PRESS RELEASE for immediate release The Carbon Account launches - Get serious about your footprint * Keep track of your own carbon footprint * Free and easy to use * Share and compare your personal footprint with others * Ideal for individuals or groups * Open source A new kind of online carbon calculator – The Carbon Account – launches today. The Carbon Account gives users a fresh and more informed perspective on their carbon footprint making monitoring and reduction easier. Existing carbon calculators provide a single ‘snapshot’ carbon footprint, based on a quick questionnaire. The Carbon Account goes much further, allowing users to record their ongoing carbon emissions – from gas and electricity meter readings, car mileages and more – and see the changes over time. The Carbon Account is the first site that people want to come back to repeatedly to see the effects of their lifestyle changes on their footprint. The site also offers the option to mark other users as friends, in order to easily compare results and share reduction tips. Footprint data from The Carbon Account can also be shared with friends on Facebook® Platform by adding a specific Carbon Account application [1]. Easy and interesting The Carbon Account has a number of innovative features that make it simple yet fascinating to use. During registration, for instance, entering a vehicle’s number plate automatically retrieves its emissions [2], based on standard data. Inside the site, colourful graphs display a user’s annual emissions, and reveal how these change over time. Users can add time-stamped notes to a graph to help monitor the effect of carbon-saving measures (such as insulating the loft). The Carbon Account also provides a helpful section on how best to reduce carbon emissions in different areas, and users can set themselves individual targets. In addition, groups are encouraged to set up special versions of the site to monitor their collective reduction progress. There are also plans to link The Carbon Account with smart meters [3] to make it even easier to use. Tried and tested The site has been tested by various community groups, including Transition Towns [4], Carbon Rationing Action Groups (CRAGs) [5], and Oxford Is My World, a city-wide initiative by Oxford City Council to encourage citizens to reduce their footprint [6]. Torchbox originally built The Carbon Account to demonstrate the technical feasibility of personal carbon allowances [7], but it is already helping hundreds of people across the UK to track and reduce their carbon footprints. Behind The Carbon Account is the philosophy that effective emissions reductions require accurate measurements. Tom Dyson, Director at web development company Torchbox and co-creator of The Carbon Account, says: “Rather than doing a quick footprint calculation in your lunch break, the Carbon Account encourages a long-term view. Lots of people are surprised that a single long-haul flight has the same impact as driving their car for a year. We want to help put things in perspective and spread carbon literacy. More than anything else, we want to make minding your emissions an enjoyable experience.” Independent charity The National Energy Foundation (NEF) will provide email support to users of The Carbon Account. Tim Lunel, Chief Executive of NEF, says “As part of our charitable activity we are pleased to be able to use our expertise to provide online support, helping users get the most out of this innovative tool”. Open source The source code of The Carbon Account is freely available to third-party developers under an internationally-recognised open source software licence[8]. The urgency of climate change means that we all need to reduce our emissions together, and the creators of The Carbon Account believe that the same principle should be applied to developing tools to help us in this process. Tom Dyson says: “The lessons we’ve learned about recording and reporting on carbon emissions should help other projects, and we hope that web developers motivated by preventing catastrophic climate change will improve The Carbon Account by contributing ideas and new features.” Availability The Carbon Account is free to use, and available now at www.thecarbonaccount.com. A video at www.thecarbonaccount.com/video provides a concise overview of how The Carbon Account works. ENDS Issued by: Torchbox Ltd Unit 9 Southill Business Park Cornbury Park Charlbury Oxon OX7 3EW T: +44 (0)1608 811 870 Notes to editors To arrange an interview with the creators of The Carbon Account, please contact Jamie Andrews on +44 (0)1608 811 870 or email jamie.andrews@torchbox.com. Press images for The Carbon Account are available for download from www.thecarbonaccount.com/press/ The Carbon Account was built by Torchbox Ltd, a web development company based in Oxfordshire, UK. Torchbox builds websites and online applications for socially and environmentally progressive organisations, including WWF, WRAP, the International Committee of the Red Cross and Oxford University. See www.torchbox.com. Users of The Carbon Account will be supported via email by experts at the National Energy Foundation (NEF). NEF is an independent educational charity that empowers individuals and businesses to reduce their carbon emissions. See www.nef.org.uk. 1. The Carbon Account application for the Facebook Platform can be accessed at http://apps.facebook.com/thecarbonaccount. Facebook® is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc. 2. The Carbon Account links with the DVLA’s database of vehicle emissions data, based on the make and model associated with the registration plate. 3. Smart meters are advanced electricity and gas meters that automatically send data back to energy suppliers instead of needing to be read manually. The Government has recently run a consultation on the subject and there are plans for all UK energy customers to have them installed within the next 10 years (see www.energy-retail.org.uk/smartmeters.html ) 4. Transition Towns is a growing national movement preparing for “life after oil” in local communities. See www.transitiontowns.org and www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/apr/19/energy.ethicalliving. The Carbon Account is the official tool of the Transition Network. Each town has the opportunity to create a special version and assign a group administrator to support users. 5. Carbon Rationing Action Groups (CRAGs) are groups voluntarily reducing personal carbon emissions and in some cases trading amongst themselves. See www.carbonrationing.org.uk and http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/feb/24/carbonemissions.climatechange 6. See www.oxfordismyworld.org 7. Personal carbon allowances or personal carbon trading is an alternative way of dealing with climate change to carbon taxation. They were proposed by David Milliband in 2006 (www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2006/jul/19/greenpolitics.travelnews). Since then DEFRA has led a cross-departmental pre-feasibility study looking into the potential policy. 8. The Carbon Account source code is licensed under an AGPL v3 licence. Full details of the open source project, including how to get involved, can be found at http://code.thecarbonaccount.com. No user data is released under the open source arrangements. View our privacy policy at www.thecarbonaccount.com/privacy