Dear staff, students, and friends of MIT,
Are we aligning with the Paris Climate goals? Would you like to learn more about actions you can take to meaningfully reduce our carbon footprint?
We welcome you to join the Mobile Carbon Footprinting smartphone app pilot, starting now! Learn about your daily carbon footprint and how it compares with your classmates and colleagues at MIT and Harvard.
You will also be contributing to our research project, based at MIT DUSP, that seeks to map carbon emissions due to daily activities in and around the MIT/Cambridge community. We conducted the first app pilot in Spring 2018, and we welcome everyone to join this second app pilot.
MIT/Harvard participants will receive $15 for completing the 22-day app pilot and an additional $30 if we invite you for a follow-up interview. All it takes is running the app on your phone, responding to two on-phone surveys, and confirming a daily diary. The pilot program starts today and runs until mid-April. In the app, you will be able to view the specific dates of the pilot program.
To download the app:
iPhone: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mobile-carbon-footprinting/id1340559555
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.mcf.mcfmobileapp
See below for more info about the pilot program and the invitation to participate. Email us at cressica@mit.edu or ninamasc@mit.edu with any questions.
Thanks in advance for joining us,
Cressica, on behalf of the MCF team:
Chris Zegras, Associate Professor
J. Cressica Brazier, PhD Student
Nina Mascarenhas, MCP candidate
Department of Urban Studies and Planning, MIT
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What will happen during the pilot program?
We are asking participants to run the app for 3 to 4 weeks, and you may continue to use the app after the pilot. The pilot program schedule is displayed on the home screen of the app. We will send you a few e-mail announcements along the way, but you will not need to interact with our research team unless you want to. This is a research pilot app, so we thank you in advance for your patience with the app and our team!
Learn more at our website, https://www.mobilecarbonfootprinting.org
1. Download the app and start collecting data
Use the iPhone or Android links above to install the app. Sign up in the app and respond to some survey questions about carbon footprint-related activities (about 20 minutes for this initial survey).
2. Collect a baseline daily diary (approx. 11 days)
Let the app run in the background, and confirm your daily activity diary each day (about 2 minutes a day). On the home screen of the app, you will see which diary days are included in the pilot, due to the MIT’s spring recess schedule.
3. Get in-app feedback about your daily carbon footprint (approx. 11 days)
In the second week of April, we’ll ask you to update the app. This will start the carbon footprint feedback phase, during which you can view your personalized carbon footprint feedback and compare it with other participants’ footprints, while continuing to confirm your daily actions (a couple minutes a day). At the end of this phase, the app will ask you to complete a follow-up survey (less than 20 minutes).
4. Get $15 and our gratitude for finishing the pilot program, and $30 more if we invite you to a follow-up chat with us.
Invitation to Participate in Pilot App Study
Mobile Carbon Footprinting: Daily Emissions Feedback via Smartphone Apps
If you decide to participate in our smartphone app pilot, please follow the instructions above to sign up.
We are seeking participants for a research study conducted by Professor Chris Zegras, PhD student J. Cressica Brazier, and MCP student Nina Mascarenhas from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.).
The purpose of our study is to pilot a smartphone app that helps individuals and communities understand and manage their carbon footprints due to everyday activities. We invite you to help us explore the potential of new digital technologies in sensing and understanding our daily energy use. We anticipate that this study will lead to publicly available tools for community engagement in climate mitigation planning and personal carbon footprinting.
The study consists of three parts:
Download app and sign up: Install the smartphone app and complete an entrance survey (less than 30 minutes)
Collect data: Run the smartphone app to automatically collect an 11-day activity diary, then use the app to confirm the diary information (less than 2 minutes per day). In the app, you will see which days are included in the study.
Learn from in-app feedback: View carbon footprint feedback in the app, while running the app for another 11 days to continue confirming the activity diary (less than 2 minutes per day). Then, complete a follow-up survey (less than 20 minutes)
Participants who are MIT/Harvard affiliates and who complete the app pilot will receive a $15 incentive, and we may invite you to a short follow-up interview, for an additional incentive of $30.
You were selected as a possible participant in this study because you are a student, staff member, or friend of the MIT/Harvard community. No specialized knowledge or preparation is required to participate. You will need your own Android or iOS smartphone in order to use our app.
This study is completely voluntary. You have the right to end your participation at any time. Feel free to ask us any questions using the contact information below, before deciding whether or not to participate.
Contact information for J. Cressica Brazier:
(510) 502-8032, cressica@mit.edu
We greatly appreciate your participation,
Chris Zegras, Associate Professor
J. Cressica Brazier, PhD Student
Nina Mascarenhas, MCP candidate
Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
