Shaping public behavior and green consciousness in India through the ‘Yo!Green’ Carbon Footprint Calculator

ABSTRACT

Climate change poses one of the greatest challenges of any kind facing human society today. It is a threat to the availability of land, air, food and water – all of which are key constituents of the Sustainable Development Goals. Much of the observed change in climate is anthropogenic in nature. Hence, it is imperative for all human societies to make a positive contribution in spreading greater public awareness and engagement for creating a more sustainable world. Due to the lack of a reliable carbon footprint measurement system specific to Indian conditions, a robust multimedia application has been developed and designed in the form of India's first certified Carbon Footprint Calculator. Titled the ‘Yo!Green’ Carbon Calculator, it allows individuals and households to measure their greenhouse gas emissions, and recommends simple mitigation measures based on their emission profile. This paper presents the methodologies, assumptions and processes which have been adopted to develop the Yo!Green Carbon Calculator.

KEYWORDS:

• carbon footprint calculator
• climate change
• CO₂ emissions
• public engagement
• behavioral change
• green living
• Yo!Green

Introduction

Ban Ki-moon, the former Secretary General of the United Nations, once remarked that climate change is the defining challenge of our time. It is indeed widely acknowledged that energy and climate change pose a great challenge to humankind today. In fact, the phenomena of global warming and climate change are now no longer just scientific extrapolations; their effects are being felt all across the world. Recent times have witnessed new records often being created in terms of extreme temperatures, rainfall, melting of glaciers, floods and droughts. Human societies not only contribute to changes in the global climate system but are also equally affected by it. Hence, there is a pressing need to reach out to the people at large and other stakeholders to deal with this serious issue.

Energy is a critical enabler of human progress. Demand for energy is rapidly increasing worldwide because of higher economic growth, industrialization, increase in population and greater urbanization[22, 125]. Societies are excessively dependent on fossil fuels to meet their energy demand, which is the root cause of disruptive climate change. Fossil fuels meet 86% of the world's energy needs and thereby contribute around two thirds of its CO₂ emissions [101]. The world continues to depend precariously on fossil fuels. Dependence on fossil fuels is not expected to go below 80% even by 2030 [102]. Demand for fossil energy continues to soar, and by 2035 it is expected to increase by 34% from 2014 levels [102]. It is soaring at a time when finding new sources of supply, and extracting them, is not only challenging but also expensive [103].

As per the International Energy Agency, current national pledges on climate change fall short of limiting the temperature increase to below 2 °C, and the transformation required for a reasonable chance of remaining within the goal of 1.5 °C is stark [1]. In the present scenario, the world may be headed for irreversible climate change, and the window for arresting temperature rise beyond the 2 °C threshold may be fast closing [2,3].

Globally, up to 3 billion more middle-class consumers will emerge in the next 20 years compared to 1.8 billion today [104]. In India, it is estimated that for the next 20 years, 30 Indians will migrate to cities every minute [105]. As per the European Institute for Energy Research, cities contribute the vast majority of world energy use – between 60 and 80% – and produce a similar share of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [106].

Thus, there is an overwhelming need to inform, engage and involve urban dwellers regarding sustainable lifestyles. Yale University carried out a study in India that reported that 61% of people were apprehensive about climate change when they were informed about its impacts [107]. Another study, conducted by a social enterprise from India, ‘People4Planet Innolabs’, reported that 50% of their respondents had not heard of green living and low-carbon lifestyles, but more than 80% people want to assist in combating global warming [108]. Thus, there is a widespread concern for optimal use and conservation of energy.

Hence, it is very important to make the people a part of the solution to this global challenge. However, a reliable carbon footprint calculator specific to Indian conditions was not available to engage people and make them part of this solution. As a result, residents in India may be able neither to ascertain their CO₂ footprint nor mitigate its impact on the environment in a systematic manner. Since only an informed citizenry can bring about a change in behavior and rally for this cause, a plausible way forward is to build connected communities in various cities who could collaborate with each other. Based on the current trends in social media around the world, it is expected that such communities would actively engage in partnerships to solve their common challenges.

As per the World Energy Outlook (WEO) 2015, India is expected to contribute the single largest share of growth in global energy demand – around one quarter – from 2013 to 2040 [23]. With 1/6th of the world's population, rising economic growth, higher urbanization and a push for pro-growth policies by the Indian government, India's energy demand is expected to grow significantly. This will lead to an exponential rise in CO₂ emissions as well [4,5]. Therefore, the Yo!Green Carbon Calculator has been developed for individuals and households residing in India to help them understand their personal carbon footprint and lead more sustainable lifestyles [108]. The Yo!Green Calculator also generates a customized action plan containing simple everyday changes to help combat climate change.

