So Mike Nowak is a good friend of mine who developed CarbonMinder for Facebook. CarbonMinder is a Facebook application that helps you calculate your carbon footprint. I met with Mike a couple months ago, when he was first preparing to launch CarbonMinder, and was quite impressed with the information I was able to learn about my own carbon footprint.
Whit
So, Mike, who are the designers of Carbon Minder?
Mike
I designed the overall layout, pages, etc.
Johno did our foot.
Whit
And how about programming and anything else in the background?
Mike
The backend is all being handled by a friend of mine, Boris Paskalev, who’s based in Boston.
Whit
When did you get the idea to make CarbonMinder and what is your background in all of this?
Mike
Well, I’ve been interested in (and working in) the social media space for a couple of years now but I’ve always wanted to apply the potential of these powerful new communication channels to something with more of a direct positive impact.
I started getting seriously interested in climate change at the TED conference last year and it seemed like there was just a huge opportunity to use social media to spread information about the problem, motivate people to take action, etc.

So, Boris and I started working on CarbonMinder last summer, which meant a lot of informal education in the issues around climate change as a whole and personal carbon footprint management in particular. Challenging, but very interesting stuff.
Whit
Very cool. So how does someone find CarbonMinder? Do you have to be on Facebook?
Mike
Yep, right now it’s just a Facebook app.
If you’re a Facebook user, you can add it by going here.
Whit
Awesome, anything else you’d like to add?
Mike
Well, one thing that’s been interesting for me in this whole process is how understanding your carbon footprint can really make you think about your lifestyle in a different way.There are a lot of well-intentioned people (myself included) who have a general sense that they care about the environment and try to limit their impacts, but who then discover that a lot of the stuff we take for granted about our lives (e.g. flying) can have pretty significant consequences.

But, of course, the first step in making a difference is gaining understanding, so all in all i see it as a positive thing and I definitely think that personal carbon footprint management can eventually be something that’s standard for all “green” people to do. Kind of like recycling. But, of course we’re still a ways away from that, though hopefully we’re getting a bit closer all the time.
Whit
Awesome. Thanks Mike.
Mike
No problem. Any other questions, just let me know.