Tag: Greenhouse Gas Emissions

  • How to make climate reporting fun

    How to make climate reporting fun

    As part of the Paris agreement each country is estimating the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere. The emissions are then reported to the UN. Think of it like tax time for emissions. The idea is to track and reduce emissions over time. How do countries estimate yearly emissions? Today, a mix of sensor data, survey results, and expert options are used to create an inventory. For the agriculture, forest, and land use sector there are tools to help with this process.

    One of these tools has been developed by climate scientists. It is very well thought out, has incredible features, and allows for maximum flexibility. The catch? It is very hard to use. So we started an experiment: What if we added a user experience expert to the mix and redesigned this as a modern, web-based app?

    To make apps user friendly we start by learning from end users: Who are our users? What data do they have? What are their biggest roadblocks? The wealth of information we get from end users is always humbling. We summarized our insights into three lessons:

    Lesson 1: Guidance: Often inventory teams don’t have enough time and resources to read the complex guidelines provided by the UN.

    How do we guide our users? In depth familiarity with the guidelines is great but not necessary to use our app. It guides compilers through the inventory process and points to specific sections in the guidelines to learn more.

    Lesson 2: Flexible usage. Some teams estimate just one source, while others estimate all sources.

    How do we design for flexibility? We let users choose what they want to do and adapt the experience to their needs. Part of this is approach is to only ask for data if and when they are needed. An advantage is that we are avoiding bottlenecks by not asking for data they might not have.

    Lesson 3: Adjusting complexity. Some compilers have basic datasets with gaps, others have very complex datasets.

    How do we design for different inputs and estimation methods? We ask users what kind of data they have and then tailor the experience to their personal needs. Rather than a static interface, this app guides the compiler through the process. Users view personalized pages based on the complexity of their dataset.

    Screenshot

    How do we make sure this is what users need?

    We started with high level prototypes and constantly iterated to make them better and more accurate. Weekly expert reviews and collaborative design sessions helped with constant improvements. Once the developers had created a working app, we tested it with users. The results were mind blowing:

    • Intuitive: Our test users completed the emission estimation on their own, without any training or help.
    • Easy to use: Our test users entered simple datasets as well as for complex datasets. They navigated the app easily and compared results for the different methods.
    • Fun: This is maybe not the first word that comes to mind when thinking of compiling an inventory, but our test users had fun! They enjoyed seeing graphs, playing with real-time emission results, and tweaking inputs to study the results.

    Where do we go from here? The app is still in development, and we hope to overcome obstacles along the way. Our goal is to roll this out to make climate reporting easier, faster and more accurate.

  • Top 3 challenges for livestock emission calculators

    Top 3 challenges for livestock emission calculators

    Seaspray Labs is currently designing and developing livestock emission calculators. But let’s step back. Why do we need to quantify livestock emissions? Most countries have agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Now we need reliable ways to measure and track emissions to see where we stand. There are several greenhouse gasses that are emitted from livestock farming. For example ruminants, such as cattle, emit methane, a potent greenhouse gas. The good news? There are many things we can do to reduce emissions, from eating a more plant-rich diet to feed adjustments for cattle. How can we quantify and measure current emissions and future reductions? We are designing a calculator for livestock emissions and here are our top three challenges.

    Challenge 1: Different experience levels. Who are our end users? We have expert users, who know all the details of climate science for livestock. One the other side we have absolute beginners, who have been tasked with creating an inventory for livestock emissions without having prior experience in this field. How can we explain and simplify this extremely complex process and at the same time allow experts to quickly enter data and navigate results?

    Challenge 2: Limited data. Inventory compilers enter or import activity data to then estimate emissions. For livestock this means data such as how many animals, at what temperature are animals being kept, and what manure management systems are being used. Some users have extremely limited data sets. How can we allow these users to plug in the data they have and generate comparable emission estimations with the help of default values?

    Challenge 3: Complex datasets. On the other hand, there are inventory compilers with extremely complex datasets. Their livestock species are divided into populations and subcategories. For each subcategory they have different temperature and manure management system usage data. While this is great for reducing uncertainty, it poses other challenges. How can we provide estimations that are transparent and easy to manipulate?

    Design thinking is about solving problems and tackling challenges. Let’s hope we can solve these challenges and address the different user needs. Our goal is to make emission estimation easier, more user friendly, and more transparent. Seaspray Labs works to quantify emissions and hopefully bring us closer to a low carbon future.

  • How can we make climate reporting easier?

    How can we make climate reporting easier?

    This story starts in Japan, where the United Nations body for climate reporting, the TFI, is based. Countries all over the world report yearly emissions to the UN. It’s like a financial report but for greenhouse gases. Countries determine their emissions and removals of greenhouse gases and send the final balance sheet to the UN.

    This sounds easy and straightforward, but in fact it’s a highly complicated process. There are tools to help, but most are old. While an enormous amount of experience and thought went into the development of existing tools, they haven’t been designed with end users in mind.

    This is where Seaspray Labs comes into play. We are currently working on a web-based app for greenhouse gas inventories. Like most inventory tools it is based on the guidelines developed by the TFI. Here are our design questions:

    • How can we simplify the inventory process?
    • How can we help and guide users through the process?

