Public Benefit Account
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Your food is organic, your electricity is eco – and who do you trust with your money?
The cooperative for the common good is committed to a sustainable monetary and financial system – we call it one that is oriented towards the common good. Around 4,000 people support this project with their membership. You can find out more here .
If you want your bank balance to do something useful, you’ve come to the right place: For every euro in your public interest account, our partner, the Environment Center of Raiffeisenbank Gunskirchen, guarantees the same amount of funding for public interest projects. This is what its environmental guarantee, which has been tested for the common good, stands for.
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Austria’s first public interest account
The account for the common good of the environmental center of the Raiffeisenbank Gunskirchen is an exclusive offer for members of the cooperative for the common good. It works like any other checking account. You get an ATM card to withdraw money and pay, an online banking account and optionally a credit card. You can use it as a salary, pension, business or personal account. For students up to the age of 24 there is a variant in which no account management fee is charged and only the costs for membership in the cooperative for the common good are incurred.
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Common Good Savings Account
If you want to contribute to the common good with your savings, you can also open an online common good savings account. There is no account management fee here either. Only the costs for membership in the cooperative for the common good are incurred. For new customers, the savings account is only available in combination with a public welfare account or with a minimum deposit of €15,000.
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environmental label
In 2020, the Federal Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology awarded the public welfare account the Austrian eco-label for sustainable savings and giro products. This certifies ecologically and ethically oriented products and companies in the financial sector, which are characterized by the sustainable use of funds.
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Common Good Account Contribution
The public value account contribution of EUR 9.00 per quarter is an additional membership fee for members of the cooperative with at least one public value account. You pay it directly to us, the Cooperative for the Common Good. With this you finance our sales of the public value account and promote the development of other products as well as our educational and civil society activities. Members who only use public interest savings accounts and students are exempt from the public interest account contribution.
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Account Management Fee
The account management fee for the public welfare account will be charged to you directly by the Environment Center at Raiffeisenbank Gunskirchen. You can find the costs for this private current account here . The environmental center meets us here in terms of price! Members who only use savings accounts for the common good and students are exempt from the account management fee.
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What your money does
The more money we withdraw from conventional cash flows and feed it to the environmental center of the Raiffeisenbank Gunskirchen, the more projects oriented towards the common good can be financed. Sign up for the Public Value Account newsletter to get ongoing insights into how the future will be made more suitable for grandchildren!
You can find a list of the specifically funded projects on the Environment Center’s website .
- The Common Good Account Cycle
- To the common good!
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The Environment Center of the Raiffeisenbank Gunskirchen
The environmental center is our cooperation partner for opening your public interest account. Like a “bank within a bank”, the environmental center is part of the Raiffeisenbank Gunskirchen in Upper Austria. By the end of 2021, the environmental center had invested a loan volume of 60 million euros in ecological and social projects in accordance with the environmental guarantee that was tested for the common good. The environmental guarantee is a precisely defined catalog of criteria for the financing worthiness of projects and companies.
Multiple awards
The environmental center has received the following awards for its pioneering work:
- 2015 Climate Protection Award – Top 4
- Energy Globe 2016: Winner, Earth category
- 2017: Upper Austria State Prize for Environment and Sustainability
- Energy Globe 2018: honorary award, category air
- 2018: Public good seal for the environmental guarantee
- 2020: Austrian eco-label for sustainable savings and giro products
In the “Spargutbuch” sustainability ranking of the Association for Consumer Information (VKI), the environmental center is in 1st place. You can find out more at https://www.umweltcenter.at
- The team around Managing Director Hubert Pupeter (2nd from left)
- Raiffeisenbank Gunskirchen – Environment Center
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The Society for the Common Good
The cooperative for the common good is the platform for people and organizations with a common interest in money and finance in Austria. Our goal is to align the monetary economy with the common good.
To join: A share certificate costs 25 euros, from two shares you are in. The one-off registration fee is EUR 20. The regular cooperative contribution is 60 euros per year. You can halve or double it at your discretion.
You can find out more at www.gemeinwohl.coop
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