Sustainable Product Code (SPC)

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  Example SPC

The Challenge: To connect consumers with sustainable information about their products, changing their behavior towards responsible purchases.

The Vision: Barcodes (UPCs) take up space on almost every product that we consume, but that space can be redesigned from the ground up, connecting consumers to further sustainability data that can drive their purchases while keeping in mind their environmental impact.

The Solution: The Sustainability Product Code (SPC), a human-readable code, understandable to anyone who picks up an item in a store, that conveys information immediately about the item's environmental impact. Like its predecessor, it is also machine-readable, but stores information in addition to unique product identifiers, allowing for a multitude of potential applications, such as expedited trash processing and sustainability-based analytics.

The Tech: Created a SPC using python openCV. The SPC links to our website that was built with express.js, node.js and published on Heroku. Used d3.js for the data visualization. Next steps include incorporating design in our data visualization and storing scans/impression on a server.

The Future: Completely replacing the UPC with the SPC, placing information in the hands of consumers to fundamentally change our behaviors and save the planet!

Built With

• css
• html
• javascript