Aspiration Zero is the first credit card to ‘eliminate’ users carbon footprint: CEO

Andrei Cherny, Aspiration Founder and CEO, joins Yahoo Finance’s Kristin Myers and Alexis Christoforous to discuss sustainable finance and launch of the Aspiration Zero credit card.

Video transcript

KRISTIN MYERS: Now if anyone at home, to keep this conversation going on the environment, is looking to make some environmentally friendly decisions, you don't have to look any further than your wallet. There is a new credit card called Aspiration Zero that is helping its users eliminate their carbon footprint. So we're joined now by Aspiration Zero founder and CEO Andrei Cherny. Andrei, so how does this work that a credit card could really help you offset your carbon footprint?

ANDREI CHERNY: It's really simple. And the Aspiration Zero card is the newest offering from Aspiration, which, for the past five years, has really been Americans' home for sustainability oriented financial solutions. We have over 5 million members who have joined with Aspiration. And they started out with our Aspiration Spend and Save account and spending on their Aspiration debit card. And as you said, we're now excited to launch and announce Aspiration Zero, which is the first credit card that actually eliminates your carbon footprint just by using it on a daily basis and actually gives you financial rewards for doing so.

The way it works is simple. Every time you make a purchase on your Aspiration Zero card, we plant a tree. And then you have the ability to plant a tree yourself just by rounding up your purchase to the nearest dollar. We call it Plant Your Change. We launched it last year for our debit cards. You can sign up with any credit and debit card at plantyourchange.com. And in the past year, Aspiration has planted over 10 million trees. We're planting more trees than there are in Central Park every five hours. And it speaks to the huge concern that a lot of Americans have about climate change, but the real desire they have to make a meaningful impact on a daily basis.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Andrei, I would imagine your audience is the younger set, millennials, Gen Z-ers-- correct me if I'm wrong. But I'm wondering how that plays into your business model. You've got an annual fee to hold the card. I believe it's $60. How is that sort of meshing with that group that you're looking to get business from, a group that may not have $60 to just have that credit card be in their wallet?

ANDREI CHERNY: Well, actually our customers are across the age range. Now certainly, we have a lot of Gen Z, a lot of millennials, and as the past segment said, even millennials are starting to get a little bit older. But what we see across the generations is a real concern with climate change. And there's an annual fee, but with the cash back that customers get, it more than makes up for it. People are willing to say, yeah, I'm willing to spend a few dollars a month to eliminate my carbon footprint.

There are so many credit cards out there that allow you to rack up miles with travel and airlines. This is the only credit card that allows you to take miles off of the planet. And a lot of people are saying, yeah, I'm willing to spend a little bit on a daily basis to make something that important happen.

KRISTIN MYERS: How many people are saying that they're willing to do that? And I'm wondering if you could tell us a little bit about the kind of interest that you're hearing now of folks wanting to make these environmentally friendly moves with the purchases that they make, or at least the car that they might be using to make some of those purchases.

ANDREI CHERNY: Aspiration has been growing fast. We are one of the fastest growing financial institutions actually in the country. As I said, 5 million members. We had more than a million people sign up as members just in the first three months of this year alone. The Aspiration Zero card is going to start appearing in people's hands in the next few weeks. You can go to aspiration.com/zero, get on the waitlist. And thousands of people every day are signing up to join this.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: How can you actually, though, track the environmental impact of where you shop? How does the card help you do that, if at all, Andrei?

ANDREI CHERNY: Well, it does. A few years ago in 2017, we announced something and launched something for our debit cards called AIM, the Aspiration Impact Measurement. And four years later, it is still the only way for consumers to actually see their own personal daily sustainability score. Think of it like a Fitbit for sustainability, where you can see how you're doing and how your own spending is having an impact on both the planet and people.

Even more importantly, in some ways, you're able to see the people and planet scores of the different places where you are shopping and spending your money. And so, if you're walking down the street or driving down the street and there's a CVS and a Walgreens or a McDonald's and a Burger King or a Taco Bell and a Chipotle, you can decide where you're going to spend your money based on how those businesses treat the environment and how they treat their employees. It's been enormously popular, all kinds of awards that it's won. And we're excited to now bring it to the Aspiration Zero credit card as well.

KRISTIN MYERS: Now Andrei, you were featured on the livestreamforearthday.org, the livestream titled Restore Our Earth. Curious to know what folks might be able to expect going forward in terms of moves that are going to be made to be more environmentally friendly, more sustainable. What can we do to restore our Earth?

ANDREI CHERNY: Well, a big part of it is how you save your money, how you spend your money. That's really what Aspiration has been doing. There's so many people out there who want to have a positive impact on the climate, who are alarmed with what's happening, and yet, they don't really have a way to start. And they don't have a meaningful way to make action. You can go put solar panels on your roof. You can go buy an electric vehicle. There's a very small number of us who are going to be able to do that kind of thing. And it's a one-time thing that you can do.

On the other end, recycling an aluminum can and drinking out of a paper straw are good things, and we should be doing them, but they're not going to have a real meaningful impact. And what Aspiration does is build the products that help people have daily automated impact. It's easy, integrated into their lives, and still powerful. Where you spend your money matters. And so shopping at businesses that do better for people and the planet is important.

Moving your money out of the big banks that are using your deposits to fund oil and gas pipelines to a place like Aspiration that will never do that is as important as well. And so the daily decisions you're making with your money are daily decisions about what kind of world you want to live in, what matters to you, what do you value, and what kind of legacy do you want to leave behind.

KRISTIN MYERS: All right, absolutely wise words. What kind of legacy do you want to leave behind? On today, Earth Day, Andrei Cherny, Aspiration Zero founder and CEO, thanks so much for joining us today.