Doconomy is a world leading provider of applied impact solutions. The company was founded in Sweden in 2018 to future-proof life on planet earth by empowering individuals and corporations to take responsibility for their environmental footprint.
Doconomy’s technology is currently used by financial institutions with over 550 million customers worldwide and the organization is a partner to the UN, WWF, Mastercard, S&P and Parley For the Oceans. Through these partnerships, Doconomy provides climate footprint calculations for the digital transactions performed by end users. Think carbon accounting for credit cards.
In fact, the company’s partnership with Mastercard does just that. By tracking the CO2 emissions generated from users’ transactions, then displaying that data through a suite of mobile SDKs, the price of a purchase is connected to its effect on the planet, measured in KgCO2.
This enables everyday people to understand the emissions profile of their spending and, therefore, much of their consumption—the first step to taking meaningful climate action. For the next step, the Stockholm-based company partnered with Patch in 2021 to provide users with access to the broadest selection of carbon credits on the market—from nature-based projects to biochar, mineralization, and kelp—in order to offset those emissions.
“It was of utmost importance that we not only inform people, but also offer lifestyle tips and contribution opportunities, such as carbon credit projects of high quality with real, verifiable impact that lasts over time,” explains Mathias Wikström, CEO at Doconomy. “Patch offered the solution we could trust.”
As a climate tech leader, Doconomy needed to be sure it was walking the walk when it came to its own corporate footprint. For that, too, the company turned to Patch.
Getting carbon credits right
Patch connects companies of all sizes with trusted carbon credits from an expertly vetted, broad scope of projects. In Doconomy’s case, the company was looking to purchase carbon credits corresponding to its total corporate emissions.
This was not the first time that Doconomy would purchase carbon credits for its own emissions footprint. The previous projects chosen, however, only included traditional carbon credit solutions, with no representation given to more innovative frontier technologies. This was largely due to one of its key principles, which stipulated that any carbon credits purchased already be registered and certified, thus not allowing for future vintages.
Certification, however, precludes many frontier, human-engineered carbon removal technologies that are simply too young to have had their methodologies certified.
“As a forward-thinking technology company at the forefront of climate-impact enablement, Doconomy understood the need to also contribute to frontier technologies that have some of the greatest potential to positively affect climate change, in addition to more traditional methodologies,” says Brennan Spellacy, Co-founder and CEO of Patch.
To balance the two, Doconomy’s Impact team worked with Patch’s Climate Solutions team to conceive a contribution approach to mitigating its corporate carbon footprint. This would split its budget between traditional, certified carbon credits and high-impact, human-engineered technologies that could really move the needle.
Social impact at the forefront
But Doconomy wanted to go further. To achieve maximum effect, it agreed that its frontier carbon credits should cover the social cost of carbon (SCC), or the dollar value estimate of all economic damage—from changes in agricultural output to declines in human health and labor productivity—that result from emitting one tonne of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. At Doconomy, this number is currently set at roughly $132.
The resulting portfolio combined enough certified carbon credits to correspond to the 114 tonnes emitted, with high-impact frontier projects that took up the bulk of the company’s budget, including Neustark Concrete Mineralization and Running Tide Ocean Carbon Removal.
“The Climate Solutions team at Patch helped us construct the best possible approach to ensure we were making the greatest impact,” says Wikström.
Growing together
As Doconomy continues to help the financial world drive positive climate action, it will also keep supporting forward-leaning solutions that offer genuine climate impact. At a recent conference it hosted in Stockholm, for example, the company made a bulk donation of carbon credits in honor of the event and its attendees. These, too, came from human-engineered technologies.
“Given the standing of Doconomy in the world of climate action, the visibility this places on important yet lesser-known carbon removal solutions is priceless,” concludes Spellacy. “Others are taking note.”