This paper is organized into eight different sections. The ‘Literature review’ section presents the previous related work on development and use of people-centric carbon footprint calculators. The third section presents a detailed review of important carbon footprint calculators available in India and internationally. The fourth section presents the methodology that has been adopted to develop the Yo!Green Carbon Footprint Calculator. The fifth section describes the key features of and user guidelines for the calculator, followed by the sixth section that presents a real case study carried out using this calculator. The seventh section presents limitations and future work, and, finally, the conclusion of the work is presented in the eighth section. A few snapshots of various pages of the Yo!Green Carbon Calculator are presented in Appendix A.

Literature review

A limited body of literature is available on the design, development and use of carbon footprint calculators (CFCs) for individual or household applications. The potential of carbon dioxide calculators as important tools to increase public awareness about CO₂ emissions and ways to reduce them is highlighted in [6], which concluded that CFCs could help in behavioral and policy changes. An interesting study by West et al. [7] concludes that using individual CFCs can be effective for engaging individuals and reducing their emissions because the public typically underestimates their contribution. It was also reported that sharing information about climate change with people may be useful, but it is particularly ineffective in reducing individual emissions [109]. This is because providing information alone tends to result in low levels of engagement [110]. Hence, more participatory methods may increase the chances of behavioral change and more sustainable behaviors [8,9,111,112,124].

Empirical results from using online carbon calculators in Austria, Germany and Spain have shown [10] positive effects in terms of learning about CO₂ impacts, increased awareness, and enhanced efforts and guidance, as well as individual empowerment leading to slightly reduced CO₂ emissions. This highlights that modes of collaborative action can strengthen sustainable citizenship. In another study [11], researchers used a behavioral approach to examine the potential for near-term emissions reductions by altered adoption, and the use of available technologies in US homes, and non-business-related travel. However, policy attention is also required to achieve this potential. In a review of footprint analysis tools for monitoring impacts on sustainability [113], the researchers concluded that CFCs could promote public awareness of carbon emissions from individuals’ behavior, though the consistency of the methods and estimates are different amongst various calculators. Carbon footprinting is useful for quantifying anthropogenic environmental impacts and for dealing with the threat of climate change [12]. This paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the various approaches and presents a rough framework for the calculation of carbon footprints.

Using a top-down approach, researchers have illustrated that census data can be successfully adapted to estimate the residential carbon footprint for Austin, Texas [13], and, by extension, any other American city with census coverage. Another work determines carbon footprint based on the dynamic behavior of the user or the environment [14]. That study developed a Ubiquitous Carbon Footprint Calculator platform and application that is customizable and adaptable. A free-of-charge Argentina-based personal footprint calculator software (YUPI®) was developed to raise awareness among local citizens about their day-to-day environmental impacts [15]. This is an interesting work, which reported that YUPI is facilitating citizens to understand the complexity of environmental problems and take informed mitigation actions. It reported that the complexity and amount of data required, connection with the lifestyle activities, and non-user-friendly interface discouraged the use of footprint calculators amongst common people, but also concluded that YUPI® is successfully promoting sustainable actions by enabling bottom-up sustainable development.

The absence so far of an engaging and reliable carbon footprint measurement system specific to India is a significant gap. Further, little or no existing evidence is available on systematic measurement or mitigation of individual- and household-level carbon emissions in India. This paper attempts to bridge this gap by presenting the methodology and framework that were adopted to design and develop the Yo!Green Carbon Calculator – India's first certified CFC.

A comprehensive review of international and Indian calculators

A large number of nationally and internationally available CFCs were comprehensively reviewed to study the common best practices for designing a calculator specific to the Indian context. For the purpose of brevity, only four of the main international carbon calculators studied are discussed here. In India, however, not many carbon calculators are available, and four publicly available carbon calculators were analyzed as part of this review. These calculators were chosen because they belong to internationally/nationally reputed organizations and/or appeared prominently in web search. To draw a comparison between different carbon calculators, an interval scale¹ was developed to compare them on nine parameters, as described in Table 1. The parameters were identified based on a study of various international and Indian carbon calculators and the authors’ qualitative discussions with various users. All of the parameters for comparison had to meet the considerations of design thinking; that is, they had to be relevant and important from the users’ perspective. Thus, there are a few key ingredients of any good CFC: user experience, inputs into the calculator, the manner of processing these inputs, outputs of the calculator and use of these outputs by the user. All nine parameters pertain to one or more of these ingredients.

