Is profiting off of the green movement wrong?

February 7, 2008

Recently banks have been putting out credit cards with green rewards programs. Think: carbon offsets instead of free plane tickets. However, according to the Wall Street Journal’s calculations, these banks are paying back on average the equivalent of less than 2% of the users’ purchases towards carbon offsets. The Journal notes that standard rewards cards pay around 3%. This raises the question of whether the banks are taking advantage of customers’ good will towards the environment in order to increase their margins, by decreasing the amount they have to pay in rewards?

Of course nothing these banks are doing is (or should be) illegal. But is it immoral? The Journal also notes that: “For financial institutions, adding green cards to their product lines is a way to boost their own corporate environmental credentials.” So basically, by offering green rewards cards, the banks are having their cake and eating it too. They increase the value of their brand by appearing to be environmentally friendly and they increase the value of their bottom line by decreasing the percentage of purchases that must be rewarded back.

While this seems a little shady, in our opinion it is a good thing when large corporations implement green consumer strategies. It is no secret that the goal of corporations is to make a profit. So when an industry finds a way to make added profit by going “green” this can only benefit the environment. Critics may say, “yeah, but they should reward the same percentage as for regular cards.” But the truth is they don’t. At least not now. So until more competition comes along offering a higher green reward this will have to do. It is an interesting step in the right direction.

Here is a list of three green rewards cards compiled by the Journal:

Bank of America

General Electric

Meta Bank

Photo credit.

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