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Zero Footprint Calculator - Next Step: Using Implicit Green Data
September 26, 2007
Like many people right now, I've been trying to merge my interest in improving the impact on the climate (reducing my CO2 emissions, etc.) with my interest in the evolution of digital culture.
I have been looking for (and willing to help build) an opt-in service for customers of big food and home products companies that helps measure our impact and gives us recommendations for how to improve.
Finally, today I found the Zero Footprint Calculator, which has the right tools (but not yet the community) for measuring and improving your lifestyle (check out the Kids version, which is even better).
Unfortunately it took me about 20 minutes to fill out the information and the graph wasn't so visually compelling to get me interested in playing further with the site. This is why I actually think the user interface of the Kids version is stronger.
However, the more important step we all need to make is to use implicit data instead of asking people to fill out more forms. In 2007, the data for our Travel, Home, and Food choices exists in private databases like those of Orbitz (travel), Con Edison / EDF (Home), and Target / Whole Foods / Tesco (food). Why not request that those databases of information get mashed up with the ecological footprint databases?
That way, we can see the impact of our actual choices, not the ones we think we make, and also see the improvement over time, both individually and socially. Imagine being able to challenge your Facebook friends to certain lifestyle goals in the same way that users do it for running with Nike Plus?
Posted by Colin at September 26, 2007 3:44 PM
