Vancity Carbon Counter

Financial institutions have a critical role to play in addressing the climate crisis, and Vancity is committed to using the tools of banking to affect positive change. One way to affect change is to offer our members a tool to connect their Vancity Visa card spending with environmental impact.  

We know that some Vancity members are looking for ways to reduce the impact they have on the environment. The optional Carbon Counter tool will equip cardholders with valuable information on their purchases and enable them to connect their daily spending decisions to the change they want to see in the world.  

If you’re a Vancity enviro Visa cardholder, the Vancity Carbon Counter can calculate your estimated carbon footprint (measured in CO₂e) based on how much you spend on different purchasing categories, like food, shopping, transportation, and more.  The term ‘CO₂e’ refers to the carbon dioxide equivalent and was created by the UN to measure the total warming effect of all greenhouse gases with one number.

Vancity enviro Visa cardholders will have the option to access the Carbon Counter when they log in to the  Manage my Visa card website. This includes Primary Cardholders of personal use cards and Account Administrators of business use cards that have registered on the website. Authorized Users do not have access to this website.

To learn more about how to register and use the Manage my Visa card website, click here.

No, the Carbon Counter is free to use.

No, the Carbon Counter is optional for Vancity enviro Visa cardholders to use. There will be an option to use the tool when you log in to your account on the Manage my Visa Card website, but no calculation will be made unless you choose to opt-in to using the tool. 

A button that links to the Carbon Counter is available within Manage my Visa card. As a cardholder, you can choose to access the tool to see your estimated carbon footprint.  

The Carbon Counter is optional for Vancity enviro Visa cardholders to use. Only cardholders (Primary Cardholders of personal use cards and Account Administrators of business use cards) can access the tool by logging in to the Manage my Visa card website — the same site used to view account details, opt out of paper statements, and more. From the Manage my Visa website, cardholders have the option to access the Carbon Counter tool after agreeing to the terms and conditions. Your data will not be shared with ecolytiq, our technology partner, to estimate your carbon footprint without your consent.

More information about Manage my Visa card can be found here.

Every time you click on the Carbon Counter link from Manage my Visa card, we will ask you if you want to use the Carbon Counter. You’ll need to click ‘Use the Carbon Counter’ before you can access the tool. If you do not accept, you’ll exit the tool.

Like many other websites, you’ll need to select your cookie settings before accessing the Carbon Counter. Only the strictly necessary cookies must be accepted to use the Carbon Counter.

The Carbon Counter is accessible through your web browser on mobile phones, desktops, and tablets.

While we recommend using the latest version of a web browser, the minimum version requirements to access the Carbon Counter include: 

• Google Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge – Version 100 or above 
• Safari – Version 15 or above 

Using one of recommended version of the web browsers listed above will ensure you’re getting the best experience. We do not recommend using browsers that are not listed as the Carbon Counter is not optimized for those not listed.  

If you skipped or want to modify your answers to the three profile questions that you saw the first time you used the Carbon Counter, you can do so by: 

1. Clicking on the Food category from the main dashboard page 
2. Clicking the pencil icon on the top right of the page 
3. Answering or modifying your settings and clicking “Save” 

Please note these changes will only apply to new transactions that are loaded into the Carbon Counter. They will not be applied to the transactions that have previously been loaded into the tool.

The Carbon Counter will show all your purchases when you open the tool, including pending and posted purchases.

While the date of your transaction will be the same in the Carbon Counter and Manage my Visa card, the month it appears under may be different. The transaction date is the date you made the purchase and will be the same in the Carbon Counter and Manage my Visa card. However, transactions in the Carbon Counter are sorted by calendar months (e.g., January would include transactions made from January 1 to 31 of that year) and transactions in Manage my Visa card are sorted by statement periods which can start and end in different months. For example, when you view your January transaction history in Manage my Visa card, you might see transactions that were posted between December to January depending on your cycle period dates. You can find your statement period dates at the top of your statements or printed monthly statements.

In the Carbon Counter, the estimated CO₂e value of a transaction is based on the merchant category code (MCC) of that transaction and publicly available data, studies and research. These calculations are estimated and don’t take into account the specific products that you buy. For some transactions with certain MCCs, we may be unable to estimate the CO₂e value so they would show up as 0 kg in the Carbon Counter. This may include some services, like parking, or purchases made via an online marketplace that sells items across many categories, like Amazon. A merchant’s MCC is usually set up by the company the merchant uses to accept credit card payments. We do not have any control over which MCC a merchant is assigned to.

Yes – if you choose to use the Carbon Counter, your data will be secure.

For those credit cardholders who choose to use the Carbon Counter, credit card transaction data (pending and posted) will be securely shared with Vancity’s technology partner, ecolytiq. The only permitted use of this data by ecolytiq is to estimate a carbon dioxide equivalent value for each transaction and provide the calculations to you. The transaction information is de-identified (meaning personal information is not shared and no one will be able to identify the specific person the data belongs to).   

By analyzing your spending data, the Carbon Counter estimates the amount of carbon emissions produced by your purchases. It assigns your transactions a CO₂e value which means carbon dioxide equivalent. 

These calculations are rough estimates based on shopping categories (i.e. food, transportation, shopping, living and other), and the average carbon emissions for that category based on publicly available data, studies and research.  We do not know, and do not take into account, the specific products or services that you bought. That’s why, for some transactions, we’ll ask you questions about your shopping decisions and habits. These questions are optional; you are not required to answer them in order to use the Carbon Counter.  If you choose to answer them, we can provide more accurate information about your carbon footprint and the steps you may be able to take to reduce it. 

The Carbon Counter will display:

• Up to 12 months of transaction history broken down into categories, like food, transportation, shopping, and more.
• Your estimated carbon footprint for each month based on your monthly spend and purchase categories. 
• The estimated carbon footprint value of each individual transaction, based on purchase categories. 
• An option to refine calculations by answering questions about grocery, restaurant, and flight transactions.

The Carbon Counter offers insights on how to reduce your carbon footprint and tips for more sustainable choices based on your transactions. You can refine your estimates by answering additional questions within the tool.