Carbon Savings - Promoting tangible methods of conservation
YMCA - Toronto Office
Updates based on feedback:
Many have felt this proposal is based on measuring a person's carbon footprint, instead we are helping people estimate the economic and environmental benefits they can expect to achieve by switching to a new light bulb, showerhead or even by adding a rain barrel.
We will be getting the word out through our own marketing efforts but also see this as a resource to support the many organizations that are already out there. We provide traction to the envrionmental movement and use money and environmental benefits as incentives for people to consider and try new products.
We are looking to work with sustainability networks, housing associations, builders, manufactuers and retailers (to help market their products), real estate agents, mortgage specialists, educational programs, speakers and the list goes on. - If you are one of these people or know someone who is, we would love to hear from you!
OVERVIEW
Carbon Savings is committed to reducing society’s demand on natural resources by promoting environmentally preferred products (EPPs). To do this, Carbon Savings focuses on public awareness by helping people to understand how to conserve water and energy and then to estimate the financial and environmental benefits associated with each method. This is done through calculators which help people estimate their annual savings, payback period and CO2 reductions. Please view http://carbonsavings.org/product.php?item=faucet for an example.
The organization was founded on the following premises:
- People would prefer to reduce their impact on the environment as long as it does not affect their standard of living
- The majority of people are motivated to action based on financial considerations
- People are hesitant to spend money when the resulting savings are unknown
In order to support the transition towards a low carbon economy, Carbon Savings has decided to concentrate its efforts on a two pronged approach. The first is to help homeowners and businesses find tangible methods to conserve energy and water. There are roughly 30 household technologies that are good for the environmental and have a fast payback period, yet many of them are unfamiliar to the public. As a result, Carbon Savings is building a comprehensive and easy-to-use website for consumers to view all of their options and learn about each one.
The second approach is to help companies communicate the benefits of their EPPs to the public. This allows manufacturers and retailers to promote their products by demonstrating the economic and environmental benefits to the customer. In essence, the calculators become interactive marketing tools to help companies sell more products. At the end of the day, increased sales translate into greater adoption of conservation.
BACKGROUND & DETAILS
The concept of Carbon Savings was born in 2010 as part of a sustainability course in engineering at Queen’s University. Since that time, the idea has evolved and gained momentum. Today, the company has teamed up with a number of non-profit organizations to provide traction to their environmental efforts.
One of Carbon Savings’ core beliefs is that in order to achieve mainstream conservation, consumers must first know what their options are and then be convinced these products are worth buying. As a result, the company has created a working prototype at www.CarbonSavings.org to allow users to browse through different product categories, such as showerheads and thermostats, in order to learn about them and their importance. Each technology is highlighted with its own interactive calculator to help users estimate the financial and environmental benefits. The calculators are pre-loaded with average household data to help people that may not be aware of reasonable input values. These numbers can be changed to generate customized estimates.
In addition to the 30 household technologies, there are roughly 40 commercial technologies that can be adopted at work to generate even greater savings. As the site develops, the goal is to provide a user experience geared towards helping people and companies explore practical opportunities to achieve conservation. By highlighting all of these technologies, Carbon Savings is looking to offer the most extensive collection of environmental products and their calculators in one location.
Beyond the educational website, Carbon Savings will leverage its impact by creating marketing tools for manufacturers and retailers. The calculators can be customized to be product specific and can be placed on the retailer’s site beside the product, which positions the calculators in front of people at the point of sale. It also enables companies to provide personalized estimates without sending their customers away from their website. The calculators have a lot of flexibility in terms of look, feel and the number of questions asked of the user. They must also be approved by Carbon Savings for accuracy and then carry the Carbon Savings logo, providing third party verification.
Companies do not currently have the option to license energy savings calculators and therefore, cannot benefit from the various advantages they have to offer. The licensing option allows companies to focus on their core competency while outsourcing software improvements and utility updates to an industry expert. Also, companies are able to forgo the development cost, which reduces risk and makes high-end features more affordable. At the end of the day, these marketing tools and added features help companies sell more EPPs and lead to a low carbon economy.
