3. PROPOSAL 1
Research Topic: Carbon footprint
Background
Carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases produced to directly and indirectly support human
activities, usually expressed in equivalent tons of carbon dioxide (CO2). Greenhouse gases can be emitted
through transport, land clearance, and the production and consumption of food, fuels, manufactured
goods, materials, wood, roads, buildings, and services. Carbon dioxide causes global warming. Other
greenhouse gases which might be emitted as a result of your activities are methane and ozone. The carbon
footprint is a very powerful tool to understand the impact of personal behaviour on global warming. People can
see the amount of CO2 their activities create. This might personally help people want to contribute to stop
global warming.
Problem Identification
People are unaware of the greenhouse gases they produced during human activities which contribute to global
warming.
Aim & Objectives
To address the issue of carbon footprint towards the environment & how to reduce carbon footprint
4. Motivation
I was pretty unaware of how much carbon dioxide that myself produce during human activities until I read an
article about it. Sharing this information & awareness with others would be a great step towards a better &
greener environment.
Ideation & concept
To create a carbon calculator that calculates the user’s carbon footprint and how much does it cost.
Review, Analysis & precedence studies
http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/ (wwf carbon footprint calculator)
http://www.behance.net/gallery/Carbon-Footprint-Awareness-Campaign/434673 (awareness campaign)
Design Approach
Serious approach.
6. CARBON FOOTPRINT
The amount of greenhouse gases emitted by human activities.
GREENHOUSE GASES (GHG)
Gases in Earth’s atmosphere that prevent heat from escaping into space.
GHG SOURCES & GASES
Scientists are certain that human activities are changing the composition of the atmosphere, and that
increasing the concentration of GHGs will change the planet's climate.
GHG sources :
-burning of fossil fuels
-industrial process
-waste breakdown
-deforestation
-farming & agriculture
-food production & consumption
-land clearance
-manufactured goods/products
-electricity
-transport
-roads
-buildings
-energy
-materials & packaging
7. Greenhouse gases causes:
-Carbon to be released into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuel for transport and electricity.
When oil, gas or coal burns, carbon contained within it combines with oxygen in the air to create carbon dioxide.
Demand for electricity
The growing population of the earth all want cars, refrigerators, air-conditioning and a double garage. Most electricity is
generated by burning coal.
Demand for red meat.
Cattle emits methane. Deforestation decrease the absorbtion of carbon dioxide from the air.
Animals, particularly sheep and cattle, produce large amounts of methane. Some fertilisers also release nitrous
oxide, which is another greenhouse gas.
Planet's ability to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
High concentration of carbon dioxide cant be removed by plants completely through photosynthesis. This is why
deforestation increase the output of carbon dioxide.
The process is pretty simple :
-Plants absorb & store carbon inside of them.
-Oxygen is then released through photosynthesis.
This is why land clearance & deforestation reverse the process by releasing carbon dioxide into the air.
Of the approximately 8 billion tons of carbon emitted each year, scientists believe about :
-30% is absorbed by the oceans
-30% is absorbed by terrestrial ecosystems
-40% accumulates in the atmosphere
8. CARBON CALCULATOR
One of the easiest way to determine how much carbon footprint we produce is by calculating it.
This will give us an estimation of carbon we produced.
Based on the online carbon calculators, majority of them will ask:
1 BASIC INFO
-number of people in household
-location
-type of house
2 CALCULATION PART
-what you do
-type of energy used
-electricity based
-transportation, vehicles & flights
-some questionaires
-secondary footprint
-how much money spent
-fuel/petrol
3 RESULTS
-average carbon produced
-charts
-donation
-take actions
16. CARBON CALCULATOR
LAYOUT & CONTENT
The way carbon calculators were being design encountered problems like:
- Too much to calculate
-Some users also had problem inserting the right amount of number.
- Time consuming
- Some users don't know how much value to input
RESULTS
-Some results are just numbers
- Too much information
CONCEPT
To create a carbon calculator to calculate the amount of carbon footprint produce and how much money it
will cost.
This calculator will be very straight forward & easily understood.
Instead of making people figuring out what value they need. Why not calculate it for them? This is more
accurate than estimated data.
17. USABILITY
- no calculations required
- focus more on data visualization
- results are simple & easy to understand
- time saving
- no need to insert any value
- user can check their carbon footprint & cost just by
looking.
18. HOW IT WORKS
1. Using a light sensor arduino board to capture the amount of light from a
light source.
2. The captured data will be sent to a server
3. Server sends data to the computer
FLOWCHART
4. Data from PC will generate visualization.
24. FINAL VISUAL
So, the overall visual will look like this. This data and UI focuses the user's eye to the
middle more than the previous one. User can know how much that amount of carbon
footprint will cost.
This calculator calculates the user’s carbon footprint, duration, kilowatt/hour & cost.
Everything is calculated for the user with visuals & data. There is no need for the user
to waste their time to calculate or key in any amount of numbers in the calculator
