WillCO2st: leveraging freely available real-time carbon forecasting for research sustainability reporting

Summary (Abstract)An increasing number of research institutions and funding bodies are making sustainability a focal point in research funding and practice. Across the UK, the rapid rollout of auditing processes, such as the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF) and changing institutional policies, are creating pressing, focal demand for sustainability accounting upon UK researchers. Despite the increasing expectations on UK researchers to actively report their sustainability and demonstrate improvement, easy-to-use, and accurate reporting tools for sustainability accounting are not widely available. Here, we created WillCO2st - a free program that enables fast, publication-read sustainability reports. WillCO2st makes use of real-time, region-specific conversion factor data freely available through the Carbon Intensity API - a resource unique to the UK - to create experimental carbon footprinting estimates using metadata of experimental files. Data can be simply click-and-dragged into WillCO2st to create an experimental sustainability audit in minutes. Further, we exemplified the utility of WillCO2sts live-nudging feature by quantifying the retrospective theoretical savings in carbon from shifting experimental timing to times of day with lower carbon intensities. Overall, WillCO2st eases time and resource burden on researchers and serves as a national model within the UK that could be replicated in other countries as relevant data on regional energy use becomes available. HighlightsO_LIWillCO2st is a free software platform that enables fast, publication-ready sustainability reporting for papers, grants, and internal audits. C_LIO_LIWillCO2st leverages the Carbon Intensity API to provide real-time, UK region-specific estimations of carbon intensity and nudges users to switch to lower carbon alternative timing of activities. C_LIO_LIPartial conformity (21%) to switching experimental time would have disproportionately produced a large carbon saving (50%) in our most recent publications experimental carbon footprint. C_LI