"If someone had told us in May 2021 that, thanks to our customers, we would have reached the milestone of 1 million trees planted just one year later, we wouldn't have believed it," says Jörg Sandrock, CEO of Zurich-based fintech company neon. Over the next few years, these trees will offset around 300,000 tons of C02 or the equivalent of the annual consumption of more than 21,000 Swiss people.
Neon users who use the sustainable smartphone account "neon green" plant one tree for every CHF 100 spent with their credit card. In addition, neon plants five more trees per month for all these account holders. In this way, the number of trees planted is growing rapidly.
"We are currently able to plant around 80,000 trees per month thanks to the more than 6,000 neon green users," says Sandrock. Since the beginning, the trees have been planted together with the non-profit organization Eden Reforestation Projects in various places around the world, including Madagascar and Haiti, where trees are urgently needed for reforestation or to combat land erosion. Various studies, including one by ETH Zurich, have shown that reforestation can make a significant contribution to limiting climate change. Together with the organization, neon is currently preparing to plant its own forest. "Planting trees in a neon forest, like the Ecosia search engine does, is a next step that we and our users are looking forward to," says Julius Kirscheneder, CMO at Neon.
More than just trees
However, planting trees to combat climate change is only one component of the sustainable account. Users of neon green also benefit from a 3-year extended guarantee, sustainable investment opportunities and a Mastercard made from cherry wood. Together with the extremely active neon green community, the sustainable account is also being continuously developed. In the future, for example, neon wants to display the ecological footprint of individual users based on their transactions directly in the banking app.
The more Swiss people are convinced by the sustainable account, the faster the second million trees planted will be reached and the more positive the effect on the climate will be.
Over 100,000 customers currently use a neon account, making neon the fastest-growing Swiss solution for a low-cost and easy-to-use smartphone account. After a digital registration process in less than ten minutes, neon customers have access to a bank account. The account is managed by neon partner Hypothekarbank Lenzburg and offers deposit protection of up to CHF 100,000 per customer. Behind neon is an experienced team consisting of Jörg Sandrock, Simon Youssef, Julius Kirscheneder and Patric Ammann. The company employs more than 30 people.
