ekko Unveils Nature Footprint for Payment Providers to Embed Sustainability Into Spending
Every time you tap your card to pay for groceries, fuel, or a coffee, the natural world absorbs a cost you’ve never been able to see, until now. Mission-led fintech ekko has launched what it calls a world-first: the ekko Nature Footprint biodiversity metric, a real-time tool embedded directly into the payment experience that shows consumers exactly how their spending affects the living natural world.
The Nature Footprint translates complex biodiversity modelling into a clear, real-time metric covering impacts from habitat loss and land use to pollution, giving consumers a more holistic view of environmental impact that complements existing carbon footprinting solutions. It is the first tool of its kind to bring biodiversity measurement to the actual point of payment, not buried in a sustainability report, but right there at checkout.
The footprint is calculated using transaction amounts, merchant category codes, country of purchase, and a life-cycle assessment built on ekko’s proprietary methodology, developed alongside Nature Positive, an expert-driven environmental and social sustainability consultancy. It draws on peer-reviewed, internationally recognised data sources including EXIOBASE, GLOBIO, AWARE water stress indicators, and CDC Biodiversité’s Global Biodiversity Score.
To make the data digestible for everyday consumers, the indicative footprint is translated into a relatable area of nature affected, such as the size of a football pitch or a parking space. That kind of tangibility is exactly what’s been missing from the sustainable finance conversation.
Oli Cook, CEO and Co-Founder of ekko, says the scale of the opportunity is staggering. With 1 trillion purchases happening every year, even 1% of those contributing to meaningful environmental projects could unlock extraordinary impact. Research shows 80% of consumers want to live more sustainably, but until now they haven’t had a tangible picture of the environmental impact of their everyday purchases.
The ekko Nature Footprint biodiversity metric doesn’t stop at awareness. It also enables payment providers to offer consumers the option to take action at checkout, such as rounding up purchases to contribute to vetted environmental projects. Working with partners across the payments ecosystem, ekko aims to channel $1 billion USD into sustainability projects worldwide by the end of 2030.
Chief Sustainability Officer Majda Dabaghi described the broader vision, saying the tool is built on the same scientific foundations used by institutional biodiversity analysts, but made accessible through the banking and payment experiences people already use daily. The goal, she said, is to help build infrastructure for an economy that accounts for not just financial cost, but environmental cost too, and makes it possible for everyone, everywhere, to do something about it.
For banks, payment processors, and merchants, this represents more than an ESG checkbox. By embedding nature education and action into day-to-day spending, commercial partners gain an opportunity to deepen customer engagement and retention, stand out in a crowded market, and strengthen their relevance with increasingly values-driven customers.
The ekko Nature Footprint biodiversity metric marks a clear shift in sustainable finance, from back-office compliance to a front-end customer proposition. Whether this becomes the new baseline for payment providers will depend on how quickly Tier 1 financial institutions move to adopt it. But the infrastructure, it seems, is ready.
