NIGHT OWL

Here in the Philippines, classes are usually suspended in the event of typhoons or heavy rains and flooding. But in recent weeks, classes had to shift to asynchronous mode as the scorching heat — which has reached 40 degrees Celsius and above — has become unbearable, especially to young students. 

Yet again, we witness the devastating impacts of climate change literally unfold before our very eyes. 

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the tandem of El Niño and climate change have fueled record temperatures and extreme events; while the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) has already warned of hotter days and nights in the coming month.

In a Social Weather Station (SWS) survey in December 2023, 57 percent of Filipino respondents thought that humanity as a whole could solve the climate crisis. Moreover, a good 74 percent thought that they could do something to solve climate change.

One of the main advocacies of Build Initiative is to help address the climate crisis by utilizing technology. Along with our objective to accelerate digital inclusion, we believe our collective actions will make a great impact. 

We advocate for climate policies that are designed to be accessible to all individuals, ensuring that adaptive measures and resources are available to people of all abilities and backgrounds. This ensures that vulnerable populations, often the most affected by climate change, have equitable access to solutions and support.

One of our pioneer programs, the Carbon Compass, will help Filipinos contribute to solving the climate crisis by being conscious of how their actions impact the environment.

Carbon Compass is Build Initiative’s cutting-edge app designed to help users worldwide, particularly in the Philippines, manage their carbon footprint. Leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), it tracks daily activities, travel, consumption, and energy usage, offering personalized insights and enabling effective carbon offsetting through global, verified projects.

Among the features of the app is the Personal Carbon Footprint Measurement, which calculates a person’s specific carbon emissions based on daily behavior. Armed with this information alone, we can already make informed choices in terms of identifying the areas in our lifestyle that can kick off our journey to reducing our personal carbon footprint.

The app also allows users to compare their carbon footprint with the average annual footprint in the Philippines and with those of 195 countries worldwide. The data on the worldwide carbon footprint will help users to contextualize their contributions.

The app also leverages data from Google Maps to allow users to navigate through the Philippines, providing real-time carbon footprint data for various routes and transportation modes.

But Carbon Compass goes beyond encouraging individuals to embrace a sustainable lifestyle. It also enables users to offset their carbon emissions by funding science-backed environmental projects. These projects can be submitted by users from anywhere in the world and are rigorously verified by Build Initiative’s independent team to ensure their effectiveness and credibility.

Like most Filipinos, Build Initiative believes that humanity can solve the climate crisis. While governments create and implement effective green policies and programs, individually, we can make an impact through a lifestyle change that favors sustainability, and allowing such change to infect other people and communities so that, together, we can build a world that will be safe and healthy to live in for centuries to come.