Phone to gauge your carbon footprint

More and more Australians are becoming energy conscious, but find it hard to keep tabs over how much they’re actually affecting the environment.

More and more Australians are becoming energy conscious, but find it hard to keep tabs over how much they’re actually affecting the environment. But a new tech firm has created a new way to calculate your “carbon footprint” – all you need is a GPS enabled phone.

British-based group Carbon Hero has prepared Carbon Diem, software that determines how a user is travelling, either by foot, car, bus, train or aeroplane. Algorithms calculate the distance covered and keeps up-to-date tabs with that user’s carbon emissions.

Companies can also use the software to determine how much carbon is being released into the atmosphere via the transport methods of their employees.

During testing, the software’s accuracy ranged from 100% when users travelled on planes, but dropped to 65% to 75% when travelling by bus. The software works on Nokia phones, and Carbon Hero is seeking funding to increase compatibility to BlackBerry devices.

Read more on carbon emissions