IDEMIA Partners With Nationwide Building Society To Issue Recycled Plastic Cards

IDEMIA, the global leader in Augmented Identity, and Nationwide Building Society, the world’s largest building society, both undertake to promote greener financial services. From 2021, new IDEMIA-sourced cards made from recycled plastic will be rolled out in the UK.

At a time when environmental issues increasingly take center stage, IDEMIA will join forces with Nationwide Building Society to deliver cards made from recycled PVC that will slash the bank’s carbon footprint without compromising on security or end user convenience.

With Nationwide’s 5.4 million new plastic payment cards every year, this alliance aims to save 35 metric tons of carbon annually - production of one card will save 7 grams of carbon compared to a standard PVC payment card. By using recycled PVC sourced from printing and packaging industrial waste, IDEMIA’s solutions slash plastic waste, which significantly reduces carbon emissions. It also helps to reduce landfill space, energy consumption as well as land and water pollution.

Nationwide will introduce cards made using recycled plastics from early spring next year and is the first high street lender to commit to do so. The environmentally-friendly cards will be issued to current account members first, before “the Society” rolls out the cards across its product range. Nationwide pledges to eliminate single-use plastics by 2025.

This alliance reinforces IDEMIA’s determination to bring about change in the financial services industry. It forms part of GREENPAY™, IDEMIA’s eco-friendly all-embracing package deal for financial institution customers around the world.

IDEMIA’s Executive VP Financial Institutions Amanda Gourbault said: “IDEMIA is proud to be a long term partner of Nationwide Building Society and delighted to support Nationwide’s sustainability goals with IDEMIA’s recycled plastics payment card product. This type of card is manufactured from waste materials and as such significantly reduces plastic waste, one of the most pressing problems of our modern world. Migrating to recycled plastics is also beneficial as it saves energy, limits oil consumption and reduces greenhouse gas emissions, to help mitigate global warming and reduce air pollution. At IDEMIA, we take sustainable development very seriously and we are using our expertise to create and promote more responsible and environmentally friendly solutions through GREENPAY, our portfolio of sustainable solutions for financial institutions and FinTechs . Nationwide’s decision to provide its members with eco-friendly PVC cards from IDEMIA confirms our objective to provide green solutions that help protect our planet – because banking cards shouldn’t cost the earth”.

Claire Tracey, Chief Strategy and Sustainability Officer at Nationwide Building Society added: “We’re proud to be the first high street lender in the UK to offer cards made from recycled plastics. Our members tell us that, despite the tough times right now, they still want to make the world a greener place. Earlier this year we became carbon neutral for energy and emissions for all internal operations and Society vehicles. We’ve also set aside £1 billion for our members to borrow at a special low interest rate if they want to make their homes greener. Today’s news is another step for us in helping the UK to achieve net-zero by 2050 and a significant step in us eliminating single-use plastics by 2025.”

IDEMIA is a leader in innovative solutions that meet user needs in the rapidly changing financial services industry landscape. They offer financial institutions a complete and innovative portfolio of solutions ranging from classic EMV card technologies, eye-catching metal cards, to cutting-edge mobile payment, digital services and innovative online payment security.