As sustainability is becoming increasingly important, World of Circular Economy (WOCE), an India-based climate-friendly start-up has launched Carbon Book on AppStore in India and is free for download. With the download, a user can start capturing and monitoring his/her carbon emissions.
"We are being applauded worldwide for making our pledges and efforts around environmental change-- our PM said, this in his Independence Day speech, while adding that the next 25 years are important for all of us to stay determined and take actions being one with the nation. Aligning with the country's environment mission, WOCE has launched Carbon Book app, which captures, calculates, and offsets carbon footprint, and will help India gain momentum in the net-zero direction", said Anup Garg, Founder, and Director, WOCE.
Elaborating on the relevance of the app at this juncture, Garg said: "While everyone is talking about sustainability, very few are walking the talk. People are talking about a sustainable lifestyle, but there are barely any tools in the market that enable people to measure their own footprint and act on it. Especially with India's commitment at COP26 to cut its GHG emissions to net-zero by 2070, it becomes important to start with a behavioural change at the individual level and our Carbon Book app is certain to make a huge impact, here", said Garg.
India alone as a country has a population of 1.38 billion people with 1.2 billion mobile subscribers, out of which 750 million are smartphone users which is expected to grow to 1 billion by 2026. Given the userbase, there is a great potential to decrease carbon emissions through the app.
Garg said: "With the iOS version launch in India, anyone can easily calculate his or her carbon emissions on daily basis. By using this app, we will enable individuals to reduce their emissions by 20%-30% in a year. The Android version is under testing phase and will be released soon."
"Even if we have 5% downloads out of 750 million smart phone users in India with each user reducing his carbon emission by at least 10% (at the rate of 1.91 tonnes per person), WOCE's conservative calculation indicates 7.1 Million Tons of Carbon Emission reduction in the first year itself. This figure will assuredly increase to four times in the second year as the message of social responsibility vis a vis sustainability will diffuse, inspiring others to follow the suit": Anup Garg, Founder, and Director, WOCE.
How does the app work?
It has five simple steps/modules: -
1. Registration- which is OTP (one-time password) enabled
2. Capture- to track your daily activities such as travel (by car, rail, air, bike, train), food, home energy consumption (gas & electricity) and home waste.
3. Calculate- this gives you an insight into your daily and monthly emissions over time.
4. Offset- gives you an option to offset by investing in green projects.
5. Marketplace- gives an option to buy sustainable products from our marketplace partners.
WOCE strongly believes in the philosophy of 'What cannot be measured, cannot be managed'. The aim is to shift the behaviour of people/organization by taking responsibility for their action, which is causing harm to the ecosystem, by capturing and calculating carbon emissions. "The Carbon Book app is the beginning of the process to change the mindset and bring consciousness that sustainability is not an option but will be a way of life we all will lead! And with the announcement of government regulated carbon market in India, decarbonising India will become easier."
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