Steps, calories… CO2? Emissions tracking apps are on the rise

(Bloomberg) — In 2019, Sanchali Pal was fed up with spreadsheets. For six years, the former consultant had used Excel to manually track the carbon emissions of her purchases. The routine saved her about $2,000 a year, she said, by encouraging more secondhand purchases, fewer flights and less meat consumption. But the do-it-yourself approach became laborious.

In August of that year, Pal launched Commons, a smartphone app that tracks the carbon footprint of users’ spending, offers cashback for sustainable choices, and sells carbon offsets. Today, Commons has tens of thousands of users who say they can use the app to reduce their annual emissions by an average of 19 percent. If everyone in the U.S. achieved that reduction, Pal says it would be like taking 80 percent of all cars in the U.S. off the road.

Commons is in good company. There are now more than a dozen apps that help users keep track of their individual emissions. Tracky uses GPS to track travel-related emissions. Pawprint lets employers help employees measure their carbon footprint and get involved in workplace sustainability initiatives. Klarna combines emissions tracking with other financial services offerings. The Carbon Games turns carbon reduction into a game by giving its users green challenges in the app and displaying competitive leaderboards.

Pal says her goal is to help consumers develop a “carbon mindset.” “I think if you save $1 or $2, you don’t have to worry about it,” she says. “But if you save $300, you do have to worry about it.” Likewise, “if it’s a decision that adds up to 100 kilograms (of CO2), you probably should think about it.”

Calculating the emissions of individual purchases is harder than it sounds. The amount of carbon dioxide emitted by a flight or a piece of meat is measurable and relatively concrete. But the emissions footprint of a new smartphone – made from materials from countless carbon-intensive supply chains – can be much harder to quantify. Even something as simple as buying a shirt is often a mess when it comes to carbon accounting.

Commons’ methodology, inspired by Pal’s original spreadsheet, starts with the user’s information about location, transportation options and lifestyle. Users then link their credit and debit cards to the app, which multiplies the total amount of each purchase by an emissions intensity score based on data from Oxford and Yale universities, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other institutions. (The app can only track emissions 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 carbon management company Vaayu. Data from purchases made through Klarna’s app, website or its third-party payment option is compiled in the Klarna app to show users their total emissions and purchases with a high environmental impact. Klarna says it has data for 150 million products across various categories, including home and garden items, jewelry, accessories and electronics.

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

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

The push toward more “carbon intuition” is also being seen at other consumer-facing companies. Many banks now offer green credit cards that support environmental investments. And retailers, airlines and big tech companies are incorporating emissions data and more “climate-friendly” options into 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 makes sense to educate consumers. But he warns that climate solutions must happen at a structural level. “Consumer choice also has a class dimension,” Kirsch says. “You can buy better and more sustainable clothes from certain brands, but you still consume too much. Consumer choice can be a means of freeing people from their guilt.”

In fact, carbon tracking services walk a fine line: on the one hand, they show people the impact their purchases have on emissions, and on the other, they convey to them that emissions are a problem that everyone can solve.

Pal points to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that suggests that changes in demand behavior could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 to 70 percent by 2050. But economist Joyashree Roy, one of the coordinating lead authors of that report, says institutional barriers – including costs – limit consumers’ ability to exert their influence.

“The most successful message we got was that people are motivated but feel stifled by a lack of access to the right infrastructure or technology,” Roy says. “If your city doesn’t have the right access to infrastructure, the right incentives, the right nudges and the right technology, you can’t make the right decisions.”

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