New software auto-calculates your carbon footprint

SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. -- A UK company has created a mobile phone application called Carbon Diem that uses GPS to track your carbon footprint. The GPS tracks the speed you're moving at, and from that information, the software figures out if you're walking, driving or in a train or airplane, and estimates fuel use accordingly.

Invented by a graduate student of the Royal College of Art in London and CEO of a company called Carbon Hero, named Andreas Zachariah, the system is designed to help people reduce their impact on the environment.

Zachariah has tested Carbon Diem on Blackberry and Nokia handsets, and claims that the system is nearly 100% accurate, according to reports.

The company suggests on its Web site that companies use Carbon Diem on all company phones, and in that way can calculate the carbon footprint of the entire company.

I actually think this is an incredibly powerful idea. I've shared my belief in this space before that one of the reasons hybrid cars like the Prius get such good gas mileage is that they're constantly confronting the driver with how much gas is being used. They make you drive more economically. If everyone knew how much pollution they're creating, they would probably modify their behavior to save fuel.

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