Green banking - just hype or here to stay?

Barely a week goes buy without another “carbon neutral” business initiative.

Westpac has launched a new scheme that allows its Altitude credit card holders to use reward points to offset the greenhouse gas emissions of their car, air travel, or household.

Customers can also use points for energy and water-saving packs containing energy-saver light globes and a water-saving showerhead. Westpac says about half of its customers already hold enough reward points to offset the 6.29 tonnes of CO2 pollution generated by an average single-person household in a year.

Hot on the heels of Westpac, this week saw online mortgage provider MyRate launch what it says is Australia’s first carbon-neutral home loan. MyRate says for every home loan it creates, 94kg of CO2 is emitted – the equivalent of driving 330km in a standard two-litre sedan. MyRate will now purchase carbon offsets for every tonne of CO2 it emits in order to stay carbon neutral.

There’s no doubt climate change is a hot topic. The question is, how influential are these initiatives on consumer purchasing behaviour? Will consumers choose the “carbon neutral” product over its somewhat less exciting “carbon-emitting” alternative?

We’ve written about financial institutions “going green” before, but what do you think? Is green banking here to stay or is it just hype?