• BigPay today joined ‘Every Action Counts’, a new coalition to connect experts and share best practices on how to address nature conservation and climate change with some of the world’s leading digital financial platforms.

• “We at BigPay believe that small actions contributing to a more sustainable world are critical in making an impact. Being part of the Every Action Counts coalition is the first step of that journey to empower users across Southeast Asia to lead greener financial lives,” says Salim Dhanani, CEO & Co-Founder of BigPay. 

KUALA LUMPUR, 13 July 2021 - BigPay today joined a new global partnership to harness the power of green consumer behaviours to enhance biodiversity and climate efforts in Malaysia, with a pilot project to plant trees in Borneo in the second half of 2021.

Corporate initiatives have the potential to help Malaysia’s progress in sustainable projects, with an aim to reduce 45% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. BigPay is working on products and experiences empowering its users to take small actions to a ‘green’ lifestyle on a daily basis via gamified day-to-day financial actions. These actions will contribute to tree-planting initiatives across Malaysia.

“Helping the environment doesn’t need to be something that happens once a year, but it can be built into everyday behaviour. There’s no better way to do that than embedding sustainable contributions in financial services,” said Salim.

The coalition brings together a global network of financial, e-commerce, digital, and consumer goods and services companies with experts in sustainability, and nature and biodiversity conservation. The new network will share best practices in encouraging individuals to take positive actions in daily life to create planet-friendly outcomes. 

Examples of this work in practice include: 

• Philippines-based GCash forest, which rewards app users who reduce their carbon footprint by planting trees in partnership with groups such as WWF. 

• Mastercard is uniting its global network of businesses and consumers in climate action through the Priceless Planet Coalition reforestation initiative. The company is also collaborating with partners to create innovative digital products that provide insights about the carbon impact of purchases and enable people to easily contribute to preserving the environment.

• Ant Forest, a green initiative on the Alipay platform that encourages users to adopt low carbon activities in daily life, such as going to work by bus instead of by car and paying utility bills online instead of offline. The initiative has enabled the planting of over 220 million trees in less than five years. 

The coalition aims to promote knowledge sharing to inspire innovative green tech solutions around the world, helping each payment platform and consumer goods company to focus on green behaviours most relevant to their audience. 

Marianne Haahr, spokesperson for the ‘Every Action Counts’ coalition and Executive Director of Green Digital Finance Alliance, said: “This new coalition wants to creatively leverage technology and partnerships to enhance green awareness and catalyse green action for 1 billion people by 2025. We want to encourage consumer behaviour that can become a driver of nature conservation and regeneration.

“We see a future where economic growth can coexist with, and even support, nature conservation and climate action, which is why we are bringing together partners who can help champion this vision for our global economy.” 

Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UN Environment Programme, a supporter of ‘Every Action Counts’ said: “Nature provides the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, but we have not been so kind in return. I welcome this coalition aiming to empower 1 billion people to become part of creating a world where everyday actions and choices combat climate change and end biodiversity loss. As we embark on the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, putting people at the centre of the green transition is key.”

Launch partners are: Ant Group (China), BBVA (Spain), BigPay (Malaysia), DANA (Indonesia), FNZ (UK), GCash (Philippines), Lazada Group (Singapore), Mastercard (US), MTN (South Africa), Paytm (India), SANLAM (South Africa), and Telenor Microfinance Bank (Pakistan).

Experts working with the coalition include Siegmar Otto, a leading researcher on sustainable consumer behaviour and human-computer interaction; Professor Richard Wood of the Industrial Ecology Programme at NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology); and environmental engineer Francesca Verones, also at NTNU.

About the ‘Every Action Counts’ (EAC) coalition 

The coalition was launched by the Green Digital Finance Alliance, a not-for-profit designed to leverage digital technologies and innovations to enhance financing for sustainable development. The ‘Every Action Counts’ coalition aims to work with like-minded partners including international organisations, private sector corporates and subject matter experts to creatively leverage technology and partnerships to enhance green awareness and green action of 1 billion people around the globe by 2025.

For more information visit http://greendigitalfinancealliance.org/initiatives-publications/eac-coalition/