Finland has an app to calculate carbon footprint based on user's purchases

Shoppers will soon be able to work out the true carbon footprint of their purchases thanks to an app from one of the most digitally savvy nations in the world.

Unlike other carbon-footprint calculators already on the market, the application developed by Enfuce Financial Services Oy, a Finnish payment services provider, does not rely on users inputting the data manually. Instead, it combines data from credit cards and banks with purchase data from retailers to provide real-time calculations of how a given product affects the climate.

With an estimated 70% of carbon emissions globally attributed to end users, Enfuce chairman and co-founder Monika Liikamaa says the app will help people adapt their lifestyles and make them compatible with the goal of keeping global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius.

“There’s a huge change that needs to occur,” Liikamaa said.

The average Finn needs to reduce emissions from about 10.4 tons of CO2 a year to about 2 tons, according to lifestyle carbon footprint research by D-mat Oy. That requires getting accurate information on “how their behavior impacts the climate,” she said in an interview. Read More