At the recent Cleantech Open conference, a theme that emerged was the potential for distributed data to help us all be greener. By having relevant data pushed to us on our smartphones or other mobile gadgets, we might make better choices. And, of course, companies providing that data might make some money.
The first area where this theme appeared was in a discussion of transportation. In some cities, public transit systems have put GPS devices on buses and are pushing location information and arrival times out to websites and portable apps. This enables people to leave their home or office at the perfect time to catch the bus, rather than waiting at a bus stop for 10 or 15 minutes. By making public transit more convenient, this data might help get people out of their cars and onto buses. Next Bus is one of the services providing this information, and Google has added a public transit layer to its maps. Car pooling, both casual and formal, could also be improved through the use of this sort of data.
The other area discussed as ripe for improvement via data is resource usage. Electric companies have spent decades trying to install smart meters in peoples’ homes so that they could implement peak period pricing; in fact, some of the recent federal stimulus money was dedicated to smart meter projects. Water too may soon have smart metering. Although water doesn’t have the same peak usage dynamics as electricity, giving consumers more information about their usage may help promote conservation. Information on air and water quality could also drive behavior. If as they traveled consumers had data on the cleanliness of the local air and water, their usage and travel patterns would likely change, which would eventually drive cities to clean up their environments lest they lose travel and convention business.
Most of the entrants in the Cleantech Open business plan competition were big ideas: turning paper waste to fuel and the like. However, when listening to the various panels on themes in clean, it was clear that small innovations, like improving access to data, can also have a big impact on the environment.
I like that the CTO discussions were focused a good deal on light-tech solutions. The great thing about the focus on sustainability, recycling and efficiency is that it's now cool to be what used to be considered cheap and definitely un-cool. Who knew that we'd ever be able to share rides, optimize our bus-line-timing, etc. and not look impossibly nerdy?
Great article, thanks for increasing your contributions on the Internet. This particular article is encouraging news actually. Solutions are out there and being applied. I am a big fan of light rail myself and I think this sort of technology can make it a much more attractive option for many people.