Modern households are entirely dependent on electrical gadgets and petroleum-fuelled automobiles. Consequently, the carbon footprint of households increases every time gadgets and automobiles are used. While the latest gadgets are undoubtedly becoming increasingly energy efficient, given the overall growth in population and number of consumers with purchasing power, carbon emission continues to increase. The UAE has one of the highest per capita water consumption as well as waste generation in the world. With very limited fresh water resources, potable water production from seawater is an energy-intensive process. Minimising household wastewater as well as general waste not only reduces excessive production at source, but also minimises waste transportation and treatment, thus reducing carbon footprint.
Meanwhile, the internet of things (IoT) is being increasingly utilised to fight climate change. This is first happening in the commercial segment, where specialised vendors are using IoT for cost-efficiency services and workflows, such as optimisation of garbage truck routing. On the other hand, such efficiencies can also be achieved in any household.
Apps
The first step is to be aware of your carbon footprint using IoT tools. My Carbon Footprint, an app launched by the UAE Ministry of Environment and Water, in collaboration with du, can empower households to understand not only their overall carbon footprint, but also individual sources of carbon emissions, such as electricity consumption, water consumption, automobile usage and waste generation. Once the connection is established between a household and its carbon footprint, lifestyle modifications, technology upgrades and other measures can be taken to evaluate the impact on carbon footprint each month.
The second step is to control and minimise your carbon footprint. While the app requires consumption data to be fed manually, other apps are also available that can accurately monitor and display the consumption of appliances in a household. At its recently concluded Class 01 in December, the Dubai Future Accelerators prototyped an app that allows households to monitor the operations of individual electric gadgets, even coffee makers and hair dryers, and their associated electricity consumption. Basic alert functions, such as notifications for refrigerator doors left open or appliances unnecessarily left running, are also included, thereby allowing households to identify and stop avoidable electricity losses. This directly reduces carbon footprint of the household.
Households can also install smart meters for electricity and water, coupled with apps to monitor energy and water consumption and set off alarms when thresholds are crossed. Such apps also allow consumers to map their carbon footprint against historical data. Monitoring the right data and bringing it onto a mobile platform is the first major paradigm shift IoT can bring to the fight against climate change. The deployment costs of such systems are typically negligible and the cost savings they generate usually help achieve payback periods of a few months or less.
IoT’s usage is not limited to getting the right data only. IoT, in the form of a smart home automation system, enables consumers to control various equipment through a smartphone from anywhere in the world. Such controls range from turning off equipment when unwittingly left on, to increasing set points of AC units or setting such units on timers.
Sensors and vehicles
IoT can also be used to monitor unclean, clogged AC filters that cause energy consumption to rise unnecessarily, just as leaking pipes and faucets increase water consumption. Coupled with cheap, easy-to-install sensors, currently available apps can help spot such anomalies, empowering the consumer to take either preventive or quick reactive action.
Deploying sensors on garbage bins can also help automatically monitor quantities of garbage generated. Data collected from multiple consumers can even be converted into a leader board visible to all users on their smartphones, leading to a healthy competition to reduce waste generation. IoT can thus release the power of collective action to reduce carbon footprint by reducing waste generation.
Finally, following the recent thrust towards electric vehicles in Dubai with the setting up of charging infrastructure across the city as well as the launch of electric car manufacturer Tesla in February in Dubai, households have more opportunity to shift to electric/hybrid vehicles to minimise their carbon footprint. Coupled with IoT, such vehicles can potentially have the biggest impact in monitoring, controlling and reducing a household’s carbon footprint.
