smartplanet
Feb 11, 2010
Promoting the idea that being zero (at least when it comes to carbon footprints) is a pretty cool thing, By Heather Clancy
Economic stimulus dollars focused on smart grids or green buildings and smart cities are great and all, but we can’t rely on government money to fund the smart planet revolution all by its lonesome. That’s where Zerofootprint Software is stepping in, not necessarily with financing but with software that could help both consumers and businesses figure out where that money could come from to do all the retrofitting we need for a smarter planet.
I should step back and note that Zerofootprint actually lives in two worlds.
In one guise, it is a Canadian software developer that sells applications for measuring energy consumption and other green metrics. But it also runs a non-profit foundation that preaches the zerofootprint mantra. That is, that buildings CAN be run with no net carbon impact to the environment. Zerofootprint believes in this SO strongly that it has teamed up with a couple of other organizations to create the ZEROprize. The focus is on projects that “re-skin” old concrete buildings with all the technologies and systems that help reduce their environmental impact to net zero.
Back to the technology side of its business, Zerofootprint basically lives by the tenet that anything that uses power should talk to the Internet, explains Zerofootprint CEO Ron Dembo. This is part of its TALKINGPlug vision. Dembo’s philosophy is that if every lightbulb or appliance could be evaluated for its energy usage, people would be a whole lot more sensitive to their behavior. “Today you have no clue as to how one building compares to another,” Dembo says.
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