Marketing & Communications Innovation & Technology

Klarna Conscious Badges Offer World’s First Assessment of Electronics Brands' Environmental Achievements

Badges build on Klarna’s commitment to providing its 150M users with the insights and tools they need to make more informed purchasing decisions and enact positive environmental change.

Published 1 year ago | About a 4 minute read

Image: Klarna

This week, global payments provider and online shopping platform Klarna launched conscious badges in the Klarna App, in collaboration with sustainability tech giant Clarity AI. Klarna continues to evolve beyond payments to become a starting point for every purchase for 150 million consumers and 26 million app users worldwide, whether they already know what they want or are looking for inspiration, all while prioritizing environmental impact. With this new feature, Klarna users worldwide can access even more comprehensive metrics about their electronics purchases at the touch of a button — including information on brands’ greenhouse gas emissions, energy derived from renewable resources, and more.

“We’re thrilled to deepen our partnership with Klarna to develop conscious badges, the first-ever assessment of electronics brands’ achievements providing transparency at scale for consumers around the world. We believe there should be nothing ‘black-box’ about metrics, and we’re excited Klarna can leverage our AI capabilities to provide detailed information for Klarna shoppers who want to know more,” said Ángel Agudo, Board Director and Head of Product at Clarity AI. “There are multiple dimensions to ensuring a company is on the right path to net zero. Yes, reduction in emissions is key — but so is a commitment and a plan to reduce emissions to truly have an impact of appropriate size; so, we wanted to provide consumers all of those dimensions within the conscious badge experience.”

Shoppers increasingly demand greater transparency about the environmental impact of their purchases — recent research finds over half (56 percent) of global consumers wanting more information about the environmental impact of their brands and products throughout their shopping experience; and more than a third (37 percent) also consider it important for brands to act in an environmentally sustainable way — and more and more brands (recent additions include Tractor Beverage Co and L’Oréal) and platforms (including Karma Wallet and Amazon) are responding with environmental-impact labeling. Klarna responded with the launch of ‘Conscious Collections’ — which features brands including Asket, Pangaia, Lucy & Yak, Mara Hoffman, Nudie Jeans and more — in the Klarna App in 2022 to provide shoppers with information about the sustainability performance for brands within the fashion and footwear space.

Image credit: Klarna

With the launch of conscious badges, Klarna is now celebrating electronics businesses prioritizing more sustainable practices — further equipping shoppers with the insights needed to inform future purchasing decisions. Electronics brands can earn up to 5 badges:

Lower direct greenhouse gas emissions: If the company is among the 10 percent of Clarity AI-tested comparable companies with the lowest direct and energy-related greenhouse gas emissions
Lower indirect greenhouse gas emissions: If the company is among the 10 percent of Clarity AI-tested comparable companies with the lowest indirect (scope 3) emissions
Committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions: If the company has committed to reducing emissions in line with the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5ºC
Disclosing greenhouse gas emissions: If the company discloses direct, energy-related and indirect emissions
Using renewable energy: Over 90 percent of the energy used by this company comes from renewable sources.

“The rollout of conscious badges in the Klarna App marks a significant milestone in our continued effort to empower shoppers to vote with their wallets,” said Salah Said, Head of Sustainability at Klarna. "Following the successful launch of ‘Conscious Collections’ in the Klarna App last year, we are thrilled to team up with Clarity AI to deliver the world’s first unbiased, AI-driven environmental assessment for electronics brands.”

Conscious badges are currently accessible to consumers after they make an electronics purchase via the transactions details page of the Klarna App. In the coming weeks, the badges will also be visible to consumers through Klarna’s CO2e tracker, regardless of whether they have made an electronics purchase.

This new feature follows several recent initiatives by Klarna to promote brand's environmental achievements and provide consumers with the tools and insights they need to shop more consciously and enact positive change for the planet. In January this year, Klarna launched a resell feature enabling shoppers in Sweden to resell their previous purchases directly through the Klarna App. Klarna also recently introduced “Shop Circular'' Collections — spotlighting brands with circular initiatives to reduce waste and maximize the use of products — and unveiled significant upgrades to its CO2e tracker in the Klarna App. Klarna’s CO2e tracker now provides shoppers worldwide with emissions data at a product level for nearly 60 million items in every step of the product’s lifecycle, bringing to life one of the largest awareness-raising efforts on carbon footprints ever to life. Over 324,000 consumers, on average, actively track their carbon footprint through Klarna each month (Dec ‘22).