Smartum, a company that provides tax-subsidised employer benefits, wants to promote a plastic-free future, and, at the same time, improve its customer experience. By the end of 2020, Smartum will discontinue the use of all plastic payment cards. From the beginning of 2021 onwards, Smartum’s plastic payment cards can no longer be used for payments at the sales points of service providers in the Smartum network. To accelerate the speed with which payments go mobile, from 15 Jan to 15 Feb 2020 Smartum will donate 10 cents for every mobile payment made with the SmartumPay mobile app to the John Nurminen Foundation’s work to protect the Baltic Sea. With this donation campaign, Smartum invites all its customer groups to move from plastic to mobile, and help the environment along the way.

Mobile payments make the everyday lives of 250,000 employees easier

The plastic Smartum payment cards are currently used by approx. 250,000 employees, whose employers offer them electronic Smartum benefits. Currently, the lunch, exercise, and exercise and culture benefits are available with the Smartum payment card. In 2019, a total of 1.3 million payments were made with the cards.

“Our customers have been requesting an easy-to-use mobile payment method, so last spring we developed the SmartumPay app to answer to this need. With SmartumPay, your employee benefits are always at your fingertips in your mobile phone. In addition to payments, you can use the app to easily check your available benefits and their validity, making sure you will use all the benefits in time. SmartumPay is a plastic-free and simple alternative”, says Suvi Widgren, Director at Smartum.

With SmartumPay, employers can achieve cost savings as they do not need to order payment cards for their employees. The saved euros can be used to benefit employee wellbeing directly. For service providers, savings are available through transaction costs. Smartum’s move to pay for benefits via digital channels is based on the desire to serve customers even better.  At the same time, giving up cards is good for the environment, and a clear values-based choice for Smartum.

“There is no denying how important a clean environment is to the wellbeing of us all. As a company that promotes wellbeing, we find it natural to also promote green values. For us, it has been a time of self-reflection. After we have given up plastic cards, we will next consider other business areas where we can be more environmentally friendly”, says Widgren.

At the John Nurminen Foundation, we were delighted to hear about Smartum’s decision and donation campaign.

“Smartum has developed a smart way to reduce the use of plastics in their own operations. We are happy to see the move to a plastic-free solution implemented with a close link to Baltic Sea protection. Smartum, in its own field, highlights the significance of the Baltic Sea to us Finns – and is, of course, active in saving the Baltic Sea and its heritage for future generations”, says Erkki Salo, Fundraising Director at the John Nurminen Foundation.

Benefit users and service providers play the roles

Smartum’s service provider network consists of 22,000 venues, so there are plenty of opportunities to use one’s benefits.

“We are working actively to make the transfer to the mobile app as easy as possible for all our customer groups. We continue to develop the SmartumPay payment method, making sure it serves the service providers, employers, and benefit-using employees all in the best possible way. By the end of the year, all service providers in our network will accept SmartumPay payments, making mobile benefit use available in dozens of thousands of sites. We therefore invite all our customer groups to join the effort and swap their plastic to mobile”, says Widgren.

More information

Free SmartumPay app is available at app stores. Learn more about the campaign on Smartum’s website.

Smartum
Smartum, a Finnish family company providing tax-subsidised employee benefits, has helped build a more humane Finnish working life since 1995. Smartum’s more than 13,000 employer customers offer their staff Smartum benefits, which are today enjoyed by close to a million employees. Smartum’s nationwide partner network consists of more than 22,000 companies who accept the Smartum payment methods.

Suvi Widgren
Director, Smartum
suvi.widgren(at)smartum.fi
+358 40 701 4110

John Nurminen Foundation
The goal of the John Nurminen Foundation, established in 1992, is to save the Baltic Sea and its heritage for future generations. The Foundation is an award-winning disseminator of information, and creator of marine cultural content. In the Foundation’s Clean Baltic Sea projects, we improve the status of the Baltic Sea with concrete measures that reduce the discharges entering the sea, and alleviate environmental risks. Our work is steered by measurable results and impact.

Erkki Salo
Fundraising Director, John Nurminen Foundation
erkki.salo(at)jnfoundation.fi
+358 40 728 1859