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Peter Suchmann

Apr 5, 2015
04:10

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I really like your idea. The concept of developing friendly competitions between employees is a natural win - win! I think that corporations and businesses are looking for ways to promote productive environmental goals and that the format you have laid out could be very successful. Of course it would be better if this was a free application for businesses to "buy into". Perhaps a sponsorship program could be set up to promote the program- so that it would be free of charge to small and large companies. Business coaches who are looking for a way to get into these venues might integrate this program into their business models so that they can provide team building opportunities, background and orientations sessions. Consultants could work with execs to develop meetings, rewards and time to establish the program with their employees and families. Perhaps a "Green Day" can be established to facilitate the introduction of the program, its requirements, its rewards and its objectives. When one thinks about the competitiveness that exists in Fantasy Football- it is easy to see how companies could take advantage of the the natural competitiveness of their employees- for a much more beneficial competition. It would be great PR for the companies, a great and useful and money saving competition for the employees, a real eye opener for all involved and a win-win for everyone! This program could be expanded for all students in K-12 schools also. Water conservation can be tied in to this also. Lots of potential here and YES- this would shift attitudes and behaviors. Kudos on a great innovation.

Sadiq Mohammed

Apr 8, 2015
10:11

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Thanks and appreciate your comments. THe professional version currently under testing include wate and gas as well as different kind of fuels. We try and follow international standards on conversion on all of these. The reason we want to charge a small fee for large business is (1) we need to maintain the data on servers mostly hosted, as the volumes will be large (2) Our objective is to create more awareness programs through competition for schools and colleges to produce environment, energy saving, water and other relevant messages. This we want to do via a competition and want to give out monetary and or equipment prizes that go to the school. The awareness part needs money and frankly, if we can find sponsors that would just be wonderful. One other idea we have been kicking around is to take these awareness campaigns to the next level for corporate to compete on the "Green Day" with environment based competitions for staffers and family. All that needs funding and we are limited. For individuals and small business it is always free. For business it is restricted to just the facilities and the condition being there is only 1 meter. THat we think we can manage. larger pieces demand storage space and that is where the pricing aspects play. ONce again appreciate your comments and you suggestions are always welcome. Thank you. Sadiq

Hemant Wagh

Apr 10, 2015
01:33

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Hello Sir, In addition to efforts to reduce energy being spent could we consider further carbon sequestration efforts by everyone. A proposal outlining such a theme is available. Kindly go through it and give your valuable feedback. Thanking in anticipation. Link is below. https://www.climatecolab.org/web/guest/plans/-/plans/contestId/1300103/planId/1310401

Jeanne Lorentzen

Apr 13, 2015
10:41

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I applaud your efforts, however, I question the extent to which competition can actually produce widespread cooperation, both in the short-term and long-term. Additionally, to the extent that cooperation is produced, the variability of actual behavior will be enormous. Perhaps more importantly, once the competition framework is no longer novel the attrition rate will eliminate any efforts to continue to use such methods. Attempting to motivate certain behaviors through game-playing tends to engage a select group of individuals rather than a wide variety of diverse individuals, and it can't produce the ubiquitous shift in dominant ideology necessary for long-term behavior change. To achieve such change all individuals must understand/believe they are benefiting (winning) through changing their behavior.

Hemant Wagh

Apr 13, 2015
10:01

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Respected Professor Lorentzen, I the context of your above comments, could the following theme help ! https://www.climatecolab.org/web/guest/plans/-/plans/contestId/1300103/planId/1310401 Thanks.

Sadiq Mohammed

Apr 14, 2015
01:57

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Jeanne, appreciate your comments...fact of the matter is it is not only competition. It goes beyond ...here is a scenario. A coporate,since they are our primary target and large employer. Initiates an energy saving competition for a 80 Inch LED TV, just 3 months before the super bowl. The desire to win will encompass the whole family. So we are now getting more people I.e. The family involved. Since they have all become stakeholders and will be active in the energy saving campaign at home. It is very likely they will talk about this in their own circle of influence as well. So the message is making the rounds. The objective to save energy for a prize will also create involvement and awareness. Let's take a second example. If xyz pizza says you can exchange your energy saving kWh as a group. With the entire group pledging the energy saving to xyz pizz. Of course there is a target number of kWh of saving kwh to be achieved for the entire group members to buy a large pizza during a given month at the price of a small pizza.. Again awareness increases and the sponsor can get verified kWh to report as sustainable action. This needs to be looked at as not the one and only way of basic competition at an employer this can be sliced in many others ways. And like it or not man is a social animal and will likely want to emulate and fit in. Some subtle and innovative thinking needs to come in to take this to a higher level as time moves on. And the limit to competition/imagination is only limited by what we can think of and man is a creative, innovative animal.. I still have hope for mankind and where there is a will there is a way. All we need to do is make a start and that is what we are trying to do. Hope this helps.

