Aren’t there already Scoreboards?

There are a lot of organizations that have data and track various elements of the race to zero carbon.  They all have their merits. We just haven’t seen anything that puts it together in the way we would find most useful to guide us to the win.

State Scale Trackers

Here are some state scale scoreboards we’ve seen. They offer insights, but both make the classic mistake of focusing on total state emissions and not per person emissions. One also focuses on how well a state is achieving policy goals, which is interesting, but doesn’t tell the man on the street what is really going on in each of the dimensions he has an impact on.

Data Analysis

Acadia CLEAN - Regional Energy and Emissions Data, North East.

Personal Carbon Calculators

There are also numerous personal carbon emissions trackers, which provide valuable information for the individual. This is not a substitute for an overall scoreboard. Personal trackers put the focus on the individual to achieve a zero carbon life on their own. As an individual, your options are to drastically reduce consumption and go off grid. This is a wonderful choice for some people, but it doesn’t scale to ten billion people.  You can also choose 100% green energy for your home, but the grid will just shuffle the fossil energy elsewhere. Many of the “plays” to get us to zero carbon require decisions that are made in groups - corporations, consumer blocks, shareholders, voters.

More personal tracker links:
* Watch the video on this post.
* Berkeley Carbon Calculator

A Reference for tracking

Need a good framework for sustainability accounting? Check out David MacKay’s book.

By David MacKay: