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Meet Lune, a new startup that wants to expose CO2 emissions calculations so that customers are better informed when they purchase something online. When companies start using Lune’s API, they can also let their customers pay a fee to finance a carbon neutralization project.
Before founding Lune with Roberto Bruggemann, Stadigh previoulsy worked for VC fund Crane. And Lune has raised a $4 million seed round led by Stadigh’s previous employer Crane. 15 business angels also participated in the round, such as N26 co-founder Maximilian Tayenthal, Voi co-founder Fredrik Hjelm and OysterHR and Nexmo co-founder Tony Jamous.
“The way things work today is that companies create a sustainability report that is hidden away on the website and very few people read it,” co-founder Erik Stadigh told me.
The startup first helps you measure the carbon impact. As always, those are just estimations. “We offer automated carbon emission calculations and follow best practice guidelines,” Stadigh said.
And once you integrate the API in your product, customers can choose to pay a bit more to contribute to compensation projects. “We partner with carbon offset developers across the world,” Stadigh said.
Lune also works directly with payment companies, such as TrueLayer. When it’s time to check out, customers can choose a “green payment method” that will contribute to carbon offset projects.
From the merchant’s perspective, Lune customers can choose to pay for those projects or let customers pay the extra fee. Lune is already talking with other payment partners to offer more payment integrations.
Lune charges based on the number of calculations and also takes a small cut on carbon offsetting transactions. With Lune’s API, the startup wants to turn any company into a climate-friendly company.
Many would say that not purchasing a product is the best way to reduce the carbon impact of that potential purchase. But when you can’t avoid a purchase, it could help customers pick one company over another.
Image Credits: Lune
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