Mobile Carbon Footprinting

Start tracking your carbon footprint today

See the FAQ page and this PDF guide for more info

Step 1: Download

Download the app, sign in, and fill in an initial survey to get started

Step 2: Track

For the first week, let the app run to automatically track your footprint & tap on a mini-survey in less than 2 minutes a day

Step 3: Learn

Now you can see your footprint feedback, compare it with our community's emissions, and plan how to reduce your footprint.

The signup period for the 2019-2020 MIT/Harvard Pilot Program is now closed.
You may continue to use the MCF app that is now available in the app stores.

For that pilot, we invited student, faculty, staff, and related participants for a research study conducted by Professor Chris Zegras and PhD student J. Cressica Brazier from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.).

The purpose of our study is to pilot a smartphone app that helps individuals and communities understand and manage their carbon footprints due to everyday activities. We invite you to help us explore the potential of new digital technologies in sensing and understanding our daily energy use. We anticipate that this study will lead to publicly available tools for community engagement in climate mitigation planning and personal carbon footprinting.

The pilot process consists of:

1. Installing the smartphone app and completing an initial survey (less than 30 minutes)

2. Running the smartphone app to automatically collect a two-week activity diary, then using the app to confirm the daily diary information (a couple minutes a day)

3. Viewing the carbon footprint feedback in the app, while running the app and confirming the diary for another two weeks (a couple minutes a day), then filling out a short follow-up survey (less than 20 minutes)

4. Participants who successfully complete the app pilot will receive a $15 incentive and may be invited to a short interview, for an additional incentive.

You are a possible participant in this study because you are a student, staff member, or friend of the MIT/Harvard community. No specialized knowledge or preparation is required to participate. You will need your own Android or iOS smartphone in order to use our app. This study is completely voluntary. You have the right to end your participation at any time. Please read the following pages for a description of the phases of the study and compensation. Feel free to ask us any questions using the contact information below, before deciding whether or not to participate.

We greatly appreciate your consideration!