Description/Ethics
DESCRIPTION/ETHICS: Paved in Green is a website motivating the everyday user to lead a more sustainable lifestyle. The site displays a countdown until global temperatures rise to a critical degree through an eye-catching doomsday clock, and provides recommendations for users to decrease their carbon footprints on individual levels. A hyperlinked external calculator from footprintcalculator.org estimates each user’s carbon footprint. The code for the website is completely original and is written in HTML and CSS. The facts supporting the site's message are research derived and cited. All team members participated in the construction of the project.
Purpose
PURPOSE: It is no secret that the climate is in crisis, but the general public’s notion that individual actions are insignificant must be revised. By alerting visitors of our site to the urgency of the problem, we implore them to incorporate action-based goals into their everyday lives to reduce their carbon footprint and hopefully slow down the clock until irreversible damage. The suggestions are divided into categories; energy usage, meat consumption, public transportation, private clean energy transportation, food waste, recycling, e-dumping, organic food, and conscious consumption of clothing. We allow users to play around with possible lifestyle changes to estimate a new, reduced carbon footprint impact. For example, being vegetarian for one week per month would save .153 tons of carbon dioxide a year, and consuming organic food saves 0.5-1.0 metric tons. These suggestions are based on existing estimates found through research, and the approachable UX of the site and its functions will hopefully encourage users to start making gradual changes that have a genuine impact on our climate.
How it works
HOW IT WORKS: The site has a number of features that emphasize the urgency of the climate crisis, while drawing attention to the individual’s ability to make an impact. A hidden dropdown menu on the top left corner provides easy access to the website’s different sections. The first page features a clock counting down until carbon output does irreversible damage. Next, a hyperlink direct the user to an external calculator that estimates their carbon footprint: footprintcalculator.org. Using the user’s inputted score and a selectable table of suggestions that could reduce this impact, an internal second calculator estimates the impact of the actions we recommend. They are then able to review the tons/year of carbon they could save. Finally, we embedded a map from movethedate.overshoot.org that allows users to browse community sustainability efforts available in different regions of the world.
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