A carbon calculator, based on an idea by the Finnish Climate Advocates, has been launched recently on the Oikotie real estate website designed to calculate the carbon use of domestic dwellings.
Thanks to this new online tool, it is now easy for people looking to buy new houses or flats through Oikotie to compare the climate impact and carbon footprint of different properties.
The Carbon footprint is based on property’s energy classification, its size and its installed heating method. Additionally, the Climate Advocates tool can also be used to calculate the carbon footprint caused by commuting to work from different locations. One of the aims of this new service is to bring the compulsory energy classification of properties to a more prominent place in real estate advertisements.
“A significant part of Finnish carbon emissions is made up by the energy consumption from housing. There is huge potential for cuts in energy consumption in this sector which could in turn lead to a massive cut in overall carbon emissions”, says Lauri Hiekkanen a member of the Climate Advocate team that designed the concept for the new calculator. “Consumers are increasingly interested in the tightening energy standards to combat the rising cost of energy and to live in a climate friendly residence. There is a need for simple, easy to access tools for consumers to calculate the emissions of different means of consumption”, Lauri continues.
The team of Climate Advocates who designed the new carbon calculator took part in the Challenge Europe project in Finland during 2009-2010. The initial idea for carbon calculator came about because there was a clear need by consumers for this type of tool and it was obvious to advocates how significant an environmental impact it could have. Climate Advocate used their own expertise in calculating the parameters for the calculator and received support from Motiva and Aalto Universities. The calculator was verified by Gaia Consulting, an expert organisation specialising in climate change issues.
Climate Advocates invited the Oikotie portal, which is part of the Sanoma News Corporation, to become a partner from a very early stage of the project. Oikotie was excited by the idea and as they are committed to providing interesting and useful information for their customers, they were delighted to launch the new calculator service on their real estate website. Oikotie was responsible for the visual layout and technical implementation of the calculator whilst Climate Advocates were in charge of the calculations and parameters of the calculator.
Further information:

Anna Kumpulainen Lauri Hiekkanen
Climate Advocate Climate Advocate
anna.kumpulainen@gaia.fi lauri.hiekkanen@iki.fi

http://asunnot.oikotie.fi/talo/41481/mannerheimintie-16-helsinki

The Team of Climate Advocates who designed the carbon calculator included Anna Kumpulainen (Gaia Consulting), Lauri Hiekkanen (Helsingin Energia), Aino-Maija Kyykoski (Tampere University of Applied Sciences), Mira Hulkkonen (Pöyry Finland Oy) and Iina Valkeisenmäki (Aalto Universit, School of Architecture).