Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

EcoRate's is a public benefit corporation on a mission to "Empower people to reduce consumer waste using actionable community-driven data." We give people the basic information they need to make simple decisions that are dramatically better for the environment. They do this by choosing which stores and venues to go to based on how eco-friendly they are. This directly supports the most responsible businesses, and decreases support to environmentally hazardous businesses. It also restores agency to the individual, facilitating their decision making on environmental criteria. EcoRate will have accomplished its goals when we empower enough people to change their consumption habits to where whole industries are forced to embrace sustainability by default.

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How Project Affects Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions:

Replaces/avoids GHGs (e.g., projects that replace sources of GHGs, such as the burning of fossil fuels for electricity, heat, transport, or other energy uses), Reduces GHGs (e.g., projects that reduce sources of GHGs, such as through efficiency or other changes in consumption)

Best Estimate of GHG Avoidance/Reduction of This Project (Tonnes CO2 Equivalent/Year):

Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

EcoRate gives people the agency to make decisions that respect their environmental values. While our tools are equally available to all, they are clearly favored by women as they make up over 75% of our users.
EcoRate freely promotes sustainable businesses, and our experience is that these are disproportionately owned and operated by women. Our newest tool helps people find and support zero waste stores, and here the ownership skews the most dramatically towards women at around 90%.
EcoRate also gives agency to the individual over large corporations, a dynamic that typically runs the opposite way. This benefit is the most strongly felt by youth who often otherwise feel powerless in the current socioeconomic hierarchy.
Finally, the prevention of waste disproportionately helps climate vulnerable communities because they are the ones that are most heavily impacted by the emissions, toxins, and water contamination caused by the whole life-cycle of single-use items.

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