Once the site is established, Carbon Savings will create tools to help sustainability departments and green teams to evaluate the energy and water savings potential of their company. Again, the focus will be on both the financial and enviornmental benefits so they can communicate the benefits to the public once the retrofits are performed. This helps the departments identify the best opportunities while saving a lot time since the software will evaluate which technologies offer the greatest savings and are best suited for their applications. This lets staff members concentrate on implimentation while Carbon Savings performs the initial research and compares technologies.
The energy demands of the average Canadian household results in roughly 8-10 metric tons of CO2 emissions per year. However, it is possible to reduce these energy demands by more than 20% with technologies that offer a combined payback period of less than 5 years. As a result, a household would be able to save upwards of $500 per year and reduce emission by over 2 metric tons on an annual basis.
The goal is to reach as many people as possible and through the help of the YMCA, Carbon Savings is able to get a good start. In Toronto alone, the YMCA network reaches approximately 500,000 people each year and the organization helps roughly 25% of all immigrants entering the country. Their network offers an incredible opportunity to reach a large number of people and tailor solutions to help recent immigrants. The partnership will begin with a flyer distributed through the YMCA’s network that will highlight a couple household products and how much can be saved. It will then lead people to both organizations’ websites to learn more.
Partnering with the YMCA offers an unparalleled ability to reach a large number of people and achieve environmental reform. Furthermore, targeted campaigns can help low income families save money with products that have payback periods of less than 1 year.
Separately, a couple bank branches have offered to provide exposure by handing out information about www.CarbonSavings.org to new homeowners that sign up for a mortgage.
Carbon Savings was founded by Howard Swartz who graduated from Mechanical Engineering at Queen’s University. He has continued his studies at Queen’s and is currently completing a Masters in Civil Engineering with Speciality in Applied Sustainability. He has worked as the environmental manager for an eco-friendly coffee shop and spent a summer at an energy service company. In the latter role, he generated estimates of the financial savings associated with various energy reducing technologies. Howard’s network includes sustainability managers, manufacturers, retailers, utility companies, environmental consultants and marketing firms.
The company is able to derive revenues through a number of methods. The main source will come from licensing the customized calculators. Carbon Savings is in the process of developing a sophisticated platform to offer customized calculators that are capable of collecting valuable statistics about users, which can then be used to influence future marketing campaigns. Manufacturers and retailers will pay to have calculators developed for their products, which will be supported by Carbon Savings through software and data updates. This helps companies focus on their core competencies while benefiting from a third party source that is trusted for estimating utility savings.
Once the company has developed a strong online presence, the company will look to establish a consulting division. This would allow the company to provide more detailed analysis and engage organizations that would prefer to receive expert advice.
Comments
Calculations and marketing
Hi Adam, thanks for your comment. I've spent the last year and a half identifying technologies and creating calculations to model the savings. The structure of the formulas have been derived from countless hours of online research, government reports, conversations with industry and attending trade shows. Nearly all of the pre-loaded values come from government sources or can point to industry reports as a source. In addition, the calculators are based on technologies and the inputs reference product specification, pricing and social factors. At the present time, the calculations have been verified by colleagues and fellow engineers. In the future, the plan is to collect live data to adjust the calculations. However, in the short term the primary goal is to provide reasonable estimates and help consumers make better informed decisions.
As for marketing, the initial repsonse has been positive and have been able to team up with a couple organizations already. There are many organizations that attempt to create environemntal awareness and this tool fits nicely within that context.
Hope that helps,
This is a compelling tool
This is a compelling tool that has some good potential to frame sustainable choices in real terms for consumers. Good proposal.
great idea to raise awareness of specific products
I like that this tool educates people about technologies they may not be aware of. The partnership with YMCA certainly helps to enhance visibility.
The proposal would be enhanced by some evidence that clients are willing to license the calculator i.e. actual revenue potential, and by some metrics on its effectiveness at increasing conservation i.e. some kind of track record.
Licensing potential
Very good point.
I'm in serious talks with a number of companies that range considerably in size and I anticipate a decision from the first company by the end of this month. Conceptually, there are a few manufacturers/retailer there that have developed calculators for themselves so it is an accepted form of marketing. However, Carbon Savings is able to reduce risk, offer greater functionality, add credibility and provide a new form of payment so there are a number of companies where these benefits offer additional value.
