Calculating Carbon And Energy On Your Website For A Brighter Planet

Between alternative energy, waste processing and more efficient power distribution systems, the push towards green technology has seen bigger impetus in the past decade than ever before. Changing consumer mindsets have also helped greatly – more consumers today are demanding more green information on goods and services that companies provide. The trouble is that many small companies have been cut out of the market for not being able to provide detailed information on the carbon and energy footprints of their goods and services because it was too expensive for them to hire the developers needed to integrate complex calculations into their business websites.

That’s where Prospect, by sustainability technology company Brighter Planet, comes in. Prospect is a web-based tool that allows web developers adds carbon and energy footprint calculations to products and services on any existing website without modifying the site – or the need for a hefty web development budget. A company’s webmaster simply inserts a single, preconfigured line of code to make the calculations and display them on a website.

Once enabled, Prospect works by lifting pieces of content directly off the site, submitting them to a calculation server for processing, and inserting the results right back onto the page, all within the browser and in real-time. For example, a small used-car dealer now can list a specific model’s carbon footprint, gas consumption, and projected fuel costs along with its make, model, engine size, color, mileage and other sales data.  Prospect also can be used by travel sites to compare transportation options, e-commerce sites to compare shipping methods, or with any product or service where sustainability information is important to the customer.

“Prospect is all about making complex carbon and energy calculations accessible to every environmentally-conscious business, no matter how small,” says Patti Prairie, Brighter Planet CEO. “One of our goals has always been to empower customers with environmental metrics they can use to make greener decisions.  Prospect makes this possible, even for companies that don’t have developer time to spare.”