While many consumers don’t want to contribute to climate change, it can be difficult to find a solution while staying within their budget.
Greencom, a new app company based in Atlanta, is helping people reduce their carbon footprint and increase the sustainability of their purchases through cashback rewards.
Businesses that work with Greencom volunteer to offer coupons and discounts through the app. If a user makes a purchase through Greencom, the savings can be donated to the environmental projects or organizations on the platform.
Businesses can use Greencom to showcase their dedication to environmentally friendly initiatives, while consumers can learn how their purchases can align with their sustainability goals.
“On the individual level, it's no longer about what this large corporation or organization is doing, it’s about what I’m doing,” said Christian Mundy, managing director of Greencom. “If we can collect [environmental goals] onto the same platform, it maximizes people’s voices with a very direct impact."
Hundreds of thousands of national and local businesses have already made offerings through the app, including Domino’s Pizza, Barnes & Noble, Jersey Mike's Subs, Outback Steakhouse, NFLShop.com and Bed, Bath & Beyond.
The app includes environmental projects such as “Solar Lights for Africa,” which helps install solar panels on schools and orphanages in Uganda to replace kerosene with renewable energy, and the “National Religious Partnership for Environment,” which advocates for populations directly affected by climate change.
The app also helps users visualize their environmental impact by providing a custom dashboard showing a monthly summary of gifts to a user’s local environment.
The app will generate its revenue through microtransactions and subscriptions. Businesses can subscribe to work with an audience relationship manager to interact with members to create promotions. Users can also pay a fee for the app to help them go carbon neutral in their transactions.
It does not charge fees on transactions and it is free for businesses and environmental projects to join.
Greencom was incubated at Sterling Planet, a green energy supplier based in Alpharetta that helps businesses and individuals meet sustainability goals by offering renewable energy certificates, which is also the app’s parent company.
The idea for the app came from the chairman and co-founder of Sterling Planet Therrell Murphy. In 2020, Murphy built out the platform for what is now Greencom and helped develop it to what it is today.
To date, Sterling Planet has invested $350,000 into the company, which has been used primarily for app development and marketing efforts.
“One of the positive features is that [Greencom] really streamlines the process for consumers,” said Jennifer Singh, co-founder of Understory, a global platform that helps organizations use technology and innovation for sustainability. “The ease-of-use makes it a lot easier to incorporate into day-to-day activities."
On Earth Day, April 23, Greencom will officially launch by heavily marketing the product and onboarding users. The startup will also make an appearance along with other sustainability businesses at the Atlanta Green Market Fair as a sponsor.
Among the app’s long-term goals are to onboard many more environmental organizations from the southeast and partner with national parks that users can donate to through purchases.
The app also hopes to release a smart debit card within eight months.
According to Mundy, Greencom would likely need around $2 million in investment and hire an additional five to 10 people in order to reach their expansion goals.
