Arboricide Analytics

Landing page
Registration page
Login page
Landing page (scrolled down)
Graph (kWh vs. time)
Results page

Inspiration

Arboricide Analytics was born out of the realization that our entire lives, powered by electricity, inadvertently contribute to the 'arboricide' – the silent killing of trees through fossil fuel-based energy generation. Inspired by the urgent global call for net zero emissions by 2050, we're on a mission to empower large groups, from government agencies to companies, with a tool that goes beyond the individual.

What it does

Unlike traditional individual-level carbon footprint calculators, Arboricide Analytics focuses on collective impact. Our platform provides insights into kWh consumption, trees killed per day, and costs incurred for all devices linked to a single account, presented in statistical and graphical formats. Imagine its practical application in a large company, where meticulous monitoring of energy consumption from all devices is made simple.

How we built it

Backend: Flask and SQLAlchemy. Periodically parsing watt hour data and sending POST requests from a local python file to the server and storing this data in a database. Database was queried by the current user. Data was fetched and processed, and subsequently stats on totals per device per user was analyzed and graphed.

Challenges we ran into

Gathering the correct kwh, tree count, and cost data from the local machine. Developing an algorithm for filtering data points. Working with the FLASK server. Linking the CSS and Javascript files to the HTML file.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Being able to transmit data from the local machine to the server.

What we learned

How to integrate cron files into our project, and how to seamlessly integrate bash commands into a python script.

References

Energy wattage being consumed at a given time per user: via ioreg utility Average carbon emissions consumed (g) per kWh using grid electricity in Canada: 155.9 g CO2e/kWh (https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/managing-pollution/fuel-life-cycle-assessment-model/updated-carbon-intensity-electricity.html) Average carbon sequestration (carbon offset) of a tree per year: 22 kg/year = 60.23 g / day (https://www.eea.europa.eu/articles/forests-health-and-climate-change/key-facts/trees-help-tackle-climate-change) Cost ($) per kWh of electricity in Canada: $0.192 / kWh (https://www.energyhub.org/electricity-prices/)

Calculations of totals: kWh: user wattage consumption * 0.001. Tress killed per day: kWh from user * (155.9 g CO2e/kWh in Canada) * (1 tree per day/60.23 g CO2e sequestered). Cost: kWh from user * $0.192 / kWh