly support.

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