In alignment with its Net Zero pledge, Tide aimed to help its members understand and monitor their carbon footprints.
It sought a partner to develop a carbon insights tool that could empower their customers to take actionable steps toward sustainability without significant manual input.
Enter: Connect Earth.
Meet the Players
About Tide
Founded in 2015 and launched in 2017, Tide is the leading business financial platform in the UK. Tide helps SMEs save time (and money) in the running of their businesses by not only offering business accounts and related banking services, but also a comprehensive set of highly usable and connected administrative solutions from invoicing to accounting. Tide has 650,000 SME members in the UK (c. 11% market share) and 400,000 SMEs in India. Tide launched in Germany in May. Tide has also been recognised with the Great Place to Work certification two years in a row.
Tide has been funded by Anthemis, Apax Partners, Augmentum Fintech, Creandum, Salica Investments, Jigsaw, Latitude, LocalGlobe, SBI Group and Speedinvest, amongst others. It employs around 2,000 Tideans worldwide. Tide’s long-term ambition is to be the leading business financial platform globally.
About Connect Earth
Connect Earth supports financial institutions in offering their retail and business customers carbon emission measurement solutions. Connect Earth’s APIs convert financial transaction ledgers into scalable, standardised carbon footprint calculations. Connect Earth does this using its carbon intelligence infrastructure, progressive data models and AI. This data can be used to provide insights into carbon hotspots, methods for reduction and be transformed into GHG-compliant carbon emission reports.
The Challenge: Supporting SMEs With Carbon Insights
Only 36% of global companies are referencing the climate-related financial impact on their financial statements, and nearly sixty percent are not yet disclosing transition plans, according to a new study released by global professional services firm EY.
Yet, in this climate, SMEs collectively contribute 43-53% of the UK’s business greenhouse gas emissions according to a UK Finance report. Not to mention the fact that two-thirds of small businesses are concerned about climate action but feel they lack the knowledge to tackle it.
There is a significant gap between where carbon emissions come from and the businesses that feel empowered to report on their carbon footprint. Tide wanted to bring carbon insights into its digital ecosystem, putting the data directly in the hands of SMEs and closing the gap between intent, awareness and action as part of its Net Zero plan.
The Solution: Carbon Insights Built Directly Into Tide’s Banking Application
Connect Earth’s API integrates seamlessly with financial platforms, adapting easily to evolving needs and future expansions. Our progressive data models and business categorisation covers a high majority of transaction types, providing SMEs with a comprehensive view of their emissions.
Utilising Connect Earth’s API technology specifically designed for business customers — and with our expert support — the Tide team was able to tailor a carbon footprint estimation solution to perfectly suit their requirements and brand. This includes:
- Emissions insight: SMEs can now see a snapshot of their carbon emissions estimates, broken down by categories (e.g. travel, utilities and office supplies) based on transaction data.
- Annual overview: SMEs can see a summary of the year’s carbon footprint, giving Tide members a clear baseline from which they can measure future reductions.
- Low effort, high impact: With no manual input needed as default, SMEs receive an automatic view of their emissions, making it easier for them to make informed, sustainable decisions without any roadblocks.
Implementation Journey: The Road From MVP to Full-Scale Launch
The best sign of a strong partnership is a shared vision. It was clear on first communication that we aligned with Tide on their ESG mission and determination to support SMEs to be more sustainable.
We collaborated on how best to bring carbon insights to Tide’s customers, ultimately soft launching to 13,500 members to test engagement and ensure the feature worked as intended in a live environment.
With the success of this launch, we agreed to bring this exciting new feature to the masses: The Carbon Footprint Calculator.
Tide launched to its 650,000 UK members on the 20th November 2024.
Results: Signs of Success; More to Come
“We’ve already seen huge engagement from our members and today’s launch is significant, not only for Tide and the fintech industry but more importantly for SMEs.”
— Gurjodhpal Singh, Tide India CEO and Head of Net Zero
Of course, it’s early doors yet. We commit to updating this case study in a few months with more concrete results and user feedback, once we have that data.
As Gurjodhpal points out, initial signs are promising. Already, we’re seeing users engaging with the feature from our test launch. This reflects trends we’ve seen in previous launches where customers ultimately reduced their emissions by 7% on average per transaction within a month.
In short: watch this space!
What’s on the Horizon? Riding the Wave of Innovation
“Collaborating with the team at Connect Earth has been a pleasure. From the start, it was clear everyone was fully invested in doing the right thing for our users while working together to build the highest quality solutions. As a result, we are now able to give Tide UK members insight into their carbon footprint, which is going to make a difference to their ambitions to reduce carbon emissions. It represents a significant step forward in our Net Zero journey as well as our ability to support SMEs in their own efforts to be more sustainable.”
— Justin Drees, VP Business Services in Business Services at Tide
This represents a huge leap forward in carbon transparency and accountability for Tide customers. The Connect Earth team is looking forward to seeing how these results play out, and how we can build on those learnings and offer such features to new markets in the future.
If you’d like to speak to the Connect Earth team about joining our movement and the ROI of embedded carbon calculations, contact us for a demo.
