CoolClimate Network Research Consortium
The CoolClimate Network (CCN) is a non-profit applied research consortium at UC Berkeley's Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL) that supports the development of a socially integrated carbon footprint management platform for individuals, schools, businesses, communities and city leaders.
We use only the most reliable sources for the data that power our models and tools, including the U.S. Census Bureau, the Department of Transportation, the USDA, and the Comprehensive Environmental Data Archive (CEDA) Life Cycle Assessment model, to name just a few.
Our researchers have refined the data and models to form the most complete picture of the carbon footprint associated with all transportation, foods, goods and services involved with running a household, business, city or school. Our accurate cradle-to-gate assessments do three things:
- Increase your confidence in your results and save you time by instantly populating our tools with "smart defaults" based on other households or businesses just like you.
- Give you an intuitive understanding of your footprint by setting benchmark values to compare your footprint to your most relevant peers.
- Provide clear and personalized actions you can take to reduce your household or organizations footprint. This lets you easily see which actions give you the most "bang for your buck" in dollars and CO2 based on your particular consumption patterns.
However, while data is crucial for benchmark assessments and monitoring progress, it is not always sufficient to change behavior.
Our newest tools, including the Household Carbon Footprint Calculator, integrate social context into carbon footprint management. Anyone who registers and saves their footprint and pledges to a profile after using the calculator is instantly linked with others in their zip code through our partnership with CoolCalifornia.org.
Users can choose to publish or share their pledges and carbon profiles. Behavioral research shows that public commitments are more effective for encouraging real change because our social networks help us maintain accountability and keep our goals at the front of our minds.
CCN is honored to have a wide range of academic, corporate and government partners that support our research and benefit from our tools. Our partners range from small businesses to international corporations and government agencies such as the California Air Resources Board, our founding partner.
Unlike other consortium programs which simply support general research in the field, we also develop and provide tools with immediate use value. Our unique combination of technical carbon footprint data, applied behavior change focus and in-house programming resources enable us to develop socially-integrated web platforms allows us to provide tools in addition to furthering our environmental and behavior research.
Affiliate Partners can have our web-based tools and pre-developed community-based social carbon management pages integrated directly into their websites. This allows users to remain on the site of an organization they already care about and follow, while accessing the full suite of tools that CCN provides. As a non-profit environmental research group, our most valuable return come in the form of high user engagement and real GHG reduction.
More involved partners often support specific research projects to further the CCN mission. These projects vary from incorporating specific types of pledges, customization for green business programs, adding social support features, funding research for a specific paper or even developing entire new editions of our carbon management tools.
The CCN research process is a collaborative one. Our stakeholders range from households to governments and include everything in between. We place immeasurable value on the situated perspective, understanding and knowledge of the people and institutions involved in positive climate action on the ground.
The main purpose of our calculators and tools are to support, measure and adapt to climate action efforts at every level. Our dynamic research, IT and design staff continuously tweak, adjust, improve and eventually re-design all CCN tools based on user feedback and the latest research in both the environmental and behavioral fields.
Climate change is one of the largest problems of our time, and we know there's no one way to solve it. However, by listening to and working with the leaders in research and program implementation we can do our part to leverage the huge potential of human behavior for a Cooler Climate.
If you are interested in using our tools or becoming a CCN consortium member, please contact Mia Yamauchi or call our office at UC Berkeley's Renewable & Appropriate Energy Laboratory at (510) 643-5048.
