Carbon Footprint Alexa
Published: 2020-01-13 05:57:51

The amount of carbon dioxide and other harmful gases produced in the environment is increasing at an alarming rate. It is very important we understand the catastrophic consequences it can have on nature and in turn our lives. Carbon Footprint is an Amazon Alexa Skill which brings conversational access to the data supplied by the parent project CarbonFootprint API. Carbon Footprint Alexa is a unique project developed by Australian Open Source Software Innovation and Education (AOSSIE) which measures the amount of Carbon, Ethane and Nitrous Oxide emitted when a task like usage of appliance is executed. It is in effect, an Amazon Alexa Skill which provides an interactive and conversational interface to its users. This software is accessible via Android, Iphone and Alexa Devices. This kind of software is very important and can be used at personal or corporate level to make sure we are doing whatever we do without harming the environment.

This project has many subdivisions like Carbon Footprint, a browser extension to track CO2 emissions; Carbon Footprint API, a universal API to find the CO2 emissions, Carbon Footprint Mobile, a cross-platform app to monitor and track their CO2 emissions.

This project basically have two parts i.e. Alexa Skill Model and AWS Lambda Function. The Alexa model is where we define all the intents, slots, utterances and invocation details. And AWS Lambda is the platform where a function is created which handles all the user requests at backend. AWS Lambda provides a large number of options for creating lambda functions. Train intent, vehicle intent, poultry intent, sector intent, land intent, agriculture intent, food intent are some of the skills present in Alexa.

The project has the intents mentioned above. All these intents have the task of measuring the amount of harmful gases released by a particular activity like using a vehicle. Such a technology is really important as the most amount of harmful gases are released by the activities we do everyday. What we fail to realise is that these activities need to be restricted to the least possible else it will cause harm to mother nature. This technology helps us to keep in check about the carbon footprint we leave behind. It is important to develop this technology as soon as possible and to keep its price as low as possible. This will make sure the technology reaches to as many people as possible. If we take care of the carbon footprint on an individual level, it will be more than enough to make the world sustainable and a wonderful place to live in.


The Carbon Footprint Alexa can be used to measure how much harmful gases are released by the vehicles. It can be used to measure what gases and in what quantity are released by appliances like fridge, microwave etc. It can be setup in all major cities of the world to record temperature, humidity, precipitation and wind. It will help us understand whether a climate change is coming in our world or not. It can be used to record the level of major water bodies, this will help us understand that the glaciers are melting or not. It can be used to measure the chemical contents in soil. The chemical contents of the soil are crucial for the growth of flora in the environment. It can be used to check harmful gas, chemicals and other pollutants released by industries. It can be used to check how much waste is being generated at an individual and community level, and give us warning to reduce it to the least possible.


The example of a workflow of this project are as follows. Suppose we want to measure the amount of pollutants released by a vehicle. Our vehicle will be attached to a PUC detector. The PUC detector will send the composition of the smoke released to the Carbon Footprint Alexa technology. The technology will determine whether the pollutants released is within permissible limits or not. If not, it will send a message back to the Alexa database. Then the database will send a message to the Alexa API and the app installed on the user's phone will alert him to get his car checked.