Connect, with permission.
Provider-held raw data stays with its provider. Connections and disclosures need clear, specific user consent.
Proposal · Working draft 0.1
A clearer picture.
A smaller footprint.
Our daily choices connect. Our carbon tools should, too.
CarbonKit proposes an open platform that brings personal carbon information together across services, helping people understand their activities and work towards goals they choose.
A project taking shape. This website does not collect or track your activities.
Designed to connect01 / CONCEPT
Open interfaces User control Traceable estimates
01 / The idea
More than a
carbon calculator.
A shared language for the tools people already use.
The 2019 CarbonKit paper imagined a common API and dashboard connecting carbon tracking with health, savings, social participation and incentives. The aim is to make information easier to understand and act on, while keeping people in control of their data.
The next step is a small, testable foundation: interoperable records, transparent calculations and private personal views. Health, savings, social and reward features would be optional extensions.
Read the proposed architectureShow the method.
Every estimate should carry its sources, units, factor version, boundaries and uncertainty. Missing data must stay visible.
Keep the goal personal.
Start with voluntary understanding and goals people choose. Reward points are distinct from carbon credits and offsets.
A loop for learning
Small steps. Useful feedback.
The paper’s proposed feedback loop connects a person’s motivation with information and the next choice. Its effects remain to be evaluated.
- 01
Motivate
Choose a reason and a goal.
- 02
Track
Connect relevant activities.
- 03
Inform
Understand estimates and gaps.
- 04
Adjust
Consider a practical change.
- 05
Reward
Recognise progress and reflect.
02 / Build the foundation
An open working draft.
These proposals turn the paper’s direction into decisions that can be discussed, implemented and tested. They are not a ratified standard or a running tracking service.
Working
standard
Activity and estimate records, calculation provenance, consent, corrections and portability.
Read the specificationArchitecture
& rollout
Provider adapters, private user records, minimal coordination and staged acceptance criteria.
Explore the planFrom paper
to proposal
What the workshop paper establishes, what remains untested and what the new draft adds.
Read the paper reviewTAKE IT WITH YOUReview the working draft as a document.
Download the draft PDFFirst integration candidateSee the proposed path
Learning from StreamingCalc.
StreamingCalc offers a concrete starting point for exploring streaming-related carbon estimates. Its current Numbers workbook would need a reviewed port or adapter before it could exchange CarbonKit records. No integration is implemented here.
03 / Research roots
An idea grounded
in a shared vision.
CarbonKit: Designing A Personal Carbon Tracking Platform
Presented at the Fourth International Workshop on Social Sensing in Montreal in 2019, the paper sets out the CarbonKit concept, five connected modules and a privacy-conscious approach to platform design.
It is a proposal, rather than evidence of a deployed service or demonstrated changes in behaviour or health. Its British Columbia examples describe a historical design case, not current project partners.
Read the original paper04 / Call for volunteers
Help turn a shared idea
into useful tools.
CarbonKit needs people who can question the assumptions, test the methods and build with care. Contributions can start with a focused review of the draft.
Volunteer for CarbonKitOpens an email draft to smakonin@sfu.ca. Nothing is sent by this website.
Where you can contribute
- StandardsReview records and interoperability.
- Carbon methodsExamine factors, boundaries and uncertainty.
- SoftwareBuild adapters and reproducible tools.
- AccessibilityMake information usable for more people.
- PrivacyTest consent and data control.
- CommunityListen, document and shape useful goals.