Think Global, Act Local: Planet Footprint, Carbon View & Intel

A new sensor and personal energy management panel made by Intel could help combat global warming by cutting electricity use by one-third, while the Premium Carbon Management Service offered by Planet Footprint and Carbon View will enable Councils to achieve full ownership and management of their carbon emissions, without spending unnecessary time collecting and managing the data needed to report those emissions.

Thursday 15 April 2010

Planet Footprint announces launch of its Premium Carbon Management Service

Planet Footprint, in partnership with CarbonView, have announced the launch of Australia’s only

carbon scorekeeping service for local government.

Planet Footprint Premium Carbon Management Service will be offered to all Australian Councils from today, and gives Councils access to a complete end-to-end service for carbon measurement, reporting and management.

The service builds upon Planet Footprint’s existing Scorekeeping Service which is currently

delivered to over 170 Councils nationally. Like the existing service, the new Premium Carbon

Management Service will deliver full management of the carbon data collection process by Planet

Footprint, detailed environmental and carbon reporting, and national and international

benchmarking and profiling.

The Premium Service will also give Councils access to CarbonView, an advanced software tool

for carbon reporting, modeling and management.

“The Premium Carbon Management Service will enable Councils to achieve full ownership and

management of their carbon emissions, without spending unnecessary time collecting and

managing the data needed to report those emissions” said Andrew Wales, Managing Director of

Planet Footprint.

Planet Footprint has selected CarbonView as its software partner for the Premium Service because

of CarbonView’s comprehensive and practical approach to carbon management.

“CarbonView understand the fundamentals of carbon scorekeeping, and have developed a

software tool that provides the exact functionality needed by Planet Footprint for delivery to

Australian local government” said Mr Wales.

Councils that subscribe to the Premium Carbon Management Service will also have access to a

team of sustainability, IT and engineering specialists to assist in applying the service within

Council.

“Because Planet Footprint works with Councils during the scorekeeping process, each Council

will retain full ownership of their data and build greater internal capacity for dealing with climate

change”, said Mr Wales.

Councils will be able to move quickly beyond talking about greenhouse action and be able to

focus more time and money on actions to improve their carbon performance. We are delighted to

support Planet Footprint with this strategic initiative” said Fadi Geha, Managing Director of

EcoView Technologies, CarbonView’s Master Distributor.

The Planet Footprint Premium Carbon Management System is available to Councils on an annual

subscription basis.

Source: www.planetfootprint.com and www.carbon-view.com

By Leslie Meredith, TechNewsDaily  (17 April 2010):

A new sensor and personal energy management panel made by Intel could help combat global warming by cutting electricity use by one-third.

In an address this week during Intel’s Developer Forum in Beijing, China, Justin Rattner, chief technology officer, posed the question: What if we could make energy management personal? Just like computing was taken from the hands of big business and put into the pockets and purses of consumers. After all, computers and information technology (IT) equipment only account for two percent of the world’s power consumption.

“If we were to hugely succeed and cut IT power in half, we’d only improve things by one percent,” Rattner said. “On the other hand, there are 113 million households that represent 35 percent of total U.S. energy. Now that’s a huge number.”

Rattner says information can change behavior. He called it the “Wayne Gerdes Effect.” Gerdes, considered the father of hypermiling (the art of getting super high gas mileage at rates above 100 miles per gallon) and one of the world’s foremost experts in vehicle fuel efficiency said that if every vehicle on the road had an energy management screen, we would immediately save 20 percent of total fuel associated with vehicle operation.

“That literally could bring an end to global warming,” Rattner said. He said the same principle can be applied to household energy use.

During its presentation, Intel unveiled a single sensor that plugs into a wall outlet. The sensor is not much bigger than a night light.

Once connected, the sensor will wirelessly connect to all electrical devices in the house and self configure to record the voltages from each source in real time.

During the demonstration, the sensor detected the unique signal from three ordinary appliances: a toaster, a microwave and a refrigerator. The sensor sent the information to a PC, which displayed icons associated with the appliances and their energy consumption.

Intel says its research has revealed that consumers want to know more than how much energy they’re using and they want to know what they can do to reduce their energy consumption.

Intel engineer Mary Murphy-Hoye showed a touch screen “energy panel” that resembled Apple’s iPad tablet. The device could be used to suggest ways homeowners could further reduce their energy use. For instance, it could display a dynamic clock showing optimal times to run different appliances.

“We’re putting together a reference design right now,” Murphy-Hoye said. Intel expects to have the sensor and the personal energy management panel available before the end of the year.

Intel estimates the average U.S. household could reduce energy consumption by 15 to 31 percent and save up to $470 per year in electricity costs using its system.

Murphy-Hoye tested a prototype of the system in her own home, and used sensors to track and analyze her family’s energy use.

She reported the feedback had immediate effects on her family and led to the discovery of new ways to save energy. The first thing everyone did after seeing the energy graph on the family PC was to turn off the lights, she said.

The system also revealed that the water heater was automatically firing up even when she set the washing machine on cold, in order to heat the water to a less cold temperature before the washer filled. This revelation led Murphy-Hoye to find the “tap water” setting on her water heater, which proved to be more energy efficient.

Murphy-Hoye said her time with the system convinced her that it’s important for people to not only understand their energy use, but also make it really simple for them to use that information to change their behavior.

Source: www.livescience.com