Short Summary
Hello, world! We are a team of young professionals willing to decrease the negative effect of human activity on our planet. We are multilingual and multinational, have absolutely various backgrounds in social and professional life. We are Olga from California, Alex from Russia, Andrei from Estonia and Hanna from Belarus. A little more details on who we are can be found further on or you can visit our website http://carbonfreetravel.com/. Now let us introduce you to our project.
THE PROBLEM
We all know how great of a problem global warming is. Global temperatures keep increasing, mainly because of CO2 emissions from human activities.
Aviation is one of the most harmful means of transportation for the environment. We all travel by plane from time to time, and huge amounts of CO2 are emitted.
THE SOLUTION
Our free app provides an opportunity to neutralize – or offset – those emissions. Every time you travel by plane a considerable amount of CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere. Using our app you can both offset these emissions and invest into green energy projects – solar, wind or small hydro – around the world.
Your modest contribution into these projects will prevent CO2 emissions in the future that are equal to CO2 emissions from your flight.BINGO – your carbon footprint from the flight is completely neutralized.
THE EFFECT
By using our app you are not only offsetting your CO2 emissions, you help to create green jobs in developing countries, improve power supply and level of life locally.
The Impact
If just 5% of air travelers will use our app, we’ll be able to achieve amazing results:
- That would offset 45 million tons of CO2 a year. Is it much or little?
- 1,8 billion trees absorb this much CO2 a year!
- 200 million people would breathe entire year to exhale this much CO2!
- 12 million cars off the road – that’s the effect (total number of cars in the state of New-York, or half of all vehicles in a huge country like Canada!)
That much CO2 is emitted by such economically developed countries as Finland, Sweden or Norway.
HOW IT WORKS
We have to confess that what we have done so far was made exclusively by ourselves, hence there are no design specialists or developers in our team the following images are rather an explanation of the features than a finished prototype. (THESE ARE ONLY A FEW IMAGES, THE APP IS MORE COMPLEX SOLUTION, HOWEVER INTUITIVELY EASY TO USE)
The app allows you to choose from the list the airport you depart from and the airport of your arrival, automatically calculating the total distance. One may also need to fill in the number of passengers as well as cabin class and press “Offset”. Done. It’s that easy!
Now all you have to do is to choose between types of renewable energy projects and continue. The app would show you how much it would cost to completely offset CO2 emissions from your flight which usually does not exceed a couple of bucks and take you to payment page. Just a few clicks – and a great job of reducing greenhouse effect is done! And think about it – it costs peanuts.
We are going to make the process for you as easy and as fun as possible.
One of the features is global ranking or ranking by country. As well, all stats would be at hand with elements of gamification. You can always buy certificate for more CO2 or buy a gift certificate thus involving more people in our network!
Hard to think of something as easy as pie and as awesome possum!
IN A NUTSHELL
The Product: An innovative and unique tool that gives a possibility for every individual to take real action to reduce carbon emissions.
A step in the right direction to solving global warming problem and investing into green renewable technology.
Goals:
1.To Expand and develop our current prototype app and a website.
2.To involve in the process as many ecological organizations and influencers as possible but not only them, we plan to get commitment of tertiary sector too. 3.Reach 1% of air travelers using our app within 3 years period!
What your financial support will do:
1.Enable the development of our prototype app, realizing it's full potential of being a comprehensive tool for offsetting carbon footprint of your air travels.
2.Marketing the completed product to individuals, funds, companies and anyone who can get involved.
3.Popularization of “green thinking” and “green doing” and making it a habit for many rather than a way of thinking for just a few.
Some more hints our team:
Andrei Fiadotau is an entrepreneur who has built one of the largest wholesale companies in the sphere of industrial pipeline systems in his country, and recently launched one the first pipes production line in the country. Experience in establishing successful internet TV project. He has an MBA in Business Administration from Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia. Andrei will cover the business development, financial part of the project and sales.
Alex Kozhura worked in Russia’s largest high-tech company called Yandex as a Key Account Manager. He has a BA in Business Administration from Tallinn University of Technology and Master in International Management from University of Trento, Italy. Alex has lots of international experiences and extensive knowledge of Marketing, he has working experience in 7 different countries. Alex will cover the product development and marketing part of the project.
Olga Suk – has over 10 years of experience in Marketing field working for international blue-chip companies. She holds MBA in Marketing from Fairleigh Dickinson University, attended professional programs at Stanford and Northwestern Universities. Olga will be overlooking Marketing and PR side of our project.
Hanna Baranouskaya has LL.M degree from the Lund university (Sweden), graduated from the Estonian School of Diplomacy and Law Faculty of the Belarusian State University. Hanna has undertaken a number of international jobs and participated in various research projects. Spheres of competences: international law, project management and informational security. Hanna will be responsible for legal issues and accounting.
+ many more, our families, colleagues and friends...