Inspiration
Based on the UN's 2020 Emissions Gap Report, the levels of ambition in the Paris Agreement must be roughly tripled to achieve the 2°C pathway and increased at least fivefold for the 1.5°C pathway, in order to avoid climate disaster. The report also highlights that "around two-thirds of global emissions are linked to private households, when using consumption-based accounting," with developed, wealthier countries bearing the most responsibility.
Motivated by this, we conducted a survey of 40 participants to explore how environmentally conscious people with potentially high carbon footprints felt about climate change and whether they were taking any action to mitigate it. Research suggests a psychological factor, the "green intention-behavior gap", one of its main causes being a lack of information about individual carbon emissions. This observation was mirrored in our survey responses. Our goal, therefore, is to address the problem of misinformation about climate change and the lack of easily digestible information for those who want to learn how to adapt their lifestyles in a more environmentally friendly way.
What it does
It is an educational AR-powered app that reveals the eco-impact of everyday items while empowering you to take action and set goals to combat climate change.
AR Object Recognition and Impact Analysis The app utilizes AR technology to identify objects in your environment that can have a positive or negative environmental impact. Take a tree, for example. It serves various purposes, both positive (carbon capture, habitat for biodiversity, soil health, air filtration, rainfall regulation) and negative (uncontrolled deforestation, paper production, tree diseases). Within the app, users can learn how each aspect of a specific item affects the climate and take relevant action.
The integration of indigenous knowledge into the learning materials, regarding forest management for example, can provide a valuable opportunity. It can showcase the importance of protecting local indigenous communities through both direct (when possible) and indirect actions. The ultimate goal is to raise awareness of the interconnectedness between objects and the significant impact individuals can have through simple actions.
Suggested actions are ranked from lowest to highest environmental impact, measured in CO2e (carbon footprint), kWh for electricity used, and total freshwater used for production (water footprint). Data and educational content would be based on current LCA databases and resources like the Drawdown Project, which offers actionable data to achieve the Paris Agreement goals. (Note: Data used in the prototype is mock data.)
Tailored User Experience: Users can set sustainability goals based on what they want to learn and improve, such as travel/transportation, water usage, energy consumption, diet, consumer goods, waste reduction, biodiversity conservation, etc. Actions depend on the user's location and lifestyle.
Point System and Rewards: Points are awarded for learning new information about objects and completing actions. To maintain user motivation, consider allowing users to redeem points for donations to chosen organizations, signing petitions for environmental or social policies, or supporting sustainable brands within the app. Later on, badges and participation tiers can be implemented to reward active users.
Why Incentives Matter: Our research suggests that people find it difficult to afford a sustainable lifestyle due to the high cost of organic and vegan foods, sustainable products (cleaning materials, beauty products, clothes), and electric vehicles. Additionally, users might not prioritize actions because they feel their individual impact is insignificant compared to government policies and corporate actions. By providing the tools and incentives described above, we empower users to address these financial and accountability concerns.
Data Visualization for Impact
- Interactive Map: An interactive map would allow users to visualize the collective environmental impact of their actions, fostering a sense of pride. They can also see their impact on a larger scale by observing their community's contributions and comparing them to other communities on the map. (Ensuring data privacy is important for this aspect.)
- Progress Tracking: Progress bars can be a valuable tool for users to track their goals and achievements on a monthly basis.
How we built it
We built a demo prototype to showcase how the AR feature would work. Our VR/AR engineer was able to build the code to replicate the prototype, utilizing the following technology: Unity3D, Opencv, ARfoundation, ARCore, OpenCV and C+ for coding. Unity is a powerful graphics rendering game engine. ARfoundation is a component of ARcore for building mobile AR apps. Opencv is a computer vision library for object detection.
Challenges we ran into
Technical: The app had build issues from unity and we weren't able to get background to show up on phone right away. Design: Limited time for prototype testing and design of all the features.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We designed the prototype for the AR object identification and programmed a successful app deployed from unity to phone using Opencv and ARfoundations.
What we learned
We learned about computer vision integrations and utilizing unity URP for ARfoundation deployment on mobile. We also learned about the different applications that AR can be have as a learning tool.
What's next for Ecolearn
We are excited for the potential that this app would have in building stronger and greener communities, especially in developed countries where people (and industry) have a greater carbon footprint. It can be a powerful tool for behavior change and promoting sustainable living.
Our goal is to develop a fully functional app that goes through different iteration stages in order to ensure that users find the app as educational and encouraging as possible. The technology would also require to undergo testing in order to operate as intended. We would like to train our data in order to improve the app's object identification capabilities.
Potential partners include:
- Google Fit and other fitness trackers that can enable users to complete actions on-the-go and track their carbon footprint via location tracking.
- Donors to set up a pool of money where users would utilize in order to direct them to their desired organizations
- Affiliation with small businesses that sell sustainable products
- Environmental agencies, school programs and non-profit organizations
Necessary steps:
- Funding: App could be funded through grants or startup investors. Mentorship is essential to create a targeted business plan that investors would likely support.
- Marketing and Outreach: The market is currently saturated with carbon footprint calculators and trackers. Additionally, we found out that our survey respondents seem to either not know such trackers exist or do not seem to find their calculations reliable. This is why investing on social media marketing is important for the specific project to reach our target audience (Gen X through Gen A) and raise awareness about the app's capabilities.
- Staff's technical expertise: To ensure the accuracy of our data and the app's efficiency, we would need staff specialized in AR and data acquisition. Other staff includes UX Designers, Content Creators and Data Scientists.
References: https://www.unep.org/interactive/emissions-gap-report/2020/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652623041392#bib122 https://drawdown.org/ https://www.verifiedmarketresearch.com/product/augmented-reality-gaming-market/ https://www.sherwen.com/insights/how-augmented-reality-is-leading-the-sustainability-charge
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