ecoPawprint

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An Educational Platform for Sustainable Pet Ownership Authored by Tracy West / Introduction to Sustainable Design / MCAD

ecoPawprint

People love pets.

Pets love people.

No one will really ever know who made the first step towards friendship, but we can all agree that pet companionship has made a positive impact on humans.

Fewer medical visits.

Reduced stress.

Reduced depression.

Better social integration.

But a positive impact on the planet…

Not so much.

Because there’s simply so many pets.

83.3 million dogs

95.6 million cats

2013 U.S. Statistics / APPA

And that adds up:

2.07 acres of land are required to keep a medium-sized dog fed.

In the U.S. alone, dogs produce over 10 million tons of poop per year.

45% of the imported pet toys tested with hazardous levels of dangerous toxins.

U.S. pets consume the same amount of calories as 668,000 people.

What’s the answer?

Make cats vegetarian.

Make cats vegetarian.

(they would die)

Ban all pets.

Ban all pets.

(a little extreme)

Sustainable pet ownership means striking a balance between needs and resources while maintaining a positive impact on earth as well as our pet’s immediate environment.

What is needed is an easier way to translate behaviors of pet ownership into meaningful messages that prompt public response and help people to adopt harmonious conditions for their pets and their planet.

Meet ecoPawprint. e

ecoPawprint is a measurement index for sustainable pet well-being that is accessible through a free mobile app and part of an online, educational initiative that includes an informatics website and social media platform.

ecoPawprint

eWelcome to ecoPawprint

Now you have an easy and effective way to measure and monitor your pet’s ecological pawprint. Our calculator sources various metrics and translates the findings into a base score as an indicator of sustainable pet well-being. To get started, simply take our short quiz.

Locator MorePawPals

Pee Pads

Composting

Recycle Poop Bags

YES

YES

NO

Made Overseas

Certified Organic

DIY/Homemade

Calculator

Your toys are?

Your parents use?

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Tips

Calculator

Features

Locator MorePawPalsCalculator Tips

1. Sustainability calculator2. Green tips library generated

by weekly questions 3. Facebook friend aggregator

dubbed PawPals4. GPS-driven vendor directory

The sustainability index is calculated from an initial short quiz that guides your dog or cat through key factors that contribute to unsustainable societal and environmental conditions.

Locator MorePawPals

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Calculator

Let’s get started. You are?

Tips

Calculator

Calculator Locator MorePawPals

What’s your weight?

Covert metric to pounds.

lbs

O� the Street

Pet Store

Breeder

Rescue Center

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Where were you adopted?

Tips

Calculator

Locator MorePawPals

Fully Vaccinated

Spayed/Neutered

Registered YES

Micro-chipped NO

YES

YES

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Have you been?

Calculator Tips

Calculator

Locator MorePawPals

Bark Loudly

Kill Living Animals

Chase Cars

Bite Others

YES

NO

NO

NO

per year

hours

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Do you?

Volunteer your services?

Calculator Tips

Calculator

Locator MorePawPals

AAFCO Rated

Natural

Organic

Plastic

Cans

Paper

YES

YES

NO

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Your food ingredients?

Your food packaging?

Calculator Tips

Calculator

Locator MorePawPals

Local/ Independent Shop

Internet

Grocery Store

National Retail Chain

per year

$

Calculator

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Your parents buy from?

Your toy allowance?

Tips

Calculator

Locator MorePawPals

Pee Pads

Composting

Recycle Poop Bags

YES

YES

NO

Made Overseas

Certified Organic

DIY/Homemade

Calculator

Your toys are?

Your parents use?

9:41 AM

Tips

Calculator

Locator MorePawPals

FETCH

9:41 AM

Calculator

The result are in. Tap below to find out

your score.

Tips

Calculator

Locator MorePawPals

9:41 AM

Calculator

Calculator

Tips

48

The result are in. Learn more about

your score.

