The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has announced it will roll out a new personalised carbon footprint tracking service for retail customers, following a successful pilot of the technology last October.

The service, to be made available for all CBA retail customers from this August via the CommBank app, provides a monthly breakdown of an individual’s estimated carbon footprint, based on their personalised spending and transactions data within the CBA ecosystem, which is measured against a national average.

Customers will also be able to view a breakdown of their carbon emissions data grouped into everyday spending categories – categories the bank also uses for purchases – such as Utilities, Transportation, Shopping, among other transaction segments.

According to CBA, customers will also have the option to select actions to help manage their environmental footprint, including carbon offsetting.

The technology was co-developed with sustainability fintech CoGo.

Data used to calculate carbon footprints are collected from personalised spending and transaction habits made through select CommBank products, including an Everyday account, credit cards and BPAY.

CBA then assigns each transaction emissions factor data based on industry type (for instance, fashion, or groceries), provided to the bank by CoGo, to help calculate an estimate of a customer’s carbon footprint.

Ben Morgan, CBA’s general manager of strategy, investments and transformation, said that by leveraging “a combination of customer data and Cogo’s capabilities”, the bank can “provide personalised and granular information to customers about how their spending translates to a carbon footprint”.

Cogo Founder Ben Gleisner said: “Banks are ideally positioned to take on the role of champion in supporting their customers to lower their carbon footprint. In a highly competitive market in which it’s hard to differentiate, banks cannot ignore this opportunity to stand out and establish themselves as a lifestyle partner to the conscious consumer.

Westpac also announced today it will incorporate CoGo’s carbon footprint tracking solution within its service offerings.