Press releases - Underwired news, wins and launches
RSA launches personal carbon trading system
10th June, 2008
A leading UK policy think tank has launched a revolutionary new online system to encourage individuals to take greater responsibility for their carbon footprint. The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) has launched a prototype personal carbon trading system called CarbonDAQ. CarbonDAQ measures and calculates individuals' carbon footprints, issues participants with a carbon allowance and then allows them to trade it, to achieve an agreed group-wide target level of emissions. By encouarging greater awareness of the causes of carbon emissions, the system makes it easier for them to take action to reduce them.
The prototype aims to provide a practical view of how such a trading system might be used once it takes hold as a method to help cut carbon emissions from individuals, and will better enable the RSA to provide informed policy advice to government.
Project leader Matt Prescott at the RSA, comments, "CarbonDAQ encourages individuals to be part of a large connected system, where the small changes made by individuals can be seen to have large-scale results. A number of specialist project sponsors have donated time and expertise as part of their corporate social responsibility policies."
The RSA was founded over 250 years ago and is headed by CEO and former Downing Street policy advisor Matthew Taylor. The project has used digital marketing experts Underwired to plan the user journeys and information architecture. Underwired will also design the website and run viral and community campaigns to ensure CarbonDAQ generates wide involvement from grassroots community groups and individual users.
Community groups already involved include Mole Valley District Council, the London Borough of Lewisham, the Climate and Health Council, a consortium of Carbon Rationing Action Groups (Crags) and the Student Climate Action Project.