Buying sustainably minded products and services can pay off big time — not only for the Earth, but also for your wallet. Enter Commons, a planet-friendly app that helps you make mindful, eco-positive purchases and pays you for them.
What is Commons?
Commons is a free app that is essentially a rewards program for sustainable purchases and actions. The Oakland-based startup gives you rewards for purchasing from sustainable brands or taking planet-friendly actions such as thrifting, riding public transit, and supporting farmers markets.
With each purchase, you can earn rewards — or "seeds" — which can be traded in for gift cards, or you can even redirect your rewards to fund conservation projects or support charities.
Commons independently determines a company's sustainable status — and, therefore, its reward eligibility — based on its global pollution and sustainability practices.
Purchase categories eligible for rewards include certain refill, vintage, and thrift stores, public transit, farmers markets, camping and outdoors, bikes and scooters, plant-based eateries, electric vehicle charging, composting services, recycling services, climate donations, tailoring, solar panels, smart thermostats, renewable energy, refurbished tech, and digital subscriptions.
Users can receive personalized shopping recommendations by answering questions about their spending habits and providing demographic information. Commons also uses a linked credit or debit card to assess your spending via the third-party service Plaid. If you use Venmo or PayPal, you have likely already interacted with this product.
With this connection, Commons "can analyze and provide insights … [but] cannot access the bank account itself," according to its FAQs.
Why is your purchasing power important?
While it's important to be mindful of your consumption — remember: refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose, recycle — household spending is inevitable. And when you do spend, it's crucial to consider your impact.
Consumer spending "makes up two-thirds of the U.S. economy on average," per a factsheet from the White House, equaling more than $14 trillion quarterly as of 2022, according to Statista, or up to about $15.7 trillion in the second quarter of 2024, based on U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis data shared by Trading Economics.
Studies estimate that common household spending contributes to more than 60% of the global air pollution that's overheating our planet.
Commons wants you to "buy less, buy better." That's because making more informed, carefully considered purchases can help save the planet — and save you money. According to Commons, the average user saved about $200 a month in 2022 when making more mindful purchasing decisions.
Speaking of finances, you may be wondering how Commons makes its money as a free app. Commons says it charges a fee if you buy offsets from its vetted "high-integrity" projects.
How Commons helps the planet
Commons can help make sustainably minded purchasing decisions easier, giving consumers vetted brand recommendations and incentives for shopping smarter.
The app has already made some impressive strides. According to a recent Commons impact report, the average user in 2023 reduced their annual carbon pollution by 19%.
"If every American reduced their footprint at the same rate as Commons users, we'd reduce global emissions by 1 billion tons," Commons reported. "That's equivalent to taking 2 million passenger vehicles off the road for a year."
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