Efficient Web-Based Application Development for Carbon Footprint Calculation: Example of Burdur Province

Abstract

With each passing year, people’s consumption activities create permanent effects on nature. In this context, the carbon footprint has been determined as a way of expressing the magnitude of this impact. In addition, the carbon footprint is defined as a measure of the damage caused by human activities to the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced and measured in units of carbon dioxide. In this study, an easy-to-use and effective carbon footprint calculation engine has been created for carbon footprint calculation. Also, this application has been designed and developed as a web-based application – http://karbon-ayakizi.com/ (this site has been in active use between January 2020 and January 2021, but it is currently inactive). Furthermore, a real case study on the carbon footprint of an education institution located in the city center of Burdur has been conducted, and so the accuracy and the functionality of the developed application have been showed and demonstrated. For this purpose, natural gas consumption within Scope-1, electricity consumption within Scope-2, private personal cars, public transportation service vehicles and water consumption data within Scope-3 have been considered in carbon footprint measurement. In the light of these obtained numerical data, the efficiency and the reliability of the developed carbon footprint calculation engine – application – with its trustworthy and reliable results have been explained and showed in detail in this study.