Track Better and Offset Better are the two features most recently rolled out on LiveBetter, a one-stop digital platform on the DBS digibank app that seeks to educate and empower users to make sustainable lifestyle choices and live more consciously.
Leveraging the bank’s proprietary carbon calculator, the Track Better feature automatically calculates and generates a customer’s estimated carbon footprint profile based on their qualifying DBS/POSB debit and credit card spends.
DBS has developed a carbon calculation methodology specially designed for customers in Singapore, which has been jointly verified with the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), a unit of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR).
Transactions charged to DBS/POSB debit and credit cards are automatically sorted into categories (e.g. restaurants/bars, fast food, clothing, public transport). The dollar value is then multiplied by an associated carbon multiplier to estimate its equivalent in greenhouse gas emissions.
The data will be used to generate customers’ personalised carbon profiles – comprising their total estimated footprint and category breakdowns, month-on-month comparisons, as well as how they fare compared to the average Singaporean.
This will be supplemented with simple yet useful information (e.g. what their carbon footprint means in terms of plastic bottles used, as well as sustainable living hacks to help reduce their footprint), aimed at helping customers to better understand what this means for the environment, and the actions they can take to address it.
Moving forward, the bank will continue to enhance the carbon calculator’s capabilities – such as by expanding category breadth and depth, as well as integrating other forms of transactional data (e.g. DBS PayLah!, fund transfers) – so as to build a more comprehensive picture of customers’ carbon footprint profiles.
DBS also plans to build and roll out localised versions of the carbon calculator to other key markets over time.
Beyond enabling customers to track and monitor their carbon footprint, customers now also have the option of offsetting it through the new Offset Better function.
They can choose their preferred carbon offset amount, rounded to the nearest kilogram, and can then offset it by participating in a curated portfolio of carbon projects that are focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Jeremy Soo, Head of Consumer Banking Group (Singapore) at DBS Bank said,
“Through LiveBetter, we seek to guide and empower our customers – many of whom may be unsure about how best to start, or may feel that what they can do as individuals is limited – to learn more, understand, and take action.
We believe every individual action makes a difference, and is an incremental step towards creating collective and transformative impact on our planet.”
These new features follow the platform’s successful launch last November – comprising Know Better, Invest Better and Give Better.
The initial offering enabled users to access eco-friendly tips and insights, kickstart their sustainability investing journey, as well as donate to their preferred social or environmental causes respectively.
In just six months, LiveBetter has attracted close to 200,000 unique users, and more than SG$ 8.2 million has been channeled into sustainable investments, and over SG$ 673,000 in donations were made in support of various campaigns.
