How it Works

CarbonDAQ is a national experiment in personal carbon trading, an idea which could help reduce carbon emissions. Here's how you get started...

1, Calculate your carbon footprint

At the heart of CarbonDAQ is a carbon calculator. Because personal carbon trading would only apply to home energy use and travel, this is all the calculator will ask you about. Rather than build another new carbon calculator from scratch, we decided to share the data used to operate the government’s own carbon calculator, called ActOnCO2

2, Join a group

You are automatically a member of the main CarbonDAQ group (called CarbonDAQ – everyone). Edit your profile if you want to remain anonymous, by removing the tick where is says 'public profile?'.

You can also form your own new group, or join an existing group. You might want to do this in order to take part in carbon trading market where you live or in your workplace.

You can send invitations to your group by using the tools available on your group dashboard which you access through the groups homepage.

You can join an existing group by clicking 'join group' from the menu when you are viewing the dashboard of the group you want to join (not all groups will be open to new members)

If you have been invited to join a group, you will receive an email from the group's owner. Follow the link to accept the invite, or click 'group invites' from the menu to see if you have any invitations waiting.

3, Have a go at carbon trading

For each group you join you receive a carbon allowance in the form of carbon credits. Each credit is worth 10kgs of CO2. Your monthly allowance for the 'CarbonDAQ – everyone' group is 42 carbon credits, equivalent to 5 tonnes of CO2 a year.

The group dashboard will display your trading period. Your objective is to finish with a 0 or positive balance of carbon credits. If you use more carbon than your allowance, this means you need to change your carbon lifestyle or buy carbon credits, or a combination of both. If you have carbon credits spare, then you can sell them to those in need of extra, building up a stash of virtual pounds (or whatever is the group's chosen incentive) and helping the whole group to achieve the carbon emissions target.