How might we help individuals understand the impact of climate change on their cities and individual lives?

OBJECTIVE: Identify the potential customer segment and understand their behaviors and attitudes towards climate change in order to develop a service that will create value for both the user and the environment.

It became clear very quickly that we were facing a wicked problem; one that is difficult to solve with incomplete, contradictory, and changing data and mindsets. 

Our consumption rate has exceeded our planet’s ecological capacity. Human activity has caused an enormous increase in Greenhouse Gases (GHG) and more than half of these emissions happened in the last thirty years. Humans have never walked a planet which is as warm as the one we live on today.

Carbon dioxide is the largest contributor to climate change. 

In 2018, United Nations released an urgent report emphasizing the need to cut carbon emissions 50% by 2030 to avoid an irreversible climate crisis. 

More than 60% of CO2 emissions are linked to consumption.

Average global temperature has increased by about 1.4˚ F over the last 100 years.

If everyone in the world lived as Americans do, we would need 5 Earths to support humanity.

The idea of waste is a completely human idea. It doesn’t exist in nature.
To understand when and why our waste-creating habits began, we traced it back to the 1950s when consumerism was king and people were eager to live the good life after World War II. Disposability won because it was incredibly convenient and incredibly affordable, and it helped “modernize” people’s lives. 

Before then ‘things’ were considered assets. The idea of waste existed, but it wasn’t glorified. Ultimately this led us down the destructive path of the linear supply chain. Currently we operate in a take-make-waste industrial model. Circularity means we redefine growth by decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources and designing waste – and the idea of waste – out of the system.

An ‘Affinity Map’ is a method which can help you gather large amounts of data and organize it into groups or themes based on their relationships. The affinity process was a great tool for us because we gathered a large number of information and data during our research.

INDIVIDUAL VALUE SYSTEM

There is a gap in education about climate change and in availability of adequate tools that can help guide individuals to positively contribute to climate change mitigation. People respond differently to different narratives like panic, fear, or optimism. However, the majority of people will respond to economic logic and personal improvement incentives. 

Our values as a global community are skewed to create these climate problems:

We tend to put individual ambition over community progress. 

We look for convenience instead of personal growth.

We prioritize constant financial gain instead of being content with what we already have. 

 

We seek quantity over quality.  

Data from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication shows that only 70% of Americans believe that climate change is happening. This is the highest rate it has ever been. Of those seventy percent, only 57% believe that climate change is being caused mostly by human activities.

The two main reasons people have not mobilized to action against climate change:

1. There is a lack the knowledge that is needed to lead people into informed decision-making.

2. Misconceptions which lead people to misunderstand the causes and therefore the solutions, as well as to be unaware of the risks.

We focused on developing a tool or service that addresses the following questions:

How might we translate climate change into a tangible financial risk?

How might we create individual desire to motivate change?

How might we respect the values of convenience and affordability while enabling people to be more conscious about their decisions? 

The way we calculate your score is divided into two steps:
Step one: quick and easy to answer questions. 

Step two: one of the things that make us different; Instead of attempting to answer questions you don't know the answer to, we provide you with a feature to link your bank account which will allow us to give you a more accurate representation of your score.
Linking your bank account allows you to track and measure your carbon footprint from each purchase and therefore creates a clearer picture of where within the four categories you need to make adjustments. Additional features would include linking other tracking apps like your fitbit, or even uber. For carbon emissions to be calculated at a more accurate level, more data is needed. Therefore, the more apps that are linked the better the score is.

Aland (aw-land) Index: merges credit card transaction data with that of financial investment analysis and calculates the individual carbon footprint of each transaction.

Our app makes this process human. 

We don't only give you your score as a number. We make it easy to understand where you are relative to a scale. 

The score is divided into four simple categories: Home, Food, Transport and Products.

 

The app also gives you the means to come back and check your score without having to go through the whole process all over again.

What also makes us different is the prolonged tracking and engagement we offer. 

Based on each individual's habits a curated guide will appear like this (point to middle screen)

This user for example filled out or initial questionnaire saying he or she is a meat eater. 
Our guidance system would therefore suggest that this user could [or should] lower his or her meat intake. 

Here, the user can:

Learn specifics of how this will help. 

Use the slider to see how changing the number of “meat meals” they consume can impact co2 emissions and their savings. 

And that’s our Minimum Viable Product. 

What makes this app more complete is this feature which allows for the creation of a sense of community.  
This happens with the challenges feature where you can find the extra motivation you need to take action by competing with friends and family. 

So how this works is: We would partner with companies that offer lower carbon alternatives. And create sponsored challenges that people can take up individually or with friends. 

Each challenge would have rules and a timeline for the user to follow in order to gain rewards. 

The example we have is a challenge in collaboration with Citi Bike. So the user can choose to start a challenge by herself or challenge someone in her community. When and if the user completes the challenge Citi Bike can offer a reward like discounted rides to keep customers coming back. 

Community is your place to share and chat about all your carbon reduction activities.

Add friends and family to share your experiences and cheer each other on. 

Pick a challenge and win rewards together.

For more on this project, please follow this link to our case study booklet.

Project for Integrated Studio 1 [MS] in collaboration with Citi Ventures

Thank you.