This is a terrific way to
This is a terrific way to allow people to understand the financial and environmental benefits of EPPs.
Great resource for home
Great resource for home owners - love the easy to use calculators.
Easy-to-use calculators
I agree! I think it will be easier for not only homeowners, but also students living at university to measure cost-effective ways of saving on their utilities bills!
Very useful tool for the
Very useful tool for the average homeowner
People Will Like This Concept
People will appreciate the idea that EPPs can benefit the environment and be economical.
Practical, common sense contribution
Great idea. Accessible and easy for the average homeowner. Thank you for the great contribution.
I think it's very useful for
I think it's very useful for the homeowner...more strengths than weaknesses.
Carbon Savings
Fun interactive way to learn more about saving the environment, one low flow energy saving device at a time.
Make sure your payback periods are realistic, perhaps ere on the side of conservatism. Consider enlisting the services of a Chartered Accountant to aid in these calculations. This will lend extra credibility to your proposal as well.
Realistic Paybacks + Chartered Accountant
Hi Christopher, thanks for your feedback. The payback periods are based on average household data from government sources, industry reports, etc.. These numbers are used as the default values and can be changed by the users. We had not considered the use of a chartered accountant and will certainly look into that.
Thanks again
Very Useful
The tool will be very useful for the average person to determine the financial and environmental benefits
Your association with the
Your association with the YMCA is outstanding. They are a great partner for depth of opportunity both locally and with scalability internationally. Your project appears sustainable financially in the for-profit world attracting corporate partners and yet your intended objective is to make a significant impact upon saving world resources at no cost to society and a personal financial and moral benefit to individuals and society thus presumably attracting participation of corporate, industrial and socially conscious foundations and concerned societies. This appears to be well thought out and developed. With a little more time, no doubt additional capital and a couple more endorsements ot the calibre of YMCA, you will have established the beginnings of a very significant contibution. This is a great project Carbon Savings!
I can relate to the $500 annual potential household savings however, I think the average person needs to what 2 metric tons less carbon emissions actually represents and how even lesser amounts from the individual calculator savings translates into their personal contribution to the planet in a less abstract manner on an annual basis.
I really appreciate that your calculators enable me to measure my impact and make my participation relevant in the overall scheme.
Tangible Emissions Data
Thank you for commenting. It is great to receive such detailed feedback. As for your recommendation, we have discussed this concept internally and completely agree. We will be making these values more relatable upon the next update.
A great, easy tool!
Ease of use...
Clarification
Thank you for your comments but I feel there may be a misunderstanding as I believe the website has already taken into account your recommendations.
To address your 4th point that the mainstream consumer is financially driven, I would have to agree. As a result, the calculators at Carbon Savings are primarily designed to estimate cost savings for specific products. The CO2 aspect is treated as a secondary piece of information.
The other points about 100's of calculators and the contradictory need for a carbon pricing scheme is also true... but only for carbon footprint calculators.
This is where I believe the heart of the confusion lies.
The goal of Carbon Savings is to educate the public about products that can help residents (and some businesses) save energy and water. By quantifying the energy and water savings, they can also be translated into cost savings and CO2 reductions.
Given that money is a motivating factor, Carbon Savings helps users estimate their savings associated with conservation products. There will always be variances in actual savings due to a number of factors including true weather conditions and behavioural usage. However, the goal is to educate people and provide them with a tool to estimate their potential savings - in order to motivate them to action. This service is offered will be offered for free.
Carbon Savings will earn revenues by licensing or selling these calculators as marketing tools to manufacturers and retailers. There is currently no "go to" source for this service and Carbon Savings will be able to differentiate itself in this way.
I hope this helped clarify the issues you’ve raised and I would appreciate your feedback. I’ve actually signed up for Lowfoot and feel there could be opportunities to work together. Your users may be interested in learning about conservation products and which ones offer the best financial returns based on their life style.
Revenue sources
Hi Steven, thanks for your follow up.
The licensing route has shown some strong interest and we are in advance discussions with a few companies and hoping to sign our first client in the coming weeks.