Table 1. Ranking of carbon footprint calculators.

	Ranking from 1 to 5 of various CO2 calculators
Ranking parameter	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
1. Level of detail	5	4	5	3	1	1	1	1
2. Robustness of technical content, methodology and results	5	4	5	3	3	1	3	4
3. Simplicity: questions simple to understand and answer	5	5	4	5	4	3	4	4
4. Structure and organization: ease of navigation and understanding	5	5	5	5	1	1	1	2
5. Design elements: visual creativity, color scheme and imagery	5	5	2	3	1	1	1	2
6. User engagement and attention	4	5	2	3	1	1	1	2
7. Usability of results: action plans, and their utility and time relevance	5	3	4	2	1	1	1	2
8. Time required: to find out the carbon footprint	3	5	2	5	5	5	5	5
9. Overall User Experience	5	5	3	4	2	1	2	2

A. Act on CO₂ Carbon Footprint Calculator, Department of Energy & Climate Change, Government of the United Kingdom.

B. World Wide Fund (WWF) Carbon Footprint Calculator.

C. Carbon Footprint Ltd. Carbon Footprint Calculator.

D. The Nature Conservancy Carbon Footprint Calculator.

E. ICICI Bank Carbon Footprint Calculator.

F. BSES Rajdhani Power Limited Energy Calculator.

G. Tata Power Carbon Footprint Calculator.

H. NO₂CO₂ Carbon Footprint Calculator.

For an online carbon calculator, it is very important to create an engaging user experience. Usually, online attention spans are very short, and the average ‘netizen’ takes less than 5 seconds to decide if a website is worth their time or not [114]. It is, therefore, even more difficult to engage users in a subject like calculating their carbon footprint, which is sure to take 10 minutes or more.

The carbon calculators were ranked on nine different parameters on an interval scale from 1 to 5. The rankings were defined as follows:

• Rank 1: Very Poor rank on the relevant parameter;

• Rank 2: Poor rank on the relevant parameter;

• Rank 3: Average rank on the relevant parameter;

• Rank 4: Good rank on the relevant parameter;

• Rank 5: Very Good rank on the relevant parameter.

The rankings and terminology used in this review are relative to the other calculators reviewed. Thus, if average energy use per capita or default emissions factors are used in one calculator, then the reliability is likely to be less as compared to another calculator that uses country-specific emissions factors, or better still one that uses metered energy from the household meter taken from the utility bills. Similarly, the comparisons are relative between the calculators on structure or organization, the design of simple questions to elicit reportable and correct user information, making it engaging and attractive to the users, etc. The ranking of all eight calculators on these nine different parameters is shown in Table 1.

The important findings from the review of these CO₂ calculators are summarized below.

International calculators

Act on CO₂ Carbon Footprint Calculator, the Department of Energy & Climate Change, Government of UK

This calculator was designed and hosted by the government of the UK but is no longer available for public use. It offered the gold standard in terms of design, ease of navigation, visual appeal, utility, level of detail and authenticity. It employed simple terms and short sentences, liberally used open spaces, and focused on one idea at a time on its various web pages. This calculator used beautiful animation and images, which were proverbially worth a thousand words. It was also good in terms of the results it produced and the action plans shared with the user. The only drawback was that it was too detailed and required a lot of input and time commitment from the user [115].

WWF Carbon Footprint Calculator

This is a well-designed calculator, which employs white spaces, large font size, appealing pictures and simple-to-understand questions. It is relatively much easier and quicker to complete and use than the ‘Act on CO₂ Calculator’ because of the reduced level of information sought from the user. At the same time, it does not compromise on the degree of accuracy of its results. The results section is very well designed, though there is a scope for improvement in terms of providing concrete action plans, monitoring the user's results over time, etc. Overall, it is an excellent calculator in terms of design, accessibility, simplicity and usability [116].

Carbon Footprint Ltd. Carbon Footprint Calculator

This calculator is technically sound and robust in its methodology. However, it is not too engaging, and users would tend to lose interest very soon due to the relatively lower level of imagery, and lack of visual creativity and user friendliness. The results page is exhaustive and packed with information, but would fail to excite the user or engage her in going any further. Completing this calculator would perhaps require more time commitment than the ‘Act on CO₂ Calculator’ [117].

