A radical finance firm has launched an app that'll show you the impact of all of your purchases
The firm announced April 26 it is equipping its checking-account users with a new tool, Aspiration Impact Measurement, that shows them how sustainable their purchases are. The firm doesn't disclose how many checking accounts they have, but told Business Insider that they're opening between 10,000 to 12,000 new accounts each month.
Let's say, for instance, an Aspiration checking-account user buys a coffee from Starbucks. When that person checks their account balance they'll see that they spent $X for their grande frappe whatever. But they will also see a score that gauges Starbuck's sustainability on a scale of 1 to 100.
In this case, Starbucks has an AIM score of 78, which is the highest of any eatery. The point of the tool is to inform users about a firm's sustainability so that they can make informed choices about spending. Users can also view their personal AIM score, which essentially aggregates all of the purchases a person makes into one score. It is updated on a daily basis.
"Today, more than ever before, Americans are looking to put their values into action and their AIM score empowers them to demand that corporations act responsibly toward the environment and their employees," said Aspiration cofounder and CEO Andrei Cherny. "Americans spend $36 billion a day as consumers, making decisions based on cost, convenience and quality. Now, for the first time, they'll have an easy way to make spending decisions based on conscience, as well."
AIM scores are calculated using Aspiration's proprietary algorithm that examines more than 75,000 data points.
According to Cherny, the numbers behind the AIM scores are typically used by money mangers to inform their investment decisions.
"These are the kind of data providers that are working for investment firms, and hedge funds," Cherny told Business Insider."We repurpose this investor data for consumer purposes. It goes into an algorithm which then figures out those scores."
The service is only available for Aspiration customers, who can access their AIM scores for free within their Aspiration mobile app.
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