Community Average 56

The calculator sources various metrics on pet ownership and pet behaviors and translates the findings into a base index or score from 0 to 90.

A key component to the success of ecoPawprint is leveraging social media to increase participation, loyalty and advocacy. Participates are encouraged to share their pet’s eco-achievements on Facebook along with other PawPals.

Locator MorePawPals

9:41 AM

Calculator

Calculator

Tips

48

The result are in. Learn more about

your score.

Community Average 56

Locator MorePawPals

9:41 AM

Calculator

Calculator

Tips

48Better

Learn about your score.

The result are in. Tap below to find out

your score.Share your score on Facebook by

creating a pet profile and become part

of the growing family of EcoPets.

Log in with Facebook

9:41 AM

Locator MorePawPalsTipsCalculator

New PalsTop Pals

MORE RESULTS

Bernadette Chicago, IL

MaximCincinnati, OH

CharlieNew York, NY

Mr. BigLos Angeles, CA

MaggieChicago, IL

60

48

32

28

77

Another key component to bringing sustainable pet care to scale is through the “Question of the Week” notifications. The response to each question continues to shape a user’s score, signaling that sustainability is a dynamic and on-going process.

Do you feed your pet from ceramic bowls rather

than stainless steel?

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Locator MorePawPalsTipsCalculator

Y N

Question of the Week

Participants are directed to tiered recommendations that are archived in the Tips Library. These weekly learnings minimize the potential for a calculated score to become detached from day to day actions.

Locator MorePawPalsTips

9:41 AM

Calculator

1

2

3

4

5

When purchasing food and supplies, do you shop online?

Does your pet roam freely outdoors?

Do you feed your pet from ceramic bowls rather than stainless steel?

Is your pet overweight?

Do you feed your pet red meat or poultry?

MORE TIPS

Tips Library


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Calculator



MORE TIPS

GOODWhen choosing ceramic, look for bowls with a lead free glaze. They tend to chip…

BETTERStainless steel is safer and a better option overall than ceramics. Toxic chemicals…

BESTBamboo bowls are earth-friendly and lead free. They are made from bamboo fiber…

Tips Library


9:41 AM

Calculator

BETTERStainless steel is safer and a better option overall than ceramics. Toxic chemicals like BPA and Phthalates found in plastic containers and aluminum bottle linings have made stainless steel a reliable choice. While the emission footprints of the material, especially those related to carbon, water and air, are high, reuse and recyclability are at even higher levels.



Tips Library

READ MORE

Not only can participants share their pet’s eco-achievements via e-mail, Facebook and Twitter, but also any of the tiered content from the Tips Library can be shared.

Sustainability Challenge

The following demonstrates ways in which ecoPawprint addresses unmet needs within the four system conditions of a sustainable society.

The creation of an online platform and mobile marketing minimizes printed material and their manufacturing dependencies. While reliance on desktop and mobile phones contribute to electronic waste, an unintended ecological consequence, mobile phone manufacturers continue to improve their product and service models to support design for reuse and disassembly. Taping into the Internet via a mobile phone is more eco-friendly than surfing with a desktop computer. According to research provided by Nokia in 2010, if only 100 million people were to use mobile phones instead of desktop computers to browse the Internet one hour a day, the amount of energy saved would be roughly equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions of 430,000 cars. With the number of smartphones forecasted to triple to 5.6 billion globally by 2019, ecoPawprint has the potential to reach more with less waste over other types of educational mediums.

Environment

ecoPawprint has the potential to fulfill several societal needs and the ways these needs are met. They are the following:

• Protection (caring for the earth and one’s pet)

• Understanding (allows for investigating, learning and analyzing)

• Participation (connecting with sense of responsibility, fostering dedication and cooperation)

• Identity (providing a sense of belonging, shared values and commitment to oneself to grow)

People

Most pet owners want help with making eco-conscious decisions because they project their own lifestyles onto their pets. According to one eco-oriented pet store