The Nature Conservancy Carbon Footprint Calculator

This carbon calculator from The Nature Conservancy is one of the quickest calculators, that incorporates a minimal level of detail to arrive at a reasonable estimate of a user's carbon footprint. It is structured and organized well in different sections but would appeal most to an already motivated user instead of a common citizen or a layman. It is fairly straightforward and easy to use even though there is a need to enhance the extent of graphics, imagery and detail employed. The results page is fairly simplistic too. Its accuracy is governed more by secondary data on per-capita energy usage during various household activities rather than actual user inputs [118].

Indian calculators

ICICI Bank Carbon Footprint Calculator

This calculator is an offshoot of ICICI Bank's Sustainable Development outreach efforts. Accordingly, the level of detail, user engagement and visual design are minimal and would only attract a curious user or an already motivated user. It does not have any time relevance. It is a single-screen carbon calculator, with all user inputs appearing in a simple HTML format on a single screen. It employs mainly secondary and some primary data to arrive at its output, which itself is poor in terms of design. Overall, it will not lead to a good user experience [119].

BSES Rajdhani Power Limited Energy Calculator

This calculator is hosted on the website of an electric utility serving consumers in Delhi, India. It is not designed to measure the carbon footprint but to calculate the energy consumed per month in the user's household. In other words, it calculates only the units of electricity consumed in a household in kWh/month. The Energy Calculator is built on a single page in an HTML format. Overall, it is very uninspiring in terms of design, user experience, engagement and the quality of content [120].

Tata Power Carbon Footprint Calculator

This calculator is available on the website of Tata Power, an integrated power company from India. This calculator is a bare-basics carbon calculator having minimal information and design elements. Like the other carbon calculators in India, it is not able to offer much value to most citizens, except those who proactively seek some information on their carbon footprint. It will leave the user with a poor engagement and experience and will not motivate them to take any steps or actions in reducing their carbon footprint [121].

NO₂CO₂ Carbon Footprint Calculator

This CFC is by far the best amongst all Indian footprint calculators. It is designed in PHP² programming language, which gives a better look than HTML format. Nevertheless, it leaves much to be desired. All the information sought from the users is there on a single page in a fill-in-the-blanks format. The level of detail, user engagement, and visual design is minimal. This calculator also does not have any time relevance in terms of monitoring the user's carbon footprint over time. The results page is also very simplistic, though better than the other calculators in terms of design. The user experience provided is at an average level [122].

It is evident from the above discussion that the CFCs available in India do not meet the key requirements of an effective carbon calculator. The features, contents and user experience are quite uninspiring and leave much scope for improvement. Many of them are offshoots of sustainable development outreach of companies engaged in a different line of business, and hence lack the focus and drive needed to build an engaging application. Further, none of them is certified for data quality and authenticity, as per the information available on the respective websites. The user cannot compare her footprint with others nor can she compare her own footprint over time to monitor personal improvements. Also notable is the absence of any way forward for the user in the form of a specific action plan. A common user may not be aware of the areas where, how and by how much she can reduce her carbon footprint. An action plan is perhaps the most important tool after awareness is generated to motivate the user to take those small steps and act upon what she has just learned.

The Yo!Green Carbon Calculator scores a rank of 5 on all the comparison parameters, except on ‘level of detail’ where it scores a rank of 4, as a result of striking a balance between detail and time to complete the calculator. In a carbon calculator meant for individuals and households, the above-discussed parameters are critical to engage the user and provide a good overall user experience. The Yo!Green Carbon Calculator appeals to a user's sense of visual harmony, design and simplicity, besides helping her to contribute in a meaningful way to a serious issue. Humans are excited and engaged by visual cues. Hence the focus was on optimizing the various elements of good user experience such as color scheme, imagery, easy accessibility, the utility of the information provided, and simplicity to engage even the layman user.

