Cogo announced ‘Exporter of the year’ at the ExportNZ ASB Wellington Export Awards

The annual Wellington Export Awards recognise and celebrate the achievements of Wellington-based companies in exporting goods and services to overseas markets. These awards are organised by the Wellington Chamber of Commerce and supported by various government agencies and private sector partners.

“Cogo’s products were developed in response to the collective realisation that we only have one planet; and that its future depends on what we do today. As a business, we’re focused both on ‘doing well’ and ‘doing good’ and we’re extremely proud to have been recognised for this approach ,” says Julie Lindenberg, CEO for Cogo’s APAC operations. 

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Change, at scale

Titled “Enabling millions of businesses and consumers to measure, understand and reduce their impact on the planet”, Cogo’s entry outlined its mission to empower individuals and businesses worldwide to measure, understand and reduce their impact on the climate. 

“We owe it to future generations to leave them a sustainable and fairer world and our goal is to help everyone better understand how their spending affects the climate crisis. To do this in time to save the planet, we need to affect change at scale. This is why we work with financial institutions - so we can reach their millions of collective customers and drive change on a global level,” it read.

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Global traction

Cogo currently operates in 12 countries across Europe, Australasia and North America (including the UK, Netherlands, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Singapore and Canada) and is currently focused on further expansion into North America, South-East Asia and other territories to help financial institutions globally meet the demand for greener banking solutions and growing regulatory pressures. 

It currently works with 16 banks globally, including NatWest (UK),  ING Group (Netherlands),  Westpac (Australia), Commonwealth Bank (Australia), Suncorp Bank (Australia) and most recently Kiwibank (NZ), to provide carbon emissions data for banking transactions such as spend on electricity and fuel. The Cogo Personal and Business Carbon Manager solutions calculate carbon footprints for both individuals and businesses, and can provide personalised recommendations on ways to lower carbon footprints. Customers can also share their progress, which can help businesses attract and retain customers.  

Walking the talk

Cogo was also a finalist in the Excellence in Sustainability category. “While working directly with financial institutions is where we can have the most positive impact, we believe it is integral to be leading on sustainability and walking our talk. Our approach is not only to improve environmental sustainability, but also to increase social wealth. We are proud to hold a Living Wage BCorp certification, and we are also Toitu CarbonZero certified, meaning we have pinpointed, measured and offset our emissions footprint. Simultaneously we have set an ambitious target to actively reduce our emissions and reach a 30% reduction from our base year by 2030. We are also  members of and contribute to the Sustainability Business Network, Vegan Society, Buy NZ Made and NZ’s Anti-vivisection society,” says Julie.

“While Cogo’s vision is to revolutionise personal and business finance management, banking and sustainable living - let’s not lose sight of exactly what this change consists of. Every single positive climate action by every single business and individual matters. A big thank you to ExportNZ for recognising this through this category award; and to every single one of our partners and end users,” concludes Julie.