The main site will initially be used to drive awareness of products and can be used as a resource for other organizations and groups to promote their own conservation agendas. I am a strong believer in websites that offer valuable and useful content and their abaility to attract users. This has certainly been demonstrated by a number of environemtnal organizations and companies that have offered to promote the site. TD bank is among the more unique ones, where a couple of branches have offered to hand out material about Carbon Savings with each new mortgage they sign.
I have planned for other methods of generating revenue from the website, which would take effect in phase three by offering users additional services.
In the meantime, thanks for being open to working together and I'll be sure to contact you after this competition.
Regards,
A great venture Howard! In
A great venture Howard! In addition to promoting EPPs, could you build in some aspect that helped people measure and consider the size of their demand on natural resources? I'm thinking that if a person uses copious amounts of an EPP that doesn't necessarily make it better than using another product.
EPPs and behaviour
Thanks for your comment! That is very true that using an LED bulb may bot be so great if you then leave your lights on 24 hours. This approach will be tied in with behavioural packages but this is scheduled down the road - we had to start somewhere. In the meantime, demonstrating personalized savings by using EPPs will help people open up to the idea and let these products gain traction. While some individuals may counteract some of the benefits based on increased usage, on a whole we should be able to achive significant reductions. More detailed analysis surrounding resource demands will also be coming in stage 3.
It's a great way to visualize
It's a great way to visualize the abstract changes being made in your home!
An iphone app.
Excellent resource!
Great potential to grow and evolve. Excellent Howard - make it happen!
Excellent Information Source
It is wonderful to have a place where people can get the information they need so they can put their personal needs and carbon savings for the planet together. Best wishes for sharing this information widely!
Not just friendly for
Not just friendly for homeowners for easily adaptable for child education - great!
Good Use of IT for Green Evolution
It's one of the best uses of IT for challenging climate change. How consumers become aware of the information will be the marketing issue.
If you can develop a rating system for a product for its carbon footprint during life cycle of the product, consumers will directly relate to your services, and they make their buying habit, looking for a rating logo or something. Potential impact of your venture would resonate throughout the consumers markets.
Rating system
Hi Harry, thanks for the comment and a very good point. We are certainly looking into this as an option for phase two or three.
Clearly expressing your business value – Mock Press Release
Each proposal in ClimateSpark is bringing a valuable community based idea forward to help with energy conservation and the reduction of carbon emissions
Centennial College, School of Communications Media & Design, Corporate Communications and Public Relations Class of 2012 will be working on a set of mock press releases, in anticipation of this proposal being one of the 20 to be selected on October 31 to continue to ClimateSpark Ignite Phase 2.
If you would like to be interviewed as part of the mock press release development process, please send a note to Professor Barry Waite, [email protected] by Friday October 21, 2011.
If you choose not to be interviewed, the mock press release will be developed based on Information currently posted in the description of your idea, as well as information gleaned from the various comment interactions.
Awesome
I can't wait to see where this product will take us.
Carbon Savings
The ease of use is the best part of this project. Very accessible for homeowners.
Any tool that will help
Any tool that will help conserve is a great asset.
I don't see any weaknesses at
I don't see any weaknesses at this time. Howard has done a lot of research and has made his website very user friendly and interesting. He is very knowledgeable and passionate about this.
Excellent proposal- well
Excellent proposal- well thought out.
Partnerships and more partnerships
Information is power, so this is in the right direction. Others have commented on the availability of many calculators, and the level of sophistication and accuracy varies, but frankly, that's not what is stopping people from taking action.
This tool needs to be paired up with some more functional, implementation-oriented partners. I just commented on another ClimateSpark contestant's proposal which involved 'personal advisors'. There are various energy service companies. What is your plan to ensure that this product which you've invested in gets operationalized?
Partnerships
Hi Julia,
Thank you for reviewing this project and offering your feedback. I think you captured this project perfectly. The goal is to provide knowledge that strikes a cord with the user. By quantifying doallrs saved, payback period and environmental impact, I hope to communicate the benefits and importance of each technology. I also agree that partnerships are the way this resource is going to useful.
To start, I've tramed up with the YMCA to make informational flyers available to the public through their extensive network (500,000 people each year just in Toronto). I'm also working to establish a partnership with Habitat for Humanity. I've been rushing to get some officially established by October 28th and it's still in progress. The goal would be to have my tools used as part of the decision making to determine which technologies are meaningful, once the family has been selected. This way it opens the door to many low-income housing projects, as there are many items with a fast payback period (less than 3 years). I've also teamed up with Youth Mentoring Youth, a group that provides environemntal workshops to students and they have selected my site as their "call to action".
