As the world gathers for COP 26, the Dutch challenger bank has confirmed its own contribution to the fight against climate change, while being recognised for its green efforts to date.
Amsterdam, 11 November 2021: bunq today announced its users have planted over 5 million trees as a result of their activity with the bank, offsetting the amount of carbon equivalent to over 1.6 million flights from New York to Paris.
The announcement comes a month after bunq was ranked 3rd in a list of 27 financial institutions active in the Netherlands. Fair Finance Guide Netherlands gave bunq a score of 8 - well above traditional major banks - in a report evaluating Dutch financial institutions’ climate commitments, policies and action plans.
bunq previously announced that it will actively focus on reducing its annual emissions of 8,100 tons of CO2, a fraction of the emissions footprint of the average financial institution. In this way, bunq is at the forefront of the green revolution, where technology is increasingly being used to address climate change and accelerate the transition to clean energy.
Sustainability is a virtue bunq’s users value so highly. Together, we are doing everything possible to redefine what banking is and what it can do for our planet. We hope today’s announcements show the impressive steps bunq has taken so far.Ali Niknam, founder and CEO of bunq
The 5 million tree mark was met during the second week of the COP 26 climate summit currently taking place in the UK. Every time a bunq Easy Green user spends €100 with any of their bunq cards, bunq donates a tree to Eden Reforestation Projects, a nonprofit NGO that works in developing countries to rebuild natural landscapes destroyed by deforestation.
About bunq
Founded in 2012 by serial entrepreneur Ali Niknam, bunq has brought lasting change to the European banking industry. By having its users at the heart of the business and building a product rooted in their wants and needs, bunq quickly scaled to become the second largest neobank in Europe. Serving digital nomads across Europe, bunq makes life easy for location-independent people and businesses starting from the way they manage money: how they spend, save, budget and invest.
Pioneering many things considered impossible, bunq was the first bank to get a European banking permit in over 35 years, raised the largest series A round ever secured by a European fintech (€193 million), and was the first EU neobank to achieve structural profitability at the end of 2022. On its mission to build the first global neobank for digital nomads, in April 2023, bunq announced its bid to enter the US market by applying for a banking license.