CO2OUT - An App to fight Climate Change

Inspiration

Although a lot of people today are aware of climate change, not many really know how much they, at a personal level, contribute to it. To join the battle against climate change, we look towards leveraging the power of ubiquitous devices to develop CO2UT. In the country where we grew up i.e. India as well as other developing countries, more than 65% stated that they had never heard of climate change. This is an alarming statistic since our countries suffer from floods and droughts in different regions every year and yet they are not really aware of the causes behind them, hence unable to do much to combat the issues. Climate change is one of the most defining issues of our time and there are several initiatives to solve it by the UN but the most effective way is to change the way people think of this issue and create awareness. In a survey, it was found that less than one-third of the Americans care about the environment. We all have had times back home where we had schools closed for days, family members unable to reach home, and other struggles because of major floods caused due to people’s negligence towards climate change. After facing such times and reading about such alarming statistics of lack of climate change awareness in developing countries and the United States, we wanted to take it into our hands to make this change. To make this change we aimed to leverage the ubiquitous nature of mobile phones to develop a mobile application to create awareness among people about the effects of climate change. We aim to help people by suggesting ways for people to battle it, and motivate them to lead a healthier lifestyle that also helps combat climate change. We believe it will take combined efforts from everyone to overcome this issue. We thus wish to help people make micro-level changes in their lives which eventually results in a macro level impact around the world.

What it does

CO2UT is an application that aims to make people more aware of their personal impact on the climate through a carbon footprint calculator in which they can regularly calculate the amount of carbon they produce in metric tons per year based on daily consumption such as gas, electricity, meat, etc. Apart from keeping our users aware and accountable, we hope to influence users to inculcate responsible behavior towards climate change and motivate them to develop a healthier lifestyle by providing relevant tasks for them to complete through which they could reduce their carbon footprint. Additionally, we also provide options to donate to organizations that are fighting climate change to encourage users with a higher carbon footprint to offset their footprint donating to these organizations. To make the app persuasive and ensure users use it on a regular basis we provide rewards points for every task completed and/or any donation made for a charity. The reward points earned can be redeemed for tangible rewards such as potted plants, reusable cups and a number of other products.

How I built it

First, we thought about all the main tasks we had to perform and then prioritized the tasks. After we finalized which technologies we are going to use, we decided on the schema of the database. We then decided who is going to do which task and made a schedule. As and when each task was completed, we integrated it and deployed it on AWS.

Challenges I ran into

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Developing a product that actually helps people care more about the climate and improve their lifestyle while promoting social good.

What I learned

For the first time in our life we learned and implemented an AWS hosting and RDBMS.
We learned how to collaborate together to solve a complex issue in a short amount of time.
That a ton of redbull, cookies and cheetos can upset your tummy
Prioritizing tasks and timing each task