Gian Schneider

Climate change is a major challenge. Can carbon footprint calculators be one of the drivers to reduce CO₂ emissions on a large scale? Can they have an impact on users to change their bad decisions regarding climate?

The idea behind developing such apps/websites in the first place

Climate change is the greatest challenge of our time, as it entails many dangers for people globally. Since the industrial revolution (ca. 1850), carbon emissions have increased immeasurably. CO₂ is the greenhouse gas most responsible for warming the climate. The warmer it gets, the more extreme weather events it causes: hail, heavy rainfall, droughts, etc., which pose major challenges for agriculture in particular. Another danger is the rise in sea level, which could swallow up entire coasts. It is therefore important to reduce CO₂ emissions. In a free consumer society, individuals contribute a lot. Of course, if only one person reduces their carbon footprint, it has little effect; but if you can get many to do so, it can have a very big effect. So instead of enforcing rules and bans in a free society to reduce emissions, you could give people a tool that gives them an overview of their carbon footprint. What behaviour has a big impact on the climate, how do you motivate and present them with ideas on how best to reduce their own emissions? The goal is to educate people and change their behaviour through their own will.

What kind of apps and website are there and what kind of service do they offer exactly?

There is already a quite wide range of apps and websites that allow you to calculate your own carbon footprint. To do this, people are asked questions about their consumption behaviour. However, the questions sometimes differ depending on the provider and different calculation models are used.
What most apps/websites have in common is that after calculating the footprint, suggestions are made to the user on how they can best and most effectively reduce their CO₂ emissions. The user’s own carbon footprint is also compared with others (e.g. with the average of the world population). This format is used by apps such as Enerjoy and Capture, as well as the carbon footprinter calculator available on the WWF website. Enerjoy also offers a direct CO₂ compensation in the app, for example by financially supporting a climate protection project. Capture uses GPS to estimate the emissions caused by transport. There are also specialised programmes, such as the app Neutral, which enables users to reduce their carboon footprint when shopping online. Or carGoogle, which can give a more precise indication of the emissions generated by a flight and also gives you suggestions of flights that cause less CO₂ emissions in comparison. This depends on the aircraft engine and equipment, the aircraft model, the number and layout of seats. You can easily make a flight more efficient by filling an empty seat.

The Enerjoy app: Carbon footprint overview (enerjoy.ch, 2022)

Influencing the user behaviour of such applications that aim to reduce CO₂ emissions

The app providers are convinced that the consumer behaviour of their users is changing. CarGoogle is said to have helped many to choose a less emitting flight. The app Neutral is said to have saved 150,000 kilograms of CO₂ by influencing the online purchasing behaviour of its users. A study by three researchers from the University of British Columbia sheds light on what could be the biggest factor in this influence. Consumers struggle to assess which behaviours have the greatest impact on the climate. This is one cause of the availability heuristic, since information that comes easily to mind tends to be used. Many consumers therefore feel that recycling, organic preferences and foods with less packaging have a greater impact on the climate than eating less meat, flying and driving. The applications offered can correct these misconceptions of consumers because the applications make them more aware and sensitive to the different informations.

Consumers in Switzerland were asked which of the following behaviours would be most beneficial to the environment. 1 for very small, 6 for very large (Tobler et al., 2012)

Conclusion

The applications for carbon footprint calculations can definitely contribute to reducing some of the emissions. But nevertheless, the share will probably remain rather small. Even if the providers are convinced that their users have adapted their behaviour, the number of users remains manageable. Someone who uses such an application will already be more sensitive to the issue of climate change and therefore more willing to adapt their habits. And it is well known that habits are difficult to adapt. It is quite possible that the willingness will increase over time and for this the providers must continue to develop their applications. There are also still too many uncertainties about how much a behaviour really causes in terms of emissions. Standardising product groups is also too easy. Also, certain apps that focus on specific emission sources that have a small share in the carbon footprint are actually quite ineffective. However, some apps do have potential if they can overcome the challenges mentioned above. Properly educating consumers about their behaviours that affect the climate and the environment could be one of the keys to success against climate change. These applications could be part of that solution.

References

Rolfe, K. (2022). These apps can help you track and offset your carbon footprint. The Globe and Mail. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/personal-finance/household-finances/article-apps-track-offset-carbon-emissions-footprint/

Bearne, S. (2021). Is it worth tracking your carbon footprint? BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-55907643

United Nations (UNO). (2022). Global Issues: Climate Change. https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/climate-change

Enerjoy. (2022). ‘Deine CO₂-Fussabdruck App – Entdecke und reduziere mit enerjoy deinen CO₂-Fussabdruck für eine nachhaltige Zukunft’. https://www.enerjoy.ch/

Worldwidelife (WWF). (2022). WWF Footprint Calculator: How big is your Environmental Footprint? https://footprint.wwf.org.uk/#/

Neutral. (2022). Project Neutral: helps you understand how your daily choices impact climate change. https://app.projectneutral.org/

Capture. (2022). Planet-friendly living, made possible: The Capture app makes it easy to track, reduce and remove CO₂ emissions from everyday life. https://www.thecapture.club/

Tobler, C., Visschers, V. H. M., & Siegrist, M. (2012). Consumers’ knowledge about climate change. Climatic Change 114, 189–209. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-011-0393-1