Steps, Calories… CO2? Emission Tracking Apps Are Growing in Popularity

(Bloomberg) — In 2019, Sanchali Pal decided she was sick of spreadsheets. For six years, the former consultant had been using Excel to manually track the carbon footprint of her purchases, which she says saved her about $2,000 a year by encouraging more second-hand shopping, fewer flights and less meat consumption. But the DIY approach was becoming tedious.

So in August of this year, Pal launched Commons, a smartphone app that tracks the carbon footprint of users’ spending, offers cash back for sustainable choices, and sells carbon offsets. Commons now has tens of thousands of users who he says are able to reduce their annual emissions by an average of 19% by using the app. If everyone in the U.S. achieved that reduction, Pal says it would be the equivalent of taking 80% of U.S. cars off the road.

Commons has plenty of company. There are now more than a dozen apps aimed at helping users track their individual emissions. Tracky uses GPS to determine travel-related emissions. With Pawprint, employers can help their employees measure their carbon footprint and assess workplace sustainability initiatives. Klarna combines emissions tracking with other financial services offerings. Carbon Games gamifies carbon reduction by offering users green challenges in the app and displaying competitive leaderboards.

Pal says her goal is to help consumers build “carbon intuition.” “I think of it like, if it saves you $1 or $2, you don’t have to worry about it,” she says. “But if it saves you $300, you should.” Likewise, “if it’s a 100-kilogram (CO2) decision, you should probably think about it.”

Calculating emissions for individual purchases is harder than it sounds. The amount of carbon dioxide produced by a flight or a piece of meat is measurable and relatively specific. But the footprint of, say, a new smartphone—made from materials sourced from countless carbon-intensive supply chains—can be much harder to estimate. Even something as simple as buying a shirt is often a mess in carbon accounting.

Commons’ methodology, inspired by Pala’s original spreadsheet, starts with user-submitted information about location, transportation, and lifestyle. Users then connect their credit and debit cards to an app that multiplies each purchase by a carbon intensity value based on data from Oxford University, Yale University, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and others. (The app can track emissions only for users in the U.S. and Canada.)

To manage its own emissions tracking, Klarna — the Swedish fintech best known for its “buy now, pay later” offering — has partnered with AI-powered carbon management company Vaayu. Data from purchases made through the Klarna app, website or third-party payment options is compiled in the Klarna app to show users their total emissions and high-impact purchases. Klarna says it has data on 150 million products across categories, including home and garden products, jewelry, accessories and electronics.

While Commons says its primary goal is to change consumer behavior, the company also invests in carbon dioxide removal (CDR) projects. And to offset a portion of their monthly carbon footprint, subscribers can pay the app to automatically offset their emissions. (Klarna also invests in CDR projects but doesn’t sell the offsets.)

Offsets remain controversial, and studies have repeatedly shown that most of them overpromise. A recent review of more than 100 such studies, conducted by the de facto global regulator of private sector CO2 targets, declared carbon offsets to be largely “ineffective.”

Pal acknowledges these limitations, but emphasizes the app’s broader goal of helping consumers make informed choices. “We can’t manage something if we can’t measure it,” he says.

The push for greater “carbon intuition” is also happening at other consumer-facing companies. Many banks now offer green credit cards that support environmental investments. And retailers, airlines and big tech companies are using emissions data and more “climate-friendly” options in everything from fashion certifications to flight results and driving directions.

Stuart Kirsch, a professor at the University of Michigan who studies carbon accounting, says it’s worth informing consumers. But he warns that climate solutions need to be implemented at a structural level. “There’s also a class dimension to consumer choice,” Kirsch says. “You can shop for better, more sustainable clothing at some brands, but you’re still consuming too much. Consumer choice can be a tool to relieve people of guilt.”

Indeed, carbon tracking services walk a fine line between showing people the impact of their purchases on emissions and suggesting that emissions are a problem that individuals can solve.

Pal points to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that suggests changes in demand-side behavior could cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40% to 70% by 2050. But economist Joyashree Roy, a coordinating lead author on that report, says institutional barriers — including costs — limit consumers’ ability to leverage their influence.

“The most successful message we found was that individuals are motivated but feel disempowered because they don’t have access to the right infrastructure or technology,” Roy says. “If your city doesn’t have the right infrastructure, the right incentives, the right drive, the right technology, then you can’t make the right choice.”

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