Heating and cooling, warm water, cooking, electricity to power appliances and lights all demand energy, taking a great toll on the environment and family budgets worldwide.
From 25% in car-dominated USA1 to 40% in bicycle-focused Denmark2, homes contribute significantly to the annual emissions of a household.
We look for better ways to obtain energy, yet as much as 80% of energy consumed at homes is wasted3.
Many energy solutions already exist, from improving efficiency to new sources, from accurate insulation to solar panels.
On the other side of the equation, we could also absorb some of the CO2 emitted by carefully and smartly planting trees4.
We need knowledge about all of these options, ways to compare and quantify them.
Long term, we believe there is no other way for the planet then every human to keep balance of his emissions and absorptions, and we need tools to do that.
How does BeNeutral work?
Based on your utilities usage, we calculate CO2 emitted at your home, advise how to reduce it, and encourage you to offset the rest by planting trees.
In short, we use data to help you keep balance to be neutral.
-
1
Tell us about your home
We calculate your CO2 emission based on your utilities usage and location-specific information of how the energy is produced and transmitted.
-
2
Compare your options
Learn what contributes to your footprint. Compare options to reduce your emission and to offset what remains emitted. By reducing utilities usage, you will also pay lower bills. Get to know how much you can save and what upfront costs you'll have to cover. Whenever possible, we complete our knowledge-based estimates with data-based estimates by analyzing previous implementations of a solution in other houses in the network, similar to yours.
-
3
Take an action
Retrofit your house by addressing energy efficiency and shifting sources of energy to renewable, change your habits. Insulate your walls or renovate windows, install new solar panels, replace bulbs and plant trees to capture what you couldn't reduce.
-
4
Repeat until you are neutral
Keep on measuring your utilities and reducing your emission until you achieve carbon-neutrality and then maintain it by balancing emission with absorption. Start small, by replacing a few bulbs or setting the thermostat one degree up/down. Over time as you build trust to our estimates you can make bigger improvements like renovating windows, installing solar panels, or even trying that new energy-efficiency technology which you may have never considered before. Ultimately - make well informed decisions and move at your own pace. Track changes in your utilities usage and see effects, both ecological and economical, of your efforts.
-
5
Share with the community
Community is our super-power! Share changes you are making and how efficient they are so that we can make even more accurate estimates for others to rely on. We calculate the efficiency of your implementation by computing what 'normal' utility usage meant for your house before the change (relative to the baseline established by other similar and nearby houses, to account for weather) and after the change compare your new 'normal' with the old one.
