Barclaycard has today announced plans to develop a credit card aimed at helping customers cut their home's carbon footprint.
The new Barclaycard Breathe Easy card is planned to launch in summer next year and would offer customers the chance to exploit a preferential rate of interest when buying energy saving products.
Under the proposals, a customer using the new card to buy house insulation, for example, would face monthly repayments in line with the savings they would achieve from their energy costs. As a result, Barclaycard claims, energy saving home improvements would become far more affordable and, once the loan was paid off, customers would be able to enjoy lower energy bills for as long as they stayed in the house.
"Many homeowners are put off investing in greater home energy efficiency by the cost of doing so and the long time it takes for their investment to pay them back in terms of lower energy bills," said Marcus Agius, chairman of Barclaycard and a member of the CBI's climate change taskforce. "Barclaycard Breathe Easy addresses this challenge and is a good example of the role that financial institutions can play in helping consumers reduce household carbon emissions."
The announcement follows the launch this summer of Barclaycard's Breathe card, which donates half of its profits to projects dedicated to reducing carbon emissions and offers users discounts and preferential rates of interest on purchases of green products and services.
Energy giant points out that home workers have most to gain from energy-saving measures 16 Oct 2007
Influential economist warns latest science suggests it will take two per cent of global GDP to keep atmospheric concentrations of CO2 at safe levels 27 Jun 2008
CBI warns 2020 emissions targets are unlikely to be met, but insists 2050 goals can be achieved at "manageable cost" 26 Nov 2007
Intelligent Energy ramps up funding for R&D and partnerships 04 Jul 2008
Focus on energy savings through fuel efficiency for homes and public and commercial buildings 04 Jul 2008
ActionAid accuses G8 of driving more people into poverty by pursing biofuels and cutting agri-aid 04 Jul 2008
More news
Businesses' new found focus on the environment may be welcome, but according to Conrad MacKerron, it is taking attention away from workers' rights issues – and the credibility of the entire green business movement could be at risk 03 Jul 2008
It may be a year old, but as Dell's Jonathan Perry explains, firms looking to get rid of their old IT kit still need to pay attention to the WEEE directive 02 Jul 2008
Telling customers about your environmental targets is all well and good but, as Paul Thomas argues, they are meaningless if you do not know how they are to be achieved 01 Jul 2008 More in-depth
Post your comment
Send an email to the Business Green editor at feedback@businessgreen.com
