Inspiration
In the era of data-driven technology, the invisible environmental cost of online activities is escalating due to the significant energy consumption of data centers.
What it does
Addressing two key questions, how to raise individual awareness and educate on carbon intensity, this tool calculates and displays CO2 equivalent emissions in real-time.
How we built it
We developed Green Meter as a Chrome extension using JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. We integrated the ElectricityMaps API for real-time carbon intensity data based on the user's geographic country location and used the standard 0.81 kWh/GB energy-to-data ratio to calculate the electricity usage for data transfer. The extension updates dynamically to reflect the user's browsing session.
Challenges we ran into
Accurately tracking and converting the data transfer into carbon emissions was hard considering the variable carbon intensity of electricity in different regions.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
I'm proud of creating an intuitive, educational, tool that increases awareness & provides actionable insights into reducing one's digital carbon footprint.
What's Next
The extension could be expanded to incorporate more comprehensive analysis and visualization of data to better represent the user’s total carbon imprint. Visual comparisons of time and emissions on different websites would enable users to make more conscious choices and avoid those websites with excessive carbon impact.
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