NatWest accused of ‘intrusion’ after starting new function that combs customers’ accounts to track their carbon footprint

• A ‘Carbon Footprint Tracker’ on the bank’s mobile app gives eco-friendly advice 

NatWest has been accused of ‘intrusion’ after starting a new function that combs customers’ accounts to track their carbon footprint. 

A ‘Carbon Footprint Tracker’ on the bank’s mobile app uses transaction data of its customers to make suggestions on how to reduce their carbon footprint based on their shopping habits. 

According to The Telegraph, the bank told customers to consider fixing their clothing instead of buying new items, and start drinking plant-based alternatives to dairy milk. 

The bank also urged customers to share car journeys, wash clothes in cold water and turn off tumble dryers. 

Under the spending part of the app, NatWest customers are told the impact of conventional buys. 

NatWest has been accused of ‘intrusion’ after starting a new function that combs customers’ accounts to track their carbon footprint (File image) 

The bank describes ways in which customers can change their diets to become more eco-friendly, such as going vegetarian (File image) 

In one example seen by The Telegraph, it reads: ‘If you spend £15 on a dress at a high-street shop, that could equate to a foot-print of 16kg CO2.’

The bank also describes ways in which customers can change their diets to become more eco-friendly, such as going vegetarian. 

Other lifestyle changes include buying old furniture and purchasing second-hand clothes. 

Customers have personalised carbon footprint scores in kilograms of Co2 based on their spending habits, it was reported. 

A message on the app reads: ‘The UK’s average monthly carbon footprint is approximately 1,000kgs [of CO2]. To help reduce the impact of climate change, scientists recommend that by 2030 we should aim for our carbon footprints to be around 180kgs’.

One customer, Faith Scott, said she thought the bank’s carbon footprint calculator was an ‘intrusion’. 

‘We don’t need all this preaching to us. I don’t take flights hither and thither. I grow my own vegetables and make my own food,’ she said.

MailOnline has contacted NatWest for comment. 

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