Inspiration

Shopping is easy. Understanding its environmental impact isn’t. I wanted to make carbon footprint visible at the moment people click “buy,” not buried in some sustainability report.

What it does

Carbon Cart shows the estimated carbon footprint of items in your cart in real time and suggests lower-impact alternatives before checkout.

How its built

It calculates emissions based on product categories and updates totals instantly in a simple dashboard.

Challenges

Finding reliable emission datasets Normalizing inconsistent product categories Making carbon data simple without oversimplifying Balancing accuracy with performance

Accomplishments

Built an end-to-end working MVP independently Real-time carbon calculation system Clean, intuitive UI for complex environmental data Translated abstract climate numbers into actionable insights

What we learnt

Sustainability data is messy and imperfect Users need context, not just numbers Simplicity in UX takes serious effort

What's next for Carbon Cart

Improve accuracy, turn it into a browser extension, and add personalized impact tracking so users can actually see long-term change.

Built With

Share this project:

Updates