Commons rewards you for spending sustainably.
Commons is the only app that automatically tracks the emissions of your purchases, gives you personalized recommendations to buy less and switch to more sustainable brands, and pays you for taking climate action. For the emissions you can’t avoid, we make it easy to offset your footprint with vetted climate solutions, like avoiding deforestation. Each month, earn up to $30 in cash, $60 in donations to a climate nonprofit, or $90 invested in carbon offsets, based on the percentage of purchases at companies that are measurably lowering global emissions.
Consumer spending influences 65% of global emissions. Commons helps tens of thousands of people use their buying power to demand a more sustainable planet. In 2022, the average user reduced their emissions by 20% and saved $200 a month.
Commons is backed by Sequoia Capital, climate investors Norrsken and Amasia, and the founders of Fitbit, Headspace, and Candy Crush. Commons has been named App of the Day, one of TIME100's Most Influential Companies, and to Fortune’s Impact 20 List. The app is currently available in the US and Canada.
“Companies have a huge responsibility to reduce emissions. When it comes to climate, a lot talk a big game. But not all of them walk the walk. As consumers, we can use our dollars to support companies who are taking real, measurable steps to lower emissions.” - Colin Kaepernick
“While climate-related tragedies continue to accelerate around the world, most people don’t know where to begin helping by reducing their own footprint. Commons makes it easy by helping consumers track, reduce and offset their carbon emissions.” Bryan Schreier, Partner at Sequoia Capital
“The climate crisis is upon us, and human behaviors must change. Commons is a powerful tool that inspires accountability while providing a personal roadmap toward a better future.” Mike Einziger, Co-Founder of Incubus, MIXhalo, & Versicolor Technologies
"This remarkable team is creating a new home for the climate-conscious consumer – an app that helps you shrink your carbon footprint. And a huge further benefit in these times: it also helps you reduce your expenses, period." Amasia’s Ramanan Raghavendran
“Commons is doing for climate action what Headspace did for mental health.” - Rich Pierson, CEO of Headspace
“We’re proud to join Sanchali and Commons on their journey to empower every individual to understand and manage their climate footprint. Households influence 65% of global emissions, so we can all do our part in tackling the climate crisis." Niklas Adalberth, co-founder of Klarna and founder of Norrsken Foundation
“More and more people around the world are looking for tangible, impactful actions they can take to stem climate change right now. Sanchali and her team have built the most thoughtful product we’ve seen to answer this call. The well-designed Commons app makes it extremely easy to get started measuring and reducing your personal carbon footprint.” Swati Mylavarapu, Co-Founder of Incite
"People increasingly want to know the broader impact of their consumption decisions, including on the environment… For those consumers that want to learn more about sustainability and understand their personal impact in real-time, we believe that Commons can be that tool for decades to come." Neil Sirni, Co-founder and President of Arrive
Please direct inquiries to [email protected].
We are a small, wildly passionate, diverse team headquartered out of Oakland, CA. We’re AAPI- and woman-founded, and a majority-women team. Our team members have built products at Headspace, Calm, Fabulous, Lumosity, StitchFix, Tesla, Dave, and more. We’re all on our own climate journeys, living more sustainably one spending decision at a time.
Sanchali started Commons to make the sustainable choice the easy one to make. Pal started tracking her carbon emissions in a spreadsheet in 2012. Over the next 6 years, she lowered her emissions by 30%, saved $2,000 a year, and built a healthier, happier life.
Having personally witnessed the impacts of the climate crisis living in India and Ethiopia, she wanted to build a tool to put the power to lower emissions into the hands of people like her. With Commons, she’s helping people to include carbon in their decision-making – as easily as they include cost or convenience. Sanchali holds a BA in Economics from Princeton University, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and previously worked at Tesla and Dalberg.
As our Chief Technology officer, Nick leads the development of our app and stewards our company culture. Nick has been software engineer and manager for over 20 years at companies of all sizes, but mostly at early-stage startups. Nick was an early hire and long-time Director of Engineering at Stitch Fix, where he helped grow the engineering team to over 200 developers.
Nick is uniquely skilled at building teams while promoting an open, healthy and sustainable company culture. He has built products for a wide range of industries including retail, charity donations, e-commerce, museums and academic research.
As Carbon Strategy Manager, Sophie develops data-driven solutions that help Commons users spend more sustainably and lower their carbon emissions.
Sophie is a leading expert in emissions accounting, analysis, and communication. In her role, she works with product and engineering teams to continuously improve our proprietary consumer carbon calculator, build climate action guides to reduce emissions, and curate a portfolio of offsets that users can trust.
Sophie has an MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and a Master of Environmental Management from the Yale School of the Environment.
As Head of Marketing, Liza leads all things growth and partnerships at Commons. A growth marketer by trade, she is passionate about doing “unscalable” things: community building, organic social, retention, and brand marketing.
Liza is 2x Founder & CMO, with over 10 years of experience working with DTC & Sustainable Brands. Her last company, Brightly, is a media platform focusing on conscious consumerism. The company started as a podcast and ended up at the top 150 podcasts in the US just after 10 episodes. Brightly graduated from Snap Inc's Yellow Accelerator program in May 2020 and went on to raise over $1mln to scale its mission and operations. Previously, Liza co-founded GlobeIn, a fair trade subscription box company. Through her work, GlobeIn has invested more than $3.5 million in fair wages into artisan communities over the last three years alone.
As the Lead Product Manager at Commons, Alex charts the app's course, focusing on strategies that guide users toward sustainable spending.
She has worked in behavioral science and social good for over a decade. Most recently, Alex served as the Lead Behavioral Scientist and Product Manager at Fabulous, an award-winning health app born at Duke University. Concurrently, she was an Advisor to AWorld, a mobile app and the official platform supporting the United Nations' campaign for climate action.
Alex also held positions at ideas42 and VAL Health, where she led behavioral research and design projects across various domains including health, consumer finance, education, criminal justice, and the environment. Alex earned her master's from the Yale School of the Environment, where she focused on the intersection of conservation, economics, and behavior.
