Interactive Brokers adds carbon offsets to IMPACT app
Electronic trading major Interactive Brokers offers users of its recently launched IMPACT app to invest in a greener future with carbon offsets.
A carbon credit offset, or carbon offset, is one tool you can use to help “offset” your carbon footprint. Your carbon footprint is a broad way to describe how much GHG, or Greenhouse Gas emissions, are produced by your day-to-day activities, like driving to work, cooking dinner, or turning on the lights. Many of these seemingly benign actions generate these emissions.
Now you can make a lasting difference and reduce your carbon footprint by purchasing carbon offsets in IMPACT. Choose from a list of greenhouse-gas emitting activities related to household, transportation and food and choose an action to submit a carbon offset order.
The app tracks the offsets you purchase along with the associated number of tons of carbon you’ve neutralized – both within the app and in your statements – so you can always see the difference you’re making.
To get started, tap the Offset Your Carbon Footprint banner at the top of the IMPACT app. Swipe up to see offsets by category. Tap an activity to see a brief description and select a quantity to create the offset order. Alternatively, tap the Offset Carbon button to enter an amount to purchase in tons or USD.
IBKR handles the behind-the-scenes work, sourcing carbon credits and retiring them with the appropriate agencies to make helping to protect the plant a seamless process. Note that you cannot select a project toward which to apply your credits.
IMPACT allows investors to select their personal investment criteria from 13 impact values and principles, such as Clean Air, Pure Water, Ocean Life, and Land Health.
Based on these selections, the app provides impact scores on existing portfolios and holdings and identifies companies that align with investors’ selected criteria. (Interactive Brokers uses ESG data provided by third-party vendors and combines it with a client’s value preferences to generate impact scores.) This, along with the ability to review financial metrics for stocks and examine companies’ impact scores, affords investors the opportunity to improve their scores through the selection of alternative companies in a simple and efficient manner.
IMPACT also includes the “Swap” feature, a unique offering that gives users the ability to swap positions in the same dollar amount from one security to another. With one tap, investors can buy and sell securities simultaneously based on the comparative impact scores of one company versus another.