Enhancing Somerville Climate Action through Household Emissions Avoidance Tracking

Researcher: Emmanuel Obeng Program: MS Sustainability Institution: Tufts University Faculty/IRB Supervisor: Khan, Hassaan Furqan Estimated Time: 5 minutes Purpose of Survey This survey explores the extent to which households in Somerville can support climate action by tracking daily emission-reducing activities through a user-friendly app designed for daily or periodic climate action tracking. The survey takes an average of 5 minutes. Participation is voluntary and anonymous. You may also choose to participate in a three-day pilot by spending 1-2 minutes per entry to log emissions-avoiding actions. Your responses will support academic research and city climate planning. Meaning and Illustration of Emission Avoidance: The amount of emission you reduce by taking alternative action with lower emission than the other action. Example- Transportation: According to EPA, emission for driving car is 0.299kg per mile and emission for using bus is 0.067kg per mile. If tomorrow, I choose to cover distance of 5miles using bus instead of driving, I avoid emission equivalent to 0.232 X 5= 1.16kg. Emission Avoidance tracking is a means of tracking the emission impact of such avoidance actions. The researcher has provided a simplified cloud based app for piloting. Privacy You only use email to log in. No personal information required for tracking. Providing a name is optional and it can be any name. The important thing is having the dashboard to enter mission avoided action and seeing its impact.