    Here are three steps we are taking to tackle this:

    Step 1: Understand the inventory process. When designing interfaces, this step is often skipped, even though it’s so important. How can designers simplify a process if they don’t have an in-depth understanding of it? This step includes user research to see how current users are using existing tools. During user interviews we learned how inventory compilers approach their inventories, and we heard about their struggles with existing tools. In the context of a greenhouse gas inventory, this step also includes understanding climate science and the guidelines for climate reporting from the TFI.

    Step 2: Design a simplified workflow. The majority of our users are newcomers. How can we make the user interface straightforward for them? We identify the actions for a simple inventory every step of the way and hide all other functions. This way, we don’t overload newcomers with information that doesn’t apply to them.

    Step 3: Architect the tool with flexibility. While the majority of our users are newcomers, we also have many expert users. They have more complex datasets and need more sophisticated estimation methods. We need to allow for flexibility. Functions and actions for expert users, such as importing massive data sets, are part of the design to address user needs from basic to extremely sophisticated.

    What do I like most about designing tools for climate reporting? There are existing tools out there. They are not easy to use, but a lot of experience and thought went into their development. It’s a fun challenge to transform them into intuitive, easy to use apps. And hopefully they can help to make climate reporting easier and more accurate.

  • An Unexpected Ingredient for Climate Action

    An Unexpected Ingredient for Climate Action

    This week’s climate story brings us all the way to the island Tasmania in Australia. Imagine standing next to a beautiful bay overlooking the Tasman Sea, this is where the company Sea Forest is headquartered.

    Have you heard that cows release the potent greenhouse gas methane? Have you also heard that mixing a little bit of seaweed in their diet reduces their emissions greatly? Research teams all over the world are racing to find out more: What type of seaweed works best? How much is needed? How can it be grown and mixed into feed sustainably?

    Asparagopsis is an edible red seaweed, native to Australian waters. Sea Forest is the first company to produce and scale Asparagopsis at a commercial scale. They are developing innovative ways to cultivate the seaweed on land and in the ocean. This is how it works:

    On the left side you can see how a boat farms seaweed in the ocean. Alternatively it can be grown in tanks on land. After it is harvested, the seaweed needs to dry. Sea Forest then produces a feed supplement for cattle.

    No, the milk and meat don’t taste like seaweed. And amazingly, the cows are more productive with this supplement. They need less feed because they are saving energy by not producing methane. A 2020 study found that methane emissions from cattle can be reduced by up to 98%:

    Animals whose diets contain 0.2% Sea Forest’s supplement will have methane reductions up to 98%.

    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652620308830?via%3Dihub#ack0010

    That is a very impressive reduction of methane! There are still a lot of open questions and scientists say there is not enough seaweed for all the cattle in the world. What I like most about Sea Forest is that they are acting now. We need climate solutions now and Sea Forest is one of the teams delivering. They are planning to sell the first supplements later this year.

    As with so many other amazing teams all over the world, Sea Forest is producing climate solutions right now. Their rapid and innovative approach is inspiring and I hope they succeed!

  • How Do We Keep Track of Greenhouse Gas Emissions?

    How Do We Keep Track of Greenhouse Gas Emissions?

    You guessed it: This week’s climate story leads us all the way to outer space. But let me back up…

    Under the Paris Agreement most countries announced to cut down greenhouse gas emissions. Norway, for example, wants to reduce emissions by 55% below 1990 levels by 2030. Each country set their own specific target. But is each country on track? How do we know how much greenhouse gas emissions a country is emitting?

    To calculate yearly emissions each country completes a complex inventory. It follows a bottom up approach of counting emissions for different sectors such as transportation, farming, industrial sites etc. for each region. The regions and sectors are then added up to understand national emissions. Unfortunately, there are many uncertainties and unknowns with this bottom up approach.

    In recent years satellites have been developed to measure emissions from space. This top down approach has also many uncertainties. For example, one big challenge is to separate human made emissions from natural occurring emissions. So how do we best calculate a county’s yearly emissions? Both bottom up and top down approaches have pros and cons, and it looks like a combination is the way to get to the most accurate numbers.

    OK, so let’s get back to outer space. Imagine a group of satellites circling the earth and measuring accurate real time emissions. This is what the European Space Agency is planning to do with its new Sentinel satellites. They are planning to launch the satellites in 2025 to map global carbon dioxide emissions. This is how it works:

    Different spectrometers measure atmospheric carbon dioxide. The data is then processed to better understand emissions caused by human activities. The goal is to understand small scale regional emissions as well as overall emissions of big cities. This is how ESA puts it:

    • Detect emitting hot spots, such as megacities & power plants
    • Monitor hot spot emissions to assess emission changes
    • Assess emission changes against local reduction targets
    • Assess the national emissions and changes in 5-year time steps

    Decarbonizing our economies is an enormous undertaking. To get there in time we need to get all the help we can get. Let’s hope the Sentinel sensors can help us reach and exceed our emission targets and motivate us to substantially reduce emissions.