SACRAMENTO - The California Air Resources Board has released a free mobile application for both iTunes and Android platforms that aims to inspire people and small businesses to reduce their carbon footprints.

The free CoolCalifornia app, available for download on both the iTunes App Store and Google Play Store, offers individuals and small businesses a straightforward, easy-to-use tool for calculating their carbon footprint and making pledges to reduce their carbon footprint by, for example, riding a bike more often or turning off lights.

Using the calculator is simple. App users respond to a number of questions, such as: How many miles per gallon does your car get? How much do you spend per month on electricity and gas? How much trash do you throw away instead of recycling? The result is calculated in the amount of carbon pollution generated in one year by those inputs.  The app, which is compatible with Apple and Android devices, features green-living tips and allows users to share personal stories about how they’re reducing their climate impact — in the app or on Facebook or Twitter. Sharing personal stories with friends and family helps to guide behavior change and promote peer-to-peer environmental awareness.

The app is a portable version of a more comprehensive Carbon Calculator available at CoolCalifornia.org. Like the app, the full calculator is an interactive tool that enables individuals and small businesses to calculate their carbon footprint and make pledges to reduce it. Either calculator — the app or more comprehensive calculator — shows users who make pledges what the resulting emissions reductions will be. 

The goal is to inspire app users to make as many as 21 climate-friendly pledges and to check out the Carbon Calculator at CoolCalifornia.org on their computer, laptop or tablet. 

Because voluntary actions are an important element in California’s climate plan, ARB has developed a variety of tools and resources to support these non-regulatory efforts. CoolCalifornia.org provides all Californians, including small businesses and cities, with the tools they need to make greener decisions and take climate-friendly actions to reduce their impact on the planet.

Engaging small businesses, households and others is an essential part of the state’s ability to achieve the long-term climate goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and moving us away from our dependence on fossil fuels. ARB commissioned the mobile calculator to inspire voluntary changes that will reduce carbon footprints on a household and individual basis, and foster green economic development.

The CoolCalifornia app was developed by MDS Digital Communicators, with offices in Santa Monica and Bogota, Colombia, in partnership with University of California at Berkeley, for the Air Resources Board. It is the first app developed by the ARB that is available on iTunes and Google Play.

Available in Google Play
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.coolcalifornia.CoolCA&hl=en 

Available in iTunes
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cool-california/id655917694?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 

Or search for Cool California on the iTunes App Store or Google Play Store.