In summary, for a long time, there was a noticeable absence of an engaging and reliable carbon footprint measurement system specific to Indian conditions. Hence, a robust multimedia application was developed and designed in the form of the Yo!Green Carbon Calculator. Yo!Green is India's first certified CFC, which allows individuals and households to measure, understand and reduce their carbon footprint. It is designed to include the best practices of existing carbon calculators available internationally. The analytical study of several international carbon calculators helped us to identify the best practices amongst international calculators since different calculators have different unique features. Based upon qualitative discussions with users and the analysis of various calculators, the authors arrived at what could constitute a benchmark for a carbon calculator and what it should feel and look like – in the form of nine parameters for evaluation. Further, the Yo!Green calculator incorporates authentic primary and secondary data referenced from the publications of government departments, quasi-government agencies, utility companies, reliable international agencies such as World Bank and World Resources Institute, etc. The Yo!Green Carbon Calculator was developed by the primary author, and it is certified by the co-author of this paper, in his capacity as a Certified Energy Manager, Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Ministry of Power, Government of India.

Methodology adopted for developing the calculator

An emission factor relates the quantity of a pollutant released into the atmosphere with an activity associated with the release of that pollutant. The use of electricity to run different appliances and equipment in a household, short or long-distance travel undertaken through various modes of transport, and different lifestyle activities that lead to resource consumption are all responsible for these emissions. In this section, all such causal factors and activities undertaken by individuals and families that contribute to CO₂ emissions have been captured.

The Yo!Green Carbon Calculator assigns all carbon-generating activities to three distinct areas: home-, travel- and lifestyle-related emissions. It reports Scope 1 and Scope 2 carbon emissions of users. In other words, direct emissions (Scope 1) such as from cooking and personal travel are accounted for, and so are indirect emissions (Scope 2) resulting from consumption of electricity, municipal water pumped by the local municipality, etc. The assumptions and sources used to develop this calculator are described in the following sections.

A tree diagram (Figure 1) graphically maps out all components and sub-components of the Yo!Green Carbon Calculator.

Figure 1. Tree diagram of carbon calculator. Auto LPG: Auto Liquefied Petroleum Gas; CNG: Compressed Natural Gas.

Home energy

There are different sources of emissions in homes, such as energy for cooking, electricity consumption and domestic water supply. These sources of emissions along with their emission factors are summarized and explained in Table 2.

Table 2. Sources of emissions in households.

Source of emissions	Type	Emission factor	Remarks	Ref.
Energy for cooking	Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)	0.063236 tCO2 eq./GJ	42.47309 kgCO2 eq./cylinder of LPG	[24–26]
	Piped Natural Gas (PNG)	2 kg CO2 eq. per SCM	This is the average calorific value being supplied in various cities across the country including Delhi, NCR, Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Pune, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh	Estimated from the database of gas companies in different Cities of India
Electricity consumption		1.1389 kg CO2 eq. per kWh	Since average aggregate technical and commercial losses (AT&C) losses are 28% in India, for every unit of electricity consumed by the user, the effective consumption is 1.389 units. The emission factor (EF) for electricity is 0.82 kg CO2 eq. per kWh. Hence effective EF = 0.82/0.72 = 1.1389 kg CO2 eq. per kWh.	[19,27,28]
Domestic water supply	Municipal water supply	2.4258 kg CO2 eq. per kilo Litre (kL)	This electricity consumption also includes 28% AT&C losses. Electricity required to pump one kL of water by Municipal Authorities is 2.13 kWh. Hence EF = 2.13*0.82/0.72 kg CO2/kL.	[29]
	Borewell supply	Nil	Because electricity consumed for pumping is already accounted in electricity emission.

Table 3. Emissions from personal transport (four-wheelers).

			Average speed (km/h)
Sub-type	Engine size	Emission factor (g CO2 per km)	Urban	Highway	Remarks	Ref.
Petrol
	Less than 1200 CC	126.4	18	80		[30,126]
	1200 to 1500 cc	142.9	18	90
	1500 cc or higher	172.95	18	90
Diesel
	Less than 1600 CC	155.7	18	90		[127]
	1600 to 2400 cc	166.1	18	90
	2400 to 3000 cc	238.2	18	90	Includes Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs), Multi Utility Vehicles (MUVs) and luxury vehicles
Auto Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)
	1000–1400 cc	131.9	18	90		[128]
	1400 cc or higher	140.1	18	90
Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)
	Less than 1000 cc	143.5	18	80		[128]
	1000 to 1400 cc	131.2	18	90
	1400 cc or higher	131.2	18	90	This engine size was absent in the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) Study. Hence, its value was assumed to be the same as the previous engine size.
Electric		121.4	18	Not applicable	Emission Factor (EF) is 96% of petrol vehicles.	[31]

Table 4. Emissions from personal transport (two-wheelers).

