Have you thought about ways of contributing to the environment? Maybe integrating a carbon calculator API into your application is the solution.
Negative environmental impacts have been on the agenda for years now. Air pollution, climate change, water pollution, thermal pollution, solid waste disposal, ocean acidification and glacier ice melting are some of the challenges our planet faces due to human activity –from corporations and individuals.
And people are becoming aware of it. More individuals are adopting an eco-friendly lifestyle, and new generations support environmentally-conscious organisations, products and services. Therefore, businesses that embrace sustainability have a better chance of succeeding in the marketplace.
What can we do to be “green”?
The key seems to be calculating our carbon footprint. But what is it exactly? A carbon footprint is a cumulative amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions –especially CO2– generated by an individual, event, organisation, service, place, or product, represented in carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). Luckily, technology has taken care of creating a simple way to measure this impact: carbon footprint calculators.
With everything having a presence online, it makes sense that companies include this type of tool on their applications to offer the service to anyone who wants to reduce carbon emissions from the atmosphere or merely promote sustainability. Don’t worry, though! You don’t need to fabricate your own CO2 tracker. You can integrate an existing carbon footprint calculator using an API.
An API (Application Programming Interface) is a set of functions enabling programmes to interact with other software components, operating systems, and microservices. In other words, an API provides a user’s answer to a system and then returns the system’s response to the user. That’s how people and businesses can acquire information regarding their GHG emissions and environmental impact based on their consumption data.
If you like the idea of integrating a carbon calculator API, this is what you might find:
- A request to determine your service’s goals and requirements;
- To define the usage data needed to convert into CO2e;
- To specify how you want the carbon data to be displayed to your users and how you want it to be conveyed to them;
- Confirm relevant thoughts, suggestions, and other assistance about sustainability;
- Costs;
- Begin testing and implementing the API!
Now, coming upon the best fit for your enterprise or brand is what’s left. Have no idea what options you have? There are tons in the market. So it may be tough to choose or decide on one tool. For that reason, we will make a recommendation.
CarbonAPI
CarbonAPI is an all-in-one API for calculating your carbon footprint. This software measures the environmental effect of each industry and individual. As a result, it provides you with the means of travelling down the zero-emissions path. In other words, this software assists any entity in meeting climate targets while also encouraging social responsibility in its surroundings.
Thus, CarbonAPI calculates the emissions in production units per hour, material consumption units per hour, or whichever units the emission factor required. Users may upload up to a year’s worth of usage energy, package delivery, freight and logistics, transportation, etc.– to find out how much CO2 they or their industry produces in kilogrammes of carbon. Additionally, the API supplies you with consumption-related analytical graphs for transparent reporting.
Overall, you may transmit footprint data via the API, and CarbonAPI will categorise it using various formulas to deliver your carbon footprint. Not to add, the user interface integration is straightforward because of its cloud infrastructure. Hence, you may tailor the API integration to match the style, feel, and functionality of your company or brand (find specific endpoints and integration options in the developer documentation).
Test the easy-to-use CarbonAPI at no cost. There’s a free version including the carbon footprint calculator, online reports and API access. And, every month, you can request up to 20 entries in the calculator. Not enough? Upgrade to a billed plan with transparent costs to know how much you’ll spend exactly.
Let us know how integrating a carbon calculator API into your application works out!