Check your greenhouse gas emissions, via cellphone

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by Stuart Corner

Wednesday, 19 December 2007

! No, not those produced by flatulence: the European Commission's Joint Research Centre has developed a cellphone application that enables users to see the quantity greenhouse gases that is produced when they carry out their everyday activities. Related stories Ericsson / STMicro JV to shake up wireless chipset market Nuance to buy SNAPin and transform customer service via cellphones New 'green' rules for plug-in power packs APC launches data centre design consultancy Dimension Data offer help to make office IT greener Information about activities such as cooking, transport, lighting, electronic appliances is entered into the application (over 60 activities are listed) and the application outputs details of how much of the three major greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide - are produced as a result. A user diary of daily, weekly and yearly emissions can be registered on a secure website, allowing a comparison with national and world averages. The application also includes an animation reflecting the user's contribution to the Kyoto Protocol target. The application, MobGAS, is available as a download direct to a cellphone from http://mobgas.jrc.it/download. It will run under Windows Mobile, Symbian S60 and J2ME. According to the JRC, once downloaded (about 146kB) the application is self-contained and its use does not incur any mobile data charges. The JRC hopes that MobGAS will change the relationship between individual consumers an the environment. "Individuals can have a significant impact on reducing emissions...How we travel, the appliances we use or the food we eat, can make a real different to emissions. Lifestyle and consumer choices are a key factor, so it is important that people are aware of the implications of their personal choices...By downloading the application to a mobile phone – something people carry with them almost all the time – it is possible to make use of quieter moments – travelling on a bus, or waiting for an appointment, for example – to input the data for that day. This could include the means of transport they took, how they heated their house, how long they watched television and what they ate." MobGAS is being developed for all 27 EU member countries and is available in 21 European languages. More information on the MobGAS website.{moscomment} http://mobgas.jrc.ec.europa.eu/mobgas/app/MainPage.po Please enable JavaScript in your browser to post your comment! Tags See All Tags Cellphones  Green IT  Stuart Corner  Get stories like this delivered daily - FREE - subscribe now

 

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