Capture carbon footprint & CO2 tracker app helps reduce your footprint

Capture, carbon footprint & CO2 tracker available in the App Store shows users their personal carbon footprint, how much carbon they produce daily and what steps they can take to reduce or offset their carbon footprint in order to save the environment.

In the app, Capture provides several different categories to learn about the impact of each individual’s carbon footprint on this earth and environmentally friendly practices that are completely doable and efficient.

Initially, when opening the app for the first time after downloading, users are welcomed with a brief three-part description of the app and the essentials of what Capture offers. Track, reduce, remove.

This app will automatically track regular carbon emissions such as everyday mobility. It will then provide personalized tips and ideas on how to reduce daily carbon emissions. Lastly, it gives users the opportunity to select projects such as “Tree Planting in Panama” to remove or offset the equivalent amount of carbon emissions you have produced.

These description slides will not make much sense until you input your information and daily habits to get started on the app. And of course, just like every other app, Capture asks users to first sign up with an email before taking any more steps.

Accompanied by vibrant animations, Capture then requires users to input your most frequently used methods of transportation, on average how long you spend time traveling each day, how many/how long are your flights every year and how much meat you consume regularly.

The app will then display your monthly carbon footprint in a nutshell. The pie chart will illustrate on average how much total carbon emissions you produce every month and the things you do that contribute to that based on the data you just inputted.

It will then show you your monthly carbon footprint compared to the average of everyone else’s carbon footprint. Warning: this part might make you feel really bad about your decisions.

After setting everything up in the app, it will of course ask you to verify your email, but also provide you with five categories at the bottom of the screen including track, remove, community, learn and activity.

The opening tab, track, is very efficiently designed as it is easy to navigate and read as are the other four tabs.

The idea behind creating this app is genius, however, it is mainly focused on carbon emissions based on transportation. While that is a very large contributing factor to one’s carbon footprint, the types of food we consume and how much we use electricity are also large contributors as well.

Nowhere in the app, other than the initial questionnaire asking how much meat you eat, allows users to track the specifics of their eating habits and how that directly affects the environment as it does with daily transportation.

When you go to record an emission, it only allows you to input transportation even though it automatically measures that for you based on the movement of your phone throughout the day.

Although Capture is extremely coherent and systematic, it does not necessarily take into account the specifics of its users' daily activity in order to provide an accurate estimate of how much they are contributing to carbon emissions.

Photo: Nick Fewings, Unsplash

HelloFresh is successfully reducing its carbon footprint more and more every year

Booming online meal kit service, HelloFresh has proven to environmental professionals that ordering its meal kits produces an average of 31% fewer carbon emissions than purchasing standard groceries and cooking a meal at home in the United States.

On April 26, HelloFresh published its ISO 14040 compliant life cycle assessment (LCA) presenting the company’s astonishingly low carbon emissions and a sustainability report illustrating its progressive strategy to remain environmentally friendly throughout this past year.

One of HelloFresh’s primary goals is to reduce its carbon footprint as much as possible by generating less food waste, curating efficient delivery and warranting a shorter supply chain for all deliveries. Not only does the company actively offset 100% of its carbon emissions, but it additionally uses 100% sustainable electricity in all production sites and offices.

Organic or non-organic, the ingredients used to make meals produce the largest amounts of carbon emissions in the food industry, which is then followed by distribution. Specifically, meats such as beef and pork generate up to 60 kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions per kilogram of meat being produced.

This issue is nearly unavoidable for most who eat meat, however, distribution is also a very large contributor to the carbon footprint of foods in the industry. Therefore, sourcing ingredients from reliable, sustainable food businesses like HelloFresh is a much cleaner alternative.

With meal plans friendly to all types of diets, HelloFresh has curated a variety of vendors who all practice sustainability in their food production.

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, an average of 40% of food in America ends up in the trash/landfill. However, HelloFresh’s business model authorizes weekly forecasting of consumers’ food demands which ultimately results in less food being thrown away due to unsold inventory and food being wasted due to over-portioning.

And while dealing with fewer food scraps is cleaner and more convenient for humans, it is not so convenient for raccoons. According to an article published by Newswire, HelloFresh’s production site in Canada says “Sorry, not sorry” to the raccoon community.

“After all, HelloFresh meals generate 72 per cent fewer food scraps during meal preparation than non-HelloFresh meals, which is great news for humans, our wallets and the planet, but not exactly ideal for the country's notorious ‘trash pandas,’” says Newswire.

There are advantages and disadvantages to everything.

Nevertheless, HelloFresh’s supply chain additionally cuts out all of the unnecessary middlemen foods sold in stores usually navigate through by sourcing its products from farm to a HelloFresh production site then straight to the customer’s home.

 

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Following up to the LCA study, HelloFresh’s sustainability report shares the company's achievements and goals over the past few years. Based on the company’s 2019 criterion, HelloFresh had fulfilled a 48% reduction of carbon emissions by the end of 2021.

It is apparent that the company is headed right on target with its goal of a 60% reduction by the end of 2022.

HelloFresh is undoubtedly doing its part by taking large, powerful steps toward a green future by actively reducing its carbon footprint and encouraging anyone and everyone to do the same by ordering healthy, sustainable food.

Photo: No Revisions, Unsplash

USAA Real Estate has almost completed its new sustainable development

USAA Real Estate and its development partner, Seefried Industrial Properties have publicly announced they are near completion of their latest large-scale project built entirely out of sustainable materials. This industrial warehouse is USAA’s first completely sustainable development which has reduced its carbon footprint by over 45%.

USAA’s new industrial warehouse located in Dallas Fort Worth has been constructed with Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) a meticulously designed wood panel composition in replacement of concrete. Standard concrete construction protocol produces approximately 8% of global carbon emissions every year.

"Consistent with our ambition to be more imaginative about limiting the environmental impact of our development projects, we are leveraging renewable resources harvested in a sustainable manner" managing director at USAA Real Estate, Lange Allen told PR Newswire.

It is apparent that USAA Real Estate along with several other prevalent real estate and construction companies such as CBRE are moving toward a sustainable future in order to reduce the carbon footprint of their developments.

Photo: Alexander Abero, Unsplash