Viridian Indexer

FROM: mark simpkins

What NEED does this meet?
Based on a sentance by Bruce Sterling. In one of his Viridian Rants he mentioned the idea on an icon on his desktop, of a factory spewing pollutants into the air as he used his computer. To remind him that the power being used is polluting. We need a set of tools for people to be able to monitor and query the possible polltion levels for their usage of technology etc. By building a common set of tools to describe visualise the level of pollution from various sources people will be able to monitor thier usage and maybe reduce it. A couple of years ago I was at the Chelsea Flower Show with the BBC, running a network of 30 + computers, which were left running day and night. In amongst all those plants I wanted to know how much power / pollution was being generated.

What is the APPROACH?
First to produce a set of on line caluculators so that electrical device usage (TV, computer, kettle, oven) can be entered and a 'viridian index' be produced. This should also be extended to cars/motorbikes etc. and flag comparisons with public transport.

What are the BENEFITS to people?
Saving the atmosphere. As the viridian design line goes, we can't upgrade the atmosphere.

What is the COMPETITION?
Yes, there are a number of online calcualtors out their to give you some idea of your impact on the environment, but they are disparent, not connected and often hard to find and ugly. Viridian design is also about design, sleek, looking good and also saving the world :)

What BUDGET & LOGISTICS are required?
Inital work. collation of power usage data into databases (easily updateable by the community) and a set of tools to visualise the output.

Later stages would involve working with product manufacturers to build in monitoring, put the viridian index on packaging etc.