Marc Atherton

Apr 17, 2015
08:50

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I like the cocnept and it is similar to something I have been looking at for the last 12 months. I would agree with the comments made by socdoc. The evidence from the Behavioural Economics literature is that where the change in behaviour is linked to an extrinsic reward option it will tend to decay. This is also the general cocnsensu within the Gamification industry. The most efective approach seem to be to transition people from an extrinsic reward structure to an intrinsic reward structure over time. How this might be achieved this with your app would need some thought. As an approach I applaud both the app and the business model. As a thougth social proof is a more powerful motivator than extrinsic rewards and maybe you could add in a league table for the companies on a comparative basis through the app if not already included?

Sadiq Mohammed

Apr 17, 2015
10:33

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Appreciate that thought and the useful insight. The intent is to begin with rewards, which will create consciounes awareness to save energy use and reduce carbon emissions. Reminds me of making good habits, do something 21 days in a row and it becomes a habit. We do believe we will be an enabler towards intrinsic rewards. We intened to provide and have built in ways to compare like to like organization, by Revenue, No. of employees and other parameters using CarbonGobbler and intend to publish them periodically, so that is part of the thought process and design. We believe we will be in a position to create a competetive environment among the employee population of different peer companies to save more. Thanks again and appreciate your writing us. We need your support. Sadiq

Vishal Bhavsar

Jun 8, 2015
07:28

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The model proposed is quite interesting. It is a fact that behavioural change is going to bring the level of change required for fighting the impacts of climate change. In today’s time app is the most effective tool to spread awareness and make people engaged. There are only few comments: 1. Is there a way to bring the initial cost or the employee portal cost down. This may seem to be low for developed markets, but when you would want to take the model to emerging and developing markets cost may be a factor of consideration 2. There could be countries that may have made CSR spent mandatory. That can be potential markets and companies 3. Please refer to www.opower.com. This is a company working with Utilities in pushing for behaviour change and reduce the energy demands. Try to patch initiatives or tools like this to the app I just love the idea. All the best! Regards, Vishal

Sadiq Mohammed

Jun 8, 2015
02:33

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Thanks Vishal, I am aware of Opower, that is a back office application for Utilities and they send out snail mails to customers. They do not have an active interactive customer portal, that I know of...Having said that it is a good product but way to expensive. We are always free for business with up to 250 employees. Anything more than that requires managing data space and others such efforts and the portal is a one time fee only, I do hope you noticed that... Even in India the per user cost would be Rs.300 per year i.e. less than Rs.30 per month.With CarbonGobbler they can save more than this every month/year for sure, if they are conscious about energy use and emissions. Besides the award and rewards schemes via competition will be another form of encouragement too. I hope I have been able to answer you questions. Thanks for comments and I appreciate it. Best Sadiq

Jennifer Perron

Jun 9, 2015
09:08

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Hi Sadiq, Thanks for your proposal to the Climate CoLab. I'm one of the catalysts, helping provide comments and feedback to proposals, in an effort to help strengthen them. Thank you for sharing your description of the CarbonGobbler. A few suggestions you might consider: 1. Include the web link and/or youtube and some additional description of the CarbonGobbler earlier on in the proposal description, so people understand the tool fully from the beginning. 2. You may wish to describe how your footprint calculator differs from others in the market, and any unique or innovative features the CarbonGobbler offers. 3. You might add a few sentences describing how you think use of the CarbonGobbler by your target audience of large businesses and those interested in corporate social responsibility, could also be used as a marketing and awareness tool, helping to educate and engage workers and the public in personal accountability for carbon emissions. This would help draw the link of how the CarbonGobbler can be useful in shifting public perceptions and attitudes, in the corporate sector and beyond. Thanks for your contribution.

Sadiq Mohammed

Jun 10, 2015
11:57

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Hi Jennifer, thank you so much for all your suggestion. Indeed they fill in the missing aspect and further strengthen out proposal understanding. I want to thank you for having taken the time out to make these suggestions. Much appreciate and INCORPORATED. Did the best I can given the space restriction, but I do think it looks better and more informative on the first read. Thanks again. Sadiq

Stevie Harison

Jun 12, 2015
04:10

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Hello from Indonesia, Good luck for your project proposal. Just review and make it completed before meet deadline tomorrow. Thank you,

Sadiq Mohammed

Jun 12, 2015
11:13

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Stevie, Thanks and appreciate your input. Thanks Sadiq

Sadiq Mohammed

Jun 12, 2015
11:58

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vishalbhavasar, I just wanted to further clarify. CarbonGobbler is always free for individuals. We only charge large employers and their employees, if they want a consolidated view. Trust this helps too. Sadiq