ENVIRONMENTALLY aware Irish consumers could soon be generating greenbacks from a website that gives them the opportunity to profit by reducing their carbon footprint.

MyEmissionsExchange.com is one of the first companies in the world to attempt to measure, verify and sell personal carbon credits by tracking the electricity and heating bills of individual households.

From June 15, Irish consumers will be able to set up a carbon-emissions profile on the US-based website. This will allow them to keep track of their heat and electricity bills and record any reductions in usage.

When a household manages to reduce its usage, the web operator will then certify the reduction and sell the resulting carbon credit on the market to polluters.

The net gain for the user will be around $20 (€15) per carbon ton, in addition to a reduced electricity bill.

“People really want to make a difference by cutting down their carbon emissions, but at the moment it’s all very woolly and they’re not seeing anything concrete from their efforts,” said Paul Herrgesell, the company’s project manager.

“This will let people actively track their energy usage and make money at the same time, both of which will motivate people and make them more aware of their carbon emissions.”

Herrgesell said the firm is hoping to expand the website to measure all types of personal carbon emissions, but is using households bills as a starting point.

“Our vision is to cover personal carbon footprints produced by car and air travel, and even, eventually, food and services,” said Herrgesell. “We’re starting with the home because utility bills are obviously the most verifiable.”

Under the Myeex.com system, users will be asked to enter the past 12 months of their gas/electricity bills online, and then keep a record of each monthly bill thereafter.

The company’s preliminary research in the Irish market has concluded that the online-billing service provided by the ESB would make it easy for Irish people to upload their data to their personal profiles.

The website will calculate any reductions in carbon emissions, and when a household manages to reduce its usage by one carbon ton, they will be asked to send in copies of all their bills for verification. In an average US household, one carbon ton would translate to about a 3% reduction in an electricity bill.

Non-certified carbon credits can be sold on the market, but Herrgesell said the firm would be seeking high-standard certification for all their credits.

Myeex.com is in talks with Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance, a recognised certification company, to draw up specific standards for personal carbon credits.

The firm is also looking at the possibility of measuring and verifying people’s carbon emissions from car usage. It is considering using an iPhone application, or similar technology, that could measure the litres of petrol pumped into a car and the miles used over a certain period of time.

In the past year, both Irish and British governments have been looking at ways to introduce a system of personal carbon credits.

Ciaran Cuffe, the Green party TD, said the planned introduction of a carbon levy in this year’s budget was the first move towards such a system.

“We want to see the allocation of individual carbon responsibility,” he said. “The carbon levy will be the first step.”

Times Recommends

• Tehran cannot live up to its rhetoric
• The new unicycle that will ‘change the world’
• We cannot wish away Iran’s bomb