			Average speed (km/h)
Sub-type	Engine size	Emission Factor (g CO2 per km)	Urban	Highway	Ref.
Scooter/scooty/moped
	Less than 80 cc	33	20	60	[30]
	80–100 cc	30	20	60
	More than 100 cc	42	20	60
Motorcycle
	80–100 cc	24	20	60
	100–200 cc	25	20	60
	More than 200 cc/sports bike	46	20	60

EF: Emission factor.

Table 5. Sources of emissions from public transport (short distance).

Sub-type	Engine size	Emission Factor (g CO2 per km)	Average speed (km/h, urban area)	Remarks	Average occupancy	Ref.
Auto rickshaw					3
	2- and 4-stroke (both petrol and CNG)	68.1	18			[30]
Bus/school bus					60
CNG	More than 6000 cc	865				[30]
Diesel	More than 6000 cc	920.8
Coach	More than 6000 cc	602
City metro train service		49.06	31		60	[31]
Indian Railway local train service		8.09	40.4 (broad gauge Electric Multiple Unit -EMU- train)	Average CO2 emission per km of Indian railways in diesel and electrical coaches only playing in urban/suburban areas		[ 21,32]

Table 6. Emissions from public transport (long distance).

Type	Sub-type	Average occupancy	Emission Factor	Remarks	Ref.
Road
	Car/taxi	3	202.2 g CO2 per km		[31]
	Bus/coach	60	761.4
Rail
	Train		8.09 g CO2 per km		[21,32,33]
Air
	Domestic flight
		Economy	216 g CO2 eq./passenger/km	All distances have been taken for domestic travel	[34,35,129]
		Business class	324
	International flight			International travel is generally taken as a distance of 6482 km and more – 9% correction factor is applied and radiative forcing is not applied	[36,130]
		Economy class	105		[37,130]
		Business class	304.6		[37,130]
		First class	420.1		[37,130]

EF: Emission factor.

Travel

The user's responses in this section do not include driving for official business purposes. In other words, it includes only personal trips such as driving between home and office, visits to shops/malls, holiday travel, visits to friends and family, etc.

Personal transport

• Four-wheelers

• Two-wheelers

Average occupancy rates of 2.6 and 1.6 have been used for four-wheelers and two-wheelers, respectively as per a study conducted by Emergent Ventures with support from Shakti Foundation, India. The average weight of a person is taken to be 75 kg.

Public transport

• Public transport for short distances

• Public transport long distance

  These sources of emissions from use of personal and public transport are shown in Tables 3, 4, 5, and 6.

Lifestyle-related emissions

These emissions reflect the CO₂ generated from our daily lifestyle activities that lead to consumption of natural resources or generation of waste. The most common factors amongst these are consumption of paper, plastic, aluminum and glass, and generation of municipal solid waste. Per-capita yearly emissions in kg CO₂ equivalent per person from these sources are summarized in Table 7.

Table 7. Emissions from lifestyle-related use.

Source of emissions	EF (kg CO2 eq. per annum)	Remarks	Ref.
Consumption of paper	32.73	In calculating these, it has been assumed that Below Poverty Line (BPL) population hardly contributes to lifestyle-related CO2 emissions. Hence, the calculations in this application exclude the people below the poverty line. Per-capita emissions have been derived based on emission intensities and per-capita resource consumption for each of these. Total population in 2010–2011 was 121 Crore out of which 29.8% (i.e. 36.058 Crore) people were in BPL.	[27,38,123,131,132]
Consumption of aluminum	23.30
Consumption of plastic	35.09
Consumption of glass	0.45
Generation of municipal solid waste	35.99
Total lifestyle carbon footprint	127.56

It is pertinent to mention that the below poverty line (BPL) population has been excluded from the estimation of lifestyle-related CO₂ emissions. The rationale behind this is that it will prevent under-reporting and masking of real emissions of the urban Indian population. Several papers and documents have reported extreme carbon inequality in India, and this methodology can overcome this defect. A report by Greenpeace states that ‘the findings plainly illustrate that the considerably significant carbon footprint of a relatively small wealthy class (1% of the population) in the country is camouflaged by the 823 million poor population of the country, who keep the overall per capita emissions below 2 tons of CO₂ per year’ [16]. Another study, by Parikh, reports that emissions of CO₂ due to direct use of fossil fuels by households of the abject poor and those below the poverty line are minuscule [17]. A similar conclusion is also reflected in ‘Dichotomy in carbon dioxide emissions – the case of India’ [18]. Further, what the calculation of carbon footprints by the Yo!Green Calculator seeks to exclude are the lifestyle-related indirect emissions of a large chunk of the rural poor, and not their Scope 1 or direct emissions.

