Get Flash

Get to know ECOBOT. It’s a free, open-source Adobe AIR app that calculates your carbon footprint by measuring the fuel, power, and paper you use. And it does much of this automatically. By tracking your carbon consumption, it’ll help you see where you have the most negative impact so you know where to put the three Rs into action. Aside from reducing, reusing, and recycling, it can link you to places where you can offset your carbon totals. ECOBOT is here for your greener good from the outset to the offset.

Get to know the creators. ECOBOT was created by TAXI with technical support from onepixeloff. The app first took shape as a result of a company-wide eco-challenge. A competition called “Green for Green” encouraged all TAXI employees to submit ideas on how to make TAXI, and the world, a greener place. ECOBOT was the winning entry. It’s a solution that derives long-term benefits from the TAXI GREEN initiative. How? TAXI will use it to calculate the network’s carbon footprint, and plant trees to offset it.

See your fuel consumption. Wherever you take your laptop, ECOBOT automatically detects that you’ve travelled by keeping track of the wireless networks you access and letting you assign geographic locations to each. When you move from one network to another, it calculates the distance. Once detected, you’re prompted to enter how you got there, and the distance will be added to your trip history. Of course, if you’ve got a desktop computer, you can manually enter your travels instead of lugging a hard drive around.

See your power consumption. ECOBOT automatically calculates how much juice your computer uses. To estimate this, it continuously monitors your central processing unit (CPU) and factors in the model of your computer. For other power sources that you use – like video game systems, fans, and vacuum cleaners – you can add them to ECOBOT and track how long you use them.

See your paper consumption. ECOBOT automatically logs how much you print from your computer. Aside from your printing habits, you can easily add paper items you buy – like newspapers, fashion mags, and gossips rags – for a more accurate account of your paper usage.

Reduce your carbon footprint. See your carbon totals drop by offsetting your consumption. ECOBOT links you to a site where you can buy carbon by the tonne.