USE OF CARBON FOOTPRINT MONITORING APPLICATION TO MODIFY HUMAN BEHAVIOR

Abstract

Greenhouse gas buildup within the earth’s atmosphere has an adverse impact on the Earth. By trapping warmth through the reflection of heat back towards the earth surface, global temperatures increase. An individual’s carbon footprint is described as the total greenhouse gas emissions generated by an individual’s everyday activities such as transportation, residential energy usage, and household waste generation. The United States is the second largest producer of greenhouse gases behind China. In 2016, the United States emitted 6,546 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gases. Of these 6,546 million Metric Tons, 5.4% or 354 million metric tons are emitted by residential economic sector. Through research on behavioral change methodologies combined with smartphone application development surveys this project’s objective is to design and develop a smartphone application mock-up that calculates individual carbon emissions and provides positive feedback to users in order to influence behavior change instrumental in reducing residential carbon emissions.