It's also important to note the licensing arrangements are in some ways partnerships. They leverage Carbon Savings' impact by placing the calculators on other people's websites and position them in front of consumers at the point of sale. Some of the other partners have offered to place calculators on their website or provide links back to CarbonSavings.org. Lastly, the TD branches that have offered to hand out information are a huge victory in adding credibility and accessing people at the time when they are already performing renovations. So there are a number of ways to create public awareness and each one provides insight and opens up new doors. Of course, this is just the beginning and there is no doubt more opportunities will arise whether they are with utility companies, educational programs, financial institutions, home builders or contractors.
The merits of your calculators
I have seen other calculators which are not user friendly, are limited in the number of products they apply to, calculate either $ savings or carbon savings but not both and are generally relating to a manufacturer's own product without third party independent verification. I like what I see at Carbon Savings and appreciate how you can become the standard to which all corporations adhere to. I appreciate that you make it easy and affordable for a concerned company to utilize your platform and instantly become a visible concerned corporate citizen. You are definitely on the right track and have something tangible for others to piggy back and latch on to. Stages two and three are no doubt well formulated and I look forward to your timing as to when they are released.
A Resource of Calculations
Thank you Paul. Yes there are a few websites that offer product based calculations but those that exist are not easy to use. They are also limited in scope and Carbon Savings anticipates being the most extensive website, offering the most number of products and their calculators in one location
user friendly consumer
user friendly consumer concept
Is information enough?
I think that visual displays are a great way to engage people and get them thinking about the right choices to make.
I am concerned that simply telling people what products and actions are the best will not translate into tangible change. There has been quite a bit of research to show that information campaigns do little to influence people, and I think that potentially incorporating some more compelling elements of behaviour change campaigns into the project could be helpful. Check out our RewirePlus proposal as a bit of background to what I'm saying: /node/80
The right information to the right people
Hi Zannah,
Thanks for your comments. I have viewed your project and there are certainly some interesting comparisons that can be drawn from our work. It might be meaningful to discuss our efforts after the competition as there may be some opportunities to support each other's efforts.
As for your comments, at the end of the day, all anyone can offer is information and the decisions will be made by homeowners, residents or decision makers within companies. So to get your message across and generate change, Carbon Savings focuses on the financial savings as a way to get the attention of decision makers and spark change.
Carbon Savings employs a multi-pronged approach to encourage conservation. At the heart of it, we help people become aware of products that are available. From there, people can learn about the products and then estimate their financial savings and environmental impact - achieved by switching products or undergoing a retrofit. I completely agree that listing products/ telling people which products to use is not an effective way to encourage change. Instead, the calculators help people discover the economic incentives and that lets them identify the reward and be encouraged to work towards it.
We are also looking to create software packages for businesses and even focus on specific industries. There are certainly opportunities to work with contractors to help them make better recommendations for retrofit opportunities. Many people / companies and motivated by money and luckily there are plenty of technologies out there that are good for the environment and offer a great economic return. I've worked with a number of companies and institutions that want to save money through conservation but they just don't know where to start. Let's change that!
Please let me know if you are interested in getting together to discuss.
(P.S. The last approach is by creating marketing campaigns to provide information at the point of sale... but I've said enough about that in earlier posts)
excellent common sense
excellent common sense
It is very user friendly
It is very user friendly
Very useful tool. I could
Very useful tool. I could benefit from using a calculator like this.
Amazing Idea
Amazing proposal. I think it is something missing in the online realm and there is lot of oppertunity for expansion.
Smart tool
accessible and user friendly. Great idea
It's a really good idea as it
It's a really good idea as it's affecting everyone and is particularly user friendly - It can help a lot of people. It just needs more publicity.
Smart, yet simple
It's a really good idea as it's affecting everyone and is particularly user friendly - It can help a lot of people. It just needs more publicity.
publicity
Thank you, we are looking to expand the existing site to the full range of calculators and then we will be launching our publicity efforts and partnerships. Stay tuned!
