

Ask YC: RFP for carbon calculator ecommerce site? - gsiener

I work for a renewable energy company that wants to start selling carbon offsets on the internet.  The site would basically consist of a calculator to figure out the carbon emissions from a flight, etc., and would then allow you to "retire" an equivalent amount by purchasing offsets from us.  I have programming experience but frankly this whole ecommerce world seems very complicated.  What would it take to put a site like this together, what resources do you guys use (e.g., not spam baiting), and is anyone out there looking for work?
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rrival
Try Scriptlance or RentACoder.

If you're looking for examples of implementations, greenmountainenergy.com has
a good one, the EPA has calculator (and data tables for download),
sterlingplanet.com has one, nativeenergy.com has one, carbonfund.org has one,
terrapass.com is another. Some of the data they're using comes from the
transportation energy data book (or digital versions thereof), WRI GHG
calculations or ISO 14000 series environmental management methods.

The rest of the problem is the credibility of the verification of the
demonstration of additionality of the offsets. Try to adhere to The Gold
Standard.

Hopefully you knew most of that already.

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ivankirigin
How about you actually help the environment, rather than sell indulgences?
[http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2007/02...](http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2007/02/do_carbon_offse.html)

Perhaps you could setup a social network where engineers doing research into
making alternative energy viable post profiles. Users hoping to reduce their
footprint could help support the research -- something like kiva.org for the
first world.

Funding a few post-docs to make an efficient solar cell will matter more in
the long run than all carbon offsets combined.

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gsiener
Thanks for the feedback. While I agree that carbon offsets can seem like a
guilt-eraser, I believe they're just another "wedge" in trying to reduce our
impact. As I mentioned above my company is a renewable energy consultancy - we
help clients get more efficient with their energy use, and then cut their use
of fossil fuels through solar and wind technologies. We even make biodiesel
from waste cooking oil. Until we can fly jets without burning petroleum
products, I think offsetting is a great way to supplement all the other
efforts.

~~~
ivankirigin
The marginal dollar spent to help the environment is best spent on research to
make alternatives cheaper than carbon producing fuels.

This means that a reasonable consultancy would always advocate simply spending
money on such research.

Things like compact florescent light bulbs are becoming popular. Why? Because
there is a cost savings in power over regular light bulbs, NOT because they
are good for the environment. Reuse and reduction of unnecessary energy is a
good thing. Money spent on alternatives that don't scale into a global
solution is money wasted.

But I didn't actually answer your question: what is involved in building such
a site?

Briefly, software engineers build up a back end in a language like Perl, PHP,
Python, or Ruby. They are supported by databases like mysql or sqllite. They
run on servers rented in a hosted configuration or purchased and installed at
a co-location facility like an ISP. The front end involves HTML, javascript,
and maybe some Flash. It also involves work to ensure the interaction design
makes sense so people know how to use your site.

I answer so generally because your site isn't doing anything too difficult.
Lots people could make it.

You'll want to hire people to get this done. Job boards like dice.com might be
the way to go, but hiring good people is generally a hard problem.

~~~
gsiener
"The Nobel Peace prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) released a report yesterday summarizing over 5 years of scientific
research on the impacts and future predictions of climate change. It is not an
uplifting read but important that everyone understand the scientific
consensus.

"What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is
the defining moment." \- Rajendra Pachauri, a scientist and economist who
heads the IPCC

The paragraph from the report that I found most revealing was the following:

"Climate change is likely to lead to some irreversible impacts. There is
medium confidence that approximately 20-30% of species assessed so far are
likely to be at increased risk of extinction if increases in global average
temperature increase exceed 1.5-2.5 degrees C (relative to 1980-1999). As
global average temperature increase exceeds about 3.5 degrees C, model
projections suggest significant extinctions (40-70% of species assessed)
around the globe."

The IPCC's economic analyses say that trend can be reversed at reasonable
cost. Indeed, it says, there is "much evidence that mitigation actions can
result in near-term co-benefits (e.g. improved health due to reduced air
pollution)" that may offset costs."

While I agree that research is necessary, it takes a long time. There are
already a lot of grants and VC money going into greentech, but more money
doesn't always correlate to faster progress (as all of you know).

~~~
ivankirigin
Subsidizing alternative energy that isn't cost effective won't make it more
cost effective.

Also, it will increase the supply of energy, and increase the demand of cheap
carbon-producing energy to match. Total energy consumption will increase.

My point is not that climate change is unimportant.

My point is that carbon offsets that invest in the current generation of
hopelessly expensive alternative energy approaches will NOT help the
situation.

While you think research takes a long time, how long will a net harmful
solution take to solve the problem?

Investing in research will help. It is the only long term solution.

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dawie
Hi,

I have looked into writing something like this before. In my case the
technology was not difficult to do. The problem we had was regulation,
auditing and the fact that no-one could agree which formulas to use. Different
studies take different approaches and in our case it was a constant fight
between scientists and the government. Banking these credits was also an
issue.

If you have above 3 problems sorted out, writing something like this won't
impossible.

