‘Climate change is easily the most critical issue our world faces at this moment’ – Andrei Cherny

US personal finance company Aspiration takes a unique approach to banking: without funding drivers of climate change – a practice of which may big banks are guilty. Aspiring to combat the climate crisis, aspiration steps in with an offering that is as innovative as it is promising. Company CEO and Co-Founder Andrei Cherny tells all.

“At Aspiration, we’re creating the category of Sustainability-as-a-Service and empowering individuals and businesses alike (from small businesses to the Fortune 500) to build climate change-fighting action into what they do every day – in ways that make it easy, automated, engaging, and yet still enormously powerful.”

Weaving sustainability into the fabric of their services, Aspiration has given discerning clients an appealing alternative that’s a no-brainer. In 2021 alone, Aspiration’s customers “funded the planting of over 35 million trees every 10 hours. Over the course of their lifetime, these trees will neutralise tens of millions of metric tons of carbon dioxide.” This is certainly a desirable outcome, as Andrei stresses that “climate change is easily the most critical issue our world faces at this moment, and for the foreseeable future. We are in the midst of a global transformation – one that necessitates the largest, fastest shift in human behaviour in history as we move toward sustainability on an individual basis, across every business, and throughout society.”

Andrei’s advice to other businesses wanting to do their bit? Simply: “to begin. The race toward sustainability is on.” He ends on a hopeful note: “fossil fuel-based industries generated trillions over two centuries to literally power the industrial revolution. It stands to reason that the new sustainability industry can do the same to reverse the negative impacts of that era and guide us to a future that is liveable for our children and grandchildren on this planet.”

This article is part of the serialisation of interviews featured in MaltaCEOs 2022 – an annual high-end publication bringing together some of the country’s most influential business leaders.