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p/carbon-interface-1-0Measure carbon emissions with an API
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Brandon Vlaar

Carbon Interface 1.0 - Measure carbon emissions with an API

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Carbon Interface is an API for developers to easily and accurately calculate carbon emissions generated from common emitting activities such as shipping packages, flights and electricity generation in the US and Canada.

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Brandon Vlaar
Maker
Earlier this year I was working on an app that helped people understand the carbon footprint of their day-to-day choices. While I was developing the app, I found there wasn't an API available to generate accurate c02 emissions estimates. I decided to build the API that I would've found useful and now I'm sharing it with you today! Carbon Interface provides emissions estimates for three activities: 1. Shipping packages 📦 2. Passenger flights 🛩 3. Electricity generation⚡️ In the near future we will be releasing emissions estimates for products (full carbon lifecycle), food and buildings. Our goal is to become the API of choice for any developers who need to perform carbon estimation in their apps and services for any activity. I'm hoping that other startup founders and developers find this API helpful and will allow them to focus on building out functionality that will differentiate their app/service instead of working on "boring" carbon emissions estimation code and methodologies 😅 If you're working on an app or service that requires carbon estimation, give Carbon Interface a try or leave feedback below! Developer documentation: https://docs.carboninterface.com
Thiago De Oliveira
Really interesting! I'm wondering though if you're planning on making an accessible front-end for people who aren't developers? I can see myself even using this when planning my own travelling trips or even sending this to my more green-conscious friends who want to know this info but aren't developers so they can't directly access the API in an easy manner. A small front-end would help the accessibility for others who want to do the same! Overall love the concept and made myself an account - very sleek UI! Keep up the great work!
Brandon Vlaar
Maker
@thiago_de_oliveira this is on the roadmap Thiago! We'll be making it easy for non-coders to add emissions estimates in the Carbon Interface dashboard soon!
Alex Wallish
This is really cool, congrats on the launch! It says that carbon estimation is coming soon for products. Could you talk a bit about the methodology used for that? I imagine that'd be a much more difficult task to implement accurately given all of the factors that go into making a physical product, and the vast diversity in product types. I'd love to hear how you're solving that since it's a problem I've thought about before, and if you're able to pull it off accurately I have a use case I've been thinking about for a while.
Brandon Vlaar
Maker
@alexwallish Thank you! You're correct that product lifecycle carbon emissions are much more challenging to calculate. For V1 of that feature we will be focusing on the inputs of those products (IE plastic, metals etc) and then determining the carbon footprint for each input and then summing the inputs and adding some production emissions amount. To verify, I'll be purchasing formal emissions reports on several products to verify the methodology and publishing those results online :) Tesla has made an attempt at quantifying their products' emissions: https://www.tesla.com/ns_videos/... Feel free to email me at brandon [at] carboninterface [dot] com if you want to chat about this further!
Matt Hoffman
How does this compare to https://cloverly.com/ ?
Brandon Vlaar
Maker
@muuhoffman Cloverly does some estimates and then sells the offsets to offset the estimate. Carbon Interface is laser focused on having the most accurate carbon estimates. There are many other applications for carbon estimations than just selling offsets so those use-cases are ones we are targeting from a sales perspective. Cloverly would make an ideal customer for us though!
AS
Great, important and timely product! For those who want to make an impact (or minimize their own on the environment), the calculator was a huge help in determining my companies footprint so we could purchase offsets. The staff all voted on how to best contribute and have all now become more aware of how even the smallest of behavioural changes can help, for example, which ride-sharing app is more environmentally friendly, and how biking a few times a week instead of driving. When making decisions, Knowledge is Power and this product puts the salient information in your hand at the point of intent!
Maas Lalani
Such a useful product! Congrats on the launch :)
Brandon Vlaar
Maker
@maaslalaniii thanks! Let me know if you have any feedback :)
Terry Tan Yongsheng
That's really great. I would like to use it for product estimation in the future. Have you written any in-depth article on how the estimation works, interested to know?
Brandon Vlaar
Maker
@terrytanys I will be sharing more soon! If you sign up for an account I'll be sure to send out an update when it's available.
JESUS VERMA
Definitely its a great initiative. Would be better if you can give the support of following features: 1.Emission by country wise 2.Basic filter and sorting options. 3.Api which gives the data related to how can be reduced the carbon emission. 4.More carbon emission activities can be added in the list.
Dmitry Borody
Great idea, Brandon! I'm holding my fingers for you, I think it's an important cause you're standing for. 👍 Also Intrigued to see what other applications you found for CO2 estimates, I'll definitely be keep an eye on your project!