Strength:
Strength:
In addition to the 30 household technologies, there are roughly 40 commercial technologies that can be adopted at work to generate even greater savings. As the site develops, the goal is to provide a user experience geared towards helping people and companies explore practical opportunities to achieve conservation. By highlighting all of these technologies, Carbon Savings is looking to offer the most extensive collection of environmental products and their calculators in one location.
Strength
Thanks for the comment, I'm glad that section resonates with you!
I've never seen anything like
I've never seen anything like it! really innovative
Strength is using public
Strength is using public education and societal pressure to want to "do good". No weaknesses come to mind
No comment
Well done. I really like the
Well done. I really like the idea and I'm looking forward to seeing it in use. Make sure you make it idiot proof though (ie don't make required fields, because lots of people don't know anything about their home's energy consumption, construction etc - I think you mentioned having reasonable estimates on the site which is good). I would extend the same advice to your clients in user manuals for their products. There's a lot of people out there who would just shrug off the savings if the product isn't user friendly (and I'm probably one of them).
Simplicity
Great point, we will certainly work to help explain products and hope to include how-to videos on the site for people in the DIY mindset. The fields are pre-populated with average househould values so that should help individuals who are less familiar with product specs and utility prices.
public education, societal
public education, societal pressure, unique, scalable
good tool
Many industries can benefit from this product. Good luck
zerofootprint
sounds like it could be useful tool - how does this compare to http://www.zerofootprint.net/
and is there any way of measuring the number of users that take action upon suggestions your site offers to them?
Zerofootprint and measurement
Hi Lon,
Great questions! I am a huge fan of zerofootprint as a local success story but the two ideas are uniquely different and even complimentary. Zaerofootprint focuses on helping companies track, monitor and reduce energy consumption based on behavioural changes. This is a great model as it can be applied to all medium and large sized companies, however, a company must first be prepared to work with and pay zerofootprint to help.
Carbon Savings has developed a large number of calculators for a wide range of technologies / product categories such as the 5 located on the site www.carbonsavings.org/products.php
The next goal will be to develop a login section for people to create an account and save their house as a profile. There will be some pretty cool analytical tools that will let people enter their ongoing usage and track changes. This is also where we can receive feedback on which items were purchased. Users can identify when they implemented a new technology and watch how the usage changes afterwards. This will help us to understand the adoption rate, even if it is a subset of the full impact.
A full scale launch of this membership option will be launched for companies and target medium sized organizations. It's a great tool for sustainability departments and green teams to keep everything in-house, save money and save a lot of time by having letting the software do the research and initial analysis to determine whcih products are best.
Lastly, the marketing tools are completely outside of zerofootpriint and works best with manufacturers and retailers looking to communicate the benefits of their products to the public.
So, the focus is certainly different than zerofootprint, but I hope to work with organizations like them by creating specialized software to fit within their toolkit and to help them offer a wider range of services to their customers.
Thanks again for the comment!
Strength: Excellent Concept.
Strength: Excellent Concept. Once more people are aware of this idea and its translate-ability to everyday applications, I think this will take off.
Weakness: How can you gain wider access to the public?
Usability (very easy to use),
Usability (very easy to use), potential for expansion, very modular (ie. don't have to do a full energy audit but can target specific changes).
Weaknesses: marketing... utility is based on user base.. people need to know about carbon savings to make it a default resource/reference. This will lead to adoption by more companies, registry of more products.
Howard is this venture's
Howard is this venture's greatest strength - a very motivated and intelligent entrepreneur!
Good Job Howard! Looks great!
Good Job Howard! Looks great!
overdue
i am suprised that this has not been done before. This project is long overdue.
This proposal is a great way
This proposal is a great way for comapnies and individuals to determine the economic and environmental advantages of going green. The payback period is especially useful.
nice concept.
this concept seems very nice and helping to environment. but need to imply correctly and without any problem.
this proposal could be improved by imply this methods of having natural lighting systems at home and places and use very less who emmits carbon.
The ClimateSpark Social Venture Challenge is a project of:
Our sponsors:
Good concept; a few questions
Good concept; a few questions... how will you derive/verify your assumptions on energy savings/cost savings? What's you plan to market this tool to generate awareness and usage?