Cogo Case Study

Helping Cogo to become a ‘gigacorn’ by using spend data to help millions take action

Cogo, a growing climate fintech based in New Zealand, have an ambitious mission – to become the world’s first ‘gigacorn’; a company that will reduce carbon emissions by over 1 billion tonnes (1GT) of carbon a year, almost as much as all of Japan. But these climate tech pioneers understand the power of amplifying their impact by enabling others.

By using spend data to calculate carbon emissions, they can give millions of individuals and businesses a measure of their personal and business carbon footprint. An easy-to-access measure is the first step towards action. Millions of actions. Enough, even, to add up to becoming a gigacorn?

Small Word Consulting provides key datasets, specific emissions factor analysis and advice which feed into the development of Cogo’s carbon management products that enable individuals and businesses to measure, understand and reduce their impact on the climate.

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A number next to everything

“What we were looking for was a data source that could enable us to give people an instant indication of their sustainability impact across their whole lifestyle, all their behaviour, basically by putting a number next to everything. And that led us to deep dive into carbon footprinting” explains Brian Johnston, Cogo’s Chief Impact Officer, remembering first approaching Small World Consulting to get accurate carbon emissions data suitable for mapping to people’s spending data from their bank account.

“ We expect to be asked some hard questions about the fundamentals that support our product, and we really value Small World Consulting as one of our data providers with a critical role of being a deep expert. For the really thorny questions, we’re able to ask Small World to support us.”

Brian Johnston, Chief Impact Officer, Cogo.

“We have access to Small World Consulting’s emission factor database, the spend-based data, which we use in the UK because it gives a high-level view of the whole supply chain.” This spend-based data is our EEIO, an environmentally extended input-output model.

In simple terms, it gives an amount of carbon emitted from each £1 you spend. You buy a new outfit for a meeting, a train ticket to get there, and grab a take-out coffee and biscuits. You can easily see how much you’ve spent and that the outfit cost more than the coffee and biscuits. But how much carbon has each spending decision emitted? That’s what spend-based emission factors give you: how many kgs of carbon you’ve added to the climate for each £1 you’ve spent on different things.

Cogo wanted to be able to take someone’s spending data from their bank transactions and use it to show them their carbon emissions. “The Small World team were very flexible and open to supporting us when we were very small and trying to do new things,” says Brian.

Learn about our input-output model, including our free and licenced datasets.

Our input-output model

Meeting people where they’re at

To have the biggest impact, Cogo aims to reach millions of individuals and businesses. In 2021 they moved from promoting their own app to integrating their carbon manager into the mobile banking apps of big banks. That year, as COP26 took place in Glasgow, they launched their integration with NatWest Bank in the UK.

Cogo also provide a product that integrates with accounting software, for businesses to measure their emissions, and for large corporates to help supply chain partners measure their emissions.

“We want to meet people where they're at. We want to build their knowledge and capabilities, so they've got more confidence. So, the idea is to make the footprint easy and with as little input from the user as possible, then they've got something they can start engaging with.”

Cogo can also suggest actions and rewards, based on cutting-edge behavioural science, to move users from seeing their footprint to taking actions to reduce it. Thinking of switching some of your travel from your car to trains? Cogo uses your historical data to estimate how much the change could reduce your footprint.

What’s really in your shopping basket?

Spend-based data gets you that ‘number next to everything’. But both the Cogo and Small World teams could see areas where the numbers weren’t as realistic as they’d like.

“There are limitations with a single regional model as to how much of that industry takes place in that country, it’s a very global supply chain. So, we worked with Small World and asked if they could dive into that and develop a more accurate spend-based emission factor for a personal footprint” recalls Brian.

Tom Davies, a consultant at Small World, describes most of his work with Cogo as “making better footprint estimates for things shoppers in various countries spend money on, like clothes, groceries and energy bills, and trying to find realistic ways that people can reduce these emissions”.

Small World and Cogo worked together on adjusting the emisions from the different dietry choices of a supermarket shop.

Both teams could see that an emissions factor based on clothes made and sold only in the UK wasn’t reflective of the clothes that UK shoppers actually buy, from global brands with global supply chains. Tom researched one of the UK’s largest clothing stores, Primark, looking at where its clothes are sourced from. By taking the emission factors for each region the clothes come from and multiplying them by the percentage of Primark’s factories in that region, he gave Cogo a far more realistic emissions factor for an average UK shopper’s fashion fix.

A basket of supermarket shopping presents a similar problem. Tom delved into the data of a typical UK grocery trolley. How many household products, how much food, what kinds of food? Then he used Small World’s menu calculator, based on the emissions of different food items, to calculate the emissions for an average UK supermarket shop. He worked with Cogo on how to adjust this for different dietary choices, so if someone says they have a vegetarian or vegan diet, the carbon emissions get adjusted to reflect that.

“ That experience across EEIO and product life cycle analysis for carbon footprinting, it’s the holy grail.”

Brian Johnston, Cogo.

The holy grail of footprinting

The expertise of the Small World team with spend-based data and researching specific industries has been hugely valued by Cogo. Brian considers “It’s that experience across EEIO and product life cycle analysis for carbon footprinting, it’s the holy grail for Cogo I guess. That experience means we can ask anything, and Small World has got the expertise to support us for what we need.”

Cogo’s technology has already helped over 1.7 million people and businesses in countries across Europe and Australasia see their carbon footprint and has also launched into North America. With plans to reach more countries and to provide solutions for small businesses, the Cogo team need to know they can access expert help when they need it.

“We will get asked some hard questions around the fundamentals that support our product, and we really value Small World Consulting as one of our data providers with a critical role of being a deep expert. For the really thorny questions, we’re able to ask Small World to support us.”

Cogo’s vision is to amplify its impact through the actions of millions of individuals and businesses, and the Small World team are proud to be part of the data that helps drive that collective action.