From Chad Hunter, Aspiration's Head of Sustainability
Hello Aspiration customers!
Today, I wanted to discuss why we have made the difficult decision to no longer provide the Aspiration Impact Measurement (AIM) score for merchants or our customers and how the Green Marketplace will help replace it over time.
A Worthy Goal That is Now Evolving
We created the AIM score with a big vision: to empower you to shop confidently, knowing your purchases were aligned with your values. By evaluating companies on both "People" (social impact) and "Planet" (environmental impact), we aimed to sort complex information into an easy-to-understand score.
However, as we delved deeper, we uncovered some challenges:
Inconsistent Data: The world of impact reporting is still taking shape. Many companies simply don't have the comprehensive data we need to fully evaluate their social and environmental impact. This limited the number of businesses we could include in AIM and how much of your spending we could analyze.
Apples and Oranges: AIM aimed to be inclusive, but this made it tough to establish a single, fair standard for comparison. Many companies excel in specific areas of impact, but not necessarily across the board. This made it difficult to make apples-to-apples comparisons and ensure our cash back program was rewarding the most holistic efforts.
A More Focused Approach to Empower Your Climate Impact
Our commitment to helping you find and support values-aligned businesses remains strong. We're just refining how we achieve that goal. We're shifting our focus to a more targeted approach on climate-friendly brands that we believe will deliver a more meaningful and actionable experience for you.
We've chosen to zero in on climate impact for a few key reasons:
Urgency: The climate crisis demands immediate action, and we believe focusing our efforts here will have the greatest positive impact.
Clarity: Assessing a company's climate impact often involves clearer, more measurable data than broader ESG factors. This allows us to be more transparent about our choices and give you greater confidence in the brands we feature.
Expanded Options: Focusing on climate opens the door to a wider range of businesses that are taking meaningful steps toward sustainability, giving you more choices when you shop.
Greater Impact: By concentrating our resources on climate action, we can help you make a more significant difference with your everyday purchases.
Making it Easier For You to Find Mission-Aligned Brands
With our new Green Marketplace, we are able to improve some of the core ways we help you find and shop at climate-friendly brands.
Here's why this change matters:
More Choice: You'll have a far wider selection of climate-friendly brands to shop from, giving you more ways to align your spending with your values.
More Transparency: We are making it easier for you to discover and learn more about brands you may want to shop at before you make a purchase.
Increased Impact: By supporting more climate-friendly companies, you're amplifying your positive impact on the climate and earning more rewards in the process.
Collective Action: With more participants in the Green Marketplace, we can collectively drive greater change towards a sustainable future.
Over time, the Green Marketplace will expand and we will be able to provide more insight into how much of your purchasing is at climate-friendly brands and how your purchasing is impacting the climate.
Join Us in Creating a Thriving Green Marketplace
Your feedback is invaluable to us as we build the Green Marketplace. We're committed to continuous improvement, and your feedback will play a crucial role in that process.
If you have suggestions for brands you'd like to see included, or any other feedback about the Green Marketplace, we encourage you to share them with us.
Request new brands to be evaluated directly here.