The Carbon Diet wants to help you reduce your load – on the planet, that is. The Carbon Diet measures your carbon footprint (through natural gas or electricity readings and fuel purchases), watches the changes in use over a period of time, and then recommends changes to help you reduce your footprint.
They even encourage you to compete with your friends to see who can reduce their load the most. The site is well-intentioned, but the “tour” which explains the site is ineffective at best. The tour just shows some small, blurry screenshots, and only one of the slides had any text associated with it. The site needs a marketing overhaul to make the process easy, intriguing and engaging. It’s not easy to get anyone to change their lifestyle, so it is up to sites like this to make it simple and interesting.
Carbondiet.org In Their Own Words
Do you know your biggest contribution to climate change? Is it:
Heating your home?
Wasting electricity?
Driving to work?
With the Carbon Diet, you can instantly see what makes up your carbon footprint, which in turn helps you to make the right decision about what to reduce first!
Then, with graphs showing how your footprint varies over days, months, and years, you can see exactly how things change over time. If you turn down your heating today, by next week you’ll be able to see exactly how much you’re saving!
Why Carbondiet.org It Might Be A Killer
Thanks to Al Gore, there is worldwide interest in walking a little lighter on the planet. Or, actually, to finally start walking. This site is part of a growing movement to help individuals take responsibilty and start making lifestyle changes. We need as much help and encouragement as we can get, and this site helps us do that.
Some Questions About Carbondiet.org
Why is the tour so cryptic and hard to follow? The first priority of this site should be to better explain its purpose and methodology to the average person. The home page should spell out exactly what the site does and how it does it, while at the same time encouraging people to participate. I see there is only one guy working on the site; is there no funding for more technical help? Can you affiliate with some other sites and other nonprofits to increase visibility and funcitonality?
