Our Impact Report is a compact monthly update that keeps you up to date on our progress. This is where you’ll find all the latest facts and figures about our projects in October. So let’s get started – we have a lot to report!
Your money is our capital for change
Your money is our capital. Unlike at many other conventional banks, it is not invested in the arms industry, factory farming or coal-fired power plants. So the more money we take away from these banks, the better. Money, after all, needs to be part of the solution, not the problem.
The more money that is paid into our accounts, the more good we can do.
In the month of October
Our joint contribution to protecting the climate
Every time you use your Tomorrow card in a store, a small fee is paid to us by the retailer. But instead of pocketing the money for ourselves like other banks do, we are investing it in a forest protection project in Brazil. The more often you pay using your Tomorrow card, the more square metres of rainforest are protected.
The Amazon is the world’s largest, intact rainforest and the climate protection contribution is helping to preserve it. The money is being donated to a forest protection project in Portel, Brazil and the area we are protecting is growing every month.
Offset your carbon footprint with Tomorrow Zero
With Tomorrow Zero, our premium account, you can offset as much CO₂ as the average German emits in a year: around 11 tonnes. The more of our users who switch to Zero, the more CO₂ will be offset. Together we can make a significant change.
Specifically, we are currently funding three climate protection projects for the CO₂ compensation. Read more about how that works here.
Tomorrow and the Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015 the United Nations defined a set of global goals for sustainable development: the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Tomorrow is committed to these SDGs. In each of our Impact Reports we will pick out one of the goals and explain in more detail how we are contributing to fulfilling it.
We ensure that our climate protection projects are not only for the good of the climate, but also the people in the Global South. A number of projects associated with Tomorrow Zero are contributing to this goal of quality education. One is the protection of the rainforest in Peru, which is also providing educational opportunities for small-scale farmers. The farmers receive support with the marketing and transportation of their products, as well as instructions on further processing methods, such as the production of soap and oil. With Tomorrow Zero, we are supporting a project in Uganda to drill boreholes that give people access to clean drinking water. This removes the need to boil water over an open fire, which is harmful to the environment. The time and the income this saves can be invested in education, which benefits in particular the children who no longer have to collect wood. And as part of the biogas plant project in Vietnam, bricklaying and technician training is being offered to the local people, thereby opening up new job prospects for them.
Photos: ClimatePartner
And closer to home, the Green Bond of the NRW Bank here in Germany is also contributing to SDG 4: by renovating public buildings, including schools, and providing additional training facilities at the university clinics in Aachen, Cologne, Bonn and Münster. Also in October, we had a cooperation with Save the Children as part of a customer activation campaign. The organisation is committed to making sure that every child receives a decent basic education.
What else?
Every month we try to increase our positive impact further with new projects and initiatives – but also by giving talks, participating in demos or simply by taking a stand. Here’s a current overview:
Our crowdinvesting campaign: thank you so much!
October was one big celebration for us – and you were the ones throwing the party! Because it was thanks to you that our crowdinvesting was such a huge success. In just 300 minutes we had racked up a total of 3 million euros from 2,000 investors, who are now participating in Tomorrow’s success. That means together we broke the record time for investments of this magnitude.
We can’t thank you all enough – for your confidence in us, your support and your valuable feedback. After all, the tasks of shaping a fair, sustainable future and making money part of the solution rather than the problem are ones that we can – and must – solve together. And we are now one big step closer to that. You’re all fantastic!
So as you can see, October was a brilliant month. Let’s hope that November is just as good…