Key features of the Yo!Green Carbon Calculator and user guidelines

This CFC is designed specifically for Indian conditions and provides several tangible benefits to the user, as highlighted below:

• Credible: It is India's first CFC which was reviewed by a Certified Energy Manager, Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Ministry of Power, Government of India, for its algorithm, calculations, data sources and supporting assumptions;

• Identifies cause and effect: This CO₂ footprint application can calculate emissions for an individual as well as for households. One can easily identify the major causal factors along with the areas for improvement;

• Good user experience and visual appeal: This multimedia CFC is very user friendly, with a vivid graphic user interface, yet very simple to understand even for layman users. It takes only 10–12 minutes to complete and generates detailed yet simple graphics of the user's carbon footprint;

• ‘How do I compare with others?’: It allows a comparison of one's carbon footprint with all other users who have measured their own footprints through this publicly available application;

• Time relevance: One's own footprint can also be compared over time to monitor improvements;

• Action plan: It provides a customized Action Plan as per the user's emissions profile, suggesting simple steps to take in the user's day-to-day life;

• Authentic: It incorporates reliable and authentic data as per Indian conditions;

• Review: It provides a log-in facility through which a user can store her emissions profile for reviewing over time;

• Network and contribution: Provides an opportunity to connect with other like-minded members and also contribute in more meaningful ways.

For estimation of carbon footprint by the Yo!Green Calculator, the following guidelines are presented to the user at the beginning of the process:

• This calculator estimates personal or household carbon footprint only. The footprint of job/employer is distinct from the personal footprint. Therefore, CO₂ footprint data on employment activities should not be included, except for travel to the office and back.

• The period for all inputs in this calculation tool, except where specified, is one year (i.e. the 12 months preceding the current month). One can determine the average monthly carbon footprint by dividing the yearly footprint by 12.

• It would be handy for the user to have electricity, water, and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) (or piped gas) bills ready in estimating her carbon footprint.

• During the process of estimation, the user needs to specify whether s/he intends to calculate the carbon footprint for herself as an individual or for her household. Further, the number of persons in the household needs to be specified along with the annual income bracket (individual or household), as shown in Table 8. The brackets start from the low-income group, and there is an increment of 5,00,000 Rupees in each income bracket. This classification is based upon a study on annual incomes in India by the National Council of Applied Economic Research – Centre for Macro Consumer Research (NCAER–CMCR), which defines the Indian middle class incomes from Rs. 3,40,000 to Rs 17,00,000.

  Table 8. Annual income brackets.

  S. no.	Income bracket (Lakh Rupees per annum)
  1.	Up to 5
  2.	Between 5 and 10
  3.	Between 10 and 15
  4.	Between 15 and 20
  5.	Over 20

This information can be utilized later to find out emissions per unit of income and the correlation between income and GHG emissions.

A case study

A real-life case of a family of six people based in Haridwar, Uttarakhand, has been considered for the estimation of the carbon footprint of a typical Indian family living in a non-metro city. The inputs into the carbon calculator such as number of persons in the household, total house area, use of electricity, gas, and water, use of personal transport and public transport, etc., have been provided. These inputs are summarized and shown in Table 9.

Table 9. Inputs for estimation of carbon footprint of a household – a case study.

S. no.	Section	Parameters	Inputs
1.	General
		Carbon footprint estimation	For household
		City and state	Haridwar, Uttarakhand
		Persons in household	Six nos.
		Household annual income	5–10 Lakhs
2.	Home energy
		Total house area	2000 square feet
		Use of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)	1 cylinder
		Electricity consumption	450 kWh
		Municipal water supply use	Yes
		Monthly water consumption	30 kL
3.	Travel
	Personal transport
		Use of four-wheelers	Yes (1 no.)
		Vehicle type	Petrol
		Engine size	Less than 1200 cc
		Daily travel (average)	55 km
		Use of two-wheelers (motorcycles)	Yes (1 no.)
		Engine size	100–200 cc
		Daily travel (average)	15 km
		Use of two-wheelers (scooty)	Yes (1 no.)
		Engine size	More than 100 cc
		Daily travel (average)	5 km
	Public transport
		Short-distance travel
		Use of auto rickshaw	1 hour daily
		Long-distance travel
		Bus/coach	Dehradun to Delhi (round trip), no. of persons – 1 no.
		Rail	Dehradun to Nagpur (round trip), no. of persons – 2 nos.
4.	Lifestyle (default values)
		Paper	164 kg CO2
		Aluminum	117 kg CO2
		Plastic	175 kg CO2
		Glass	2 kg CO2
		Municipal solid waste	180 kg CO2

