Calcufactory

Main Page - This is the main page of our website, you can also check it out through the link in "try it out"

Inspiration

Calcufactory was inspired by the continuous issue of factory pollution. You have probably heard about the air pollution horror stories such as developing all sorts of health issues, or being unable to go outside at all due to poor air quality. Oftentimes you’ll hear people say to try and reduce your own carbon footprint, and that every little change matters. Unfortunately the reality is grim and unless we hold corporations and their factories accountable, our individual impact will not make enough of a difference. The Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) has already stated that some effects of climate change are now irreversible as of 2021. With the help of our app, we can hold bigger companies and their factories accountable for the waste they create and help adopt and push for more eco-friendly and environmentally sustainable practices.

What it does

Calcufactory is simple and straightforward. It is an annual emissions calculator and simulator, shedding light on the possible amounts of CO2 that factory could be pumping out into our atmosphere. We hope that this app can shed additional light on the impact of air pollution and one of the major contributors to it.

How we built it

We built the backend of our app in JavaScript and we built the frontend of our app using HTML and CSS. This app was also built with the help of the DCP API and the QOOM IDE.

Challenges we ran into

Our most significant challenge was we couldn’t figure out how to communicate with the DCP API. We read and were following the document that was linked to the challenge, but our code was still showing an error. The DCP API was unfamiliar to us so we had to reach out to the DCP mentors for support. They were very kind and guided us to figure out a solution for our issue.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Our biggest accomplishment is the vision for Calcufactory. Most importantly, our vision for the Calcufactory requires no payment from the user, it's completely free! We believe that providing the user with the information they need to learn about climate change (free of charge) is very important and will have a resonating impact.

What we learned

We learned how to communicate with the DCP API, and broadened our overall knowledge into the world of API’s. We also learned and used for the first time, the QOOM IDE and how to use the DCP API.

What's next for CalcuFactory

Right now, Calcufactory is still very basic in terms of both design and capabilities. This means that the possibilities and applications are truly endless. We can look to expand into a more visually appealing design as well as incorporate Google API or web scraping so that users will be able to directly get information from Google and other organizations that are working towards similar goals as us. Our application is the minimum viable product which demonstrates what our program does at its most basic level. As we continue to expand and develop, we plan to incorporate an AQI, which stands for Air Quality Index indicator which takes the result of the emissions per year and calculates what the Air Quality would be like if the emissions continued for the amount of years you entered. We will also look for the most current emissions report and emissions reduction pledges that countries committed to as part of climate targets/summits and make a progress meter for each country, looking at how they are fulfilling their promises. All of this is to empower users with the knowledge they need to spread awareness about the threat of climate change and to allow the users realize the scale at which corporations, factories and countries are emitting every year into our atmosphere.