Tie in data from home via sense.com sensor, car travel data via google location services and a user selected vehicle.
Then give tips to user on better habits. Such as putting home in "eco" mode when you leave via Nest, or converting house to LED, etc.
Like if you change your Ford F-250 to a Civic, you will save $2000 a year based on your driving habits and distance.etc.
Or after driving your car. It says you spent about $10 in gas and 30 mins by driving just now.
The thing that inspired me was was the real time MPG gauge on my Honda Civic. It single handedly had the greatest MPG increase for my car. Since I felt the "pain" ($$) of smashing the throttle every time.
When people use their electricity at home, they don't feel " real time pain" when they turn on their 5kw AC unit or 3kw water heater. It's a crazy amount of power. They only feel once a month, when they get their energy bill for $200+ a month.
In conclusion, game-ify the hell out of dropping an end user's individual energy consumption number. By reducing energy demand at the source, then it's much easier to swallow eco friendly options.
For example, with poor energy consumption habits you may need a 10kw solar array @ a cost of 20k). But if you drop the user's average energy consumption. You can have the same quality of life at 5kw solar installtion @ $10k. Spending $10k is easier to swallow than $20k. (I made up all the $ numbers, I'm not sure where pricing is at now)
Well these are my random thoughts, I hope they inspire you.
I'm wondering if there are some ideas out there on tackling the deeper cause. People are living longer, population is still growing and even if we were all 100% on renewable energy we would still be destroying the planet; the bugs are disappearing, the oceans are overfished, the bees are dying and we're even extracting an unsustainable amount of _gravel_ for goodness sake.
Something along the lines of changing the economic incentives to consume and expand, because short of terrible war or calamity, people in developing countries are still going to want refrigerators, cars, and beef and people in developed coutries aren't going to want to get rid of those.
One rough way to think about it is I=PAT, where I is total environmental impact, P is population, A is affluence per capita, and T is environmental impact per unit of affluence.
Population has grown exponentially, per capita affluence has grown dramatically, and reductions in the last factor T haven't been able to keep up.
Worse, if you consider the "goals" of our major systems of economic organisation - or at least the observed behaviour - they aren't set up to minimise I, or even really consider it - it's more like our ways of large scale cooperation are focused on economic growth, i.e. roughly trying to maximise P*A.
If you live in an affluent western "free market" democracy it is probably politically difficult to push for major reduction or limits to population P or affluence A.
In terms of what can be done, it's probably better to focus on smaller scope/smaller scale problems. Not realistic for one person to solve the whole world's problems. If you can help push politically to regulate environmental impact in your area of local politics, that's probably very helpful. Not necessarily aligned with skills as an engineer, but this is probably more valuable than building something within current political/market framework.
If you're able to set up a small business or not for profit that is able to help others save money with side effects of reducing environmental impact, that's probably also helpful. This is less ambitious and isn't tackling the main root causes, but is something that is more in your control.
Passive solar design or solutions
Pedestrianism (walking, biking and using public transit instead of driving everywhere)
Eating lower on the food chain
Living more spartanly
FWIW, this was my idea of how to save the planet with potty humor and a website:
http://peeonatree.blogspot.com
No one actually cares and I have no idea how to develop it or measure impact. It is going nowhere fast.
Or better, get a community running locally to do these pickups every week across the neighborhood.
2. Buy LED bulbs, environmentally friendly household cleaners, etc in bulk from china, and sell them at cost on Amazon. Don't try to make a large profit on environmentally friendly products -- just make them more affordable.
3. Gardens these days are oddly biased toward aesthetics rather than local vegetation. Gather the advice of local botanists and educate folks about what trees/flowers they should plant in their yards. Insect life is decreasing, but with the right gardens, some of it can come back. For flowers, you can arrange a service to have households place pre-orders during the winter months, and then hire a local nursery to grow saplings specifically for them to plant in spring.
4. Make a vegetarian/vegan yelp. I can't rely on yelp reviews since most folks eat meat, and their opinions on food taste/quality aren't very useful. The only reviews I can trust are those for restaurants called "Veggie House" or some similar variant. Vegetarian food isn't a marketing strategy, its just food that can be served everywhere.
5. E-commerce site for environmentally friendly clothes. Jeans, for example, are incredibly polluting (over 1k gallons of clean water, loads of pesticides used in cotton, artificial dyes, etc). I'm not loyal to levi's, calvin klein, or whatever. Those are just the brands on the racks. Give me healthier alternatives.
6. Aggregate quality articles on environmental issues. That research paper on insect life dropping by 75% in 27 years has been making the rounds this week. There should be more of it. NASA has a ton that aren't outdated. Start off with a weekly newsletter -- I'll subscribe If people get enough exposure to it over time, they'll start to change their minds (or tune it out, but that's always the risk)
7. Work for the government. Immigration checks at US borders rely on shitty software that goes down often. Hundreds of trucks coming in from mexico are literally waiting for hours in the heat as their cargo rots. Same with at harbors -- $Bs in food waste.
In my experience cooking for meat loving friends, there are lots of vegan dishes they like. Switching 1 meal a week does not really impact their “meat menu” pallet. Don’t try to replicate meat. Enjoy vegan cuisine for what it is.
FYI I eat meat but I enjoy a lot of vegan meals. I don’t like vegan “tastes like meat” dishes though.
You could get involved with a tech company that has the potential to reduce carbon emissions. Say if Uber or Lyft decided to create an eco option for electric cars etc.
I did see https://preciousplastic.com/ posted on here a few days ago. That is a great way to individually contribute to helping.
You could also build a side project that helps in some way.