Based on these inputs, the carbon calculator estimated the carbon footprint to be equivalent to 13,745 kg CO₂ per year. The segregation of CO₂ emission in three different areas is summarized in Figure 2, and a detailed breakdown of the emissions profile generated from the calculator is shown in Table 10. This result shows that ‘home’ is contributing much more to the carbon footprint of this household as compared to ‘travel-’ and ‘lifestyle-’related emissions. Within home energy, electricity-related emissions account for a significant proportion as compared to water and gas use. Once the members of a household have this information, they could prioritize the focus areas and take relevant actions to reduce their emissions.

Figure 2. CO₂ equivalent emissions breakdown.

Table 10. CO₂ emissions equivalent per year (kg) from different sources.

S. no.	Sources of emissions		kg CO2 equivalent per year
1.	Lifestyle
		Paper	196
		Aluminum	140
		Plastic	211
		Glass	3
		Municipal solid waste	216
2.	Home energy
		LPG	516
		Electricity	6150
		Water	3579
3.	City travel		2691
4.	Long-distance travel		43
	Total emissions		13,745

The calculator also shares a graphical comparison with the highest and lowest emitting households, as per the calculator database, with the user to show their relative standing vis-à-vis other users. Additionally, the carbon calculator provides a customized action plan to the user for greener living.

Limitations and future work

The scope of this paper is to present the methodologies, assumptions and processes followed in developing the first version of the Yo!Green Carbon Calculator. This first version is based on the latest available data, mainly from the government or other credible sources. A key requirement for a carbon calculator is to continually update the emission factors data since this improves and evolves with the passage of time. In developing the Yo!Green Carbon Calculator, there was a time lag between initial development, design and production into a multimedia tool, and submission of the present research paper due to the natural duration of these activities. The authors acknowledge this limitation. There is another limitation in that the lifestyle emission factors are not backed up with regional data to estimate more precise lifestyle-related emissions for the people living in different regions of India. Further, while the Yo!Green calculator employs simple and easy-to-understand language and navigation, there may be a need to make further improvements for its effective utilization in rural parts of India.

Future versions of Yo!Green will incorporate the latest body of research and the data in this field. An interesting area for further research could be to assess how Yo!Green shapes the carbon emissions, awareness, attitude and behaviors of its user base in India. Also, a comparison of estimates of the Yo!Green Calculator with other calculators could be useful in future.

Conclusion

It is widely believed that in the 21st century, the most potent game-changer for businesses and governments alike is a purposeful engagement and dialogue with society and consumers. The primary idea behind the development of the Yo!Green Carbon Calculator is to engage with the society and consumers in educating and involving them to promote responsible consumption behaviors. This calculator can facilitate greater consumer engagement with governments and businesses in co-creating a greener tomorrow. It can also help with the collection of useful information about users’ lifestyle and energy-use habits, on the basis of which energy conservation programs, policies, and even green products or services can be designed. Over a period of time, this data can be an invaluable tool for academia, policymakers and consumer companies alike.

At the same time, a systematic, coordinated and focused effort, going far beyond a carbon footprint calculator, is required to engage the people at large and all other stakeholders to address the energy and climate issues. This calculator has been developed based on Indian and international best practices and data. It is the first of its kind in India, with unique features that allow people to develop a balanced outlook toward government policies and energy industry. We hope that the Yo!Green Carbon Calculator will facilitate better energy governance through greater public participation.

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, People4Planet Innolabs and other organizations as well as the individuals who have directly or indirectly helped in developing this carbon footprint calculator. Piyush Verma currently works as a Research Fellow at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. An interval scale is a standard survey rating scale, which ranks higher in precision than the nominal or ordinal scales. It does not quantify the exact points on the scale but only the difference between two points on the scale.

2. This is a scripting language which is normally used for web development.

Appendix A

A few snapshots of the web version of the Yo!Green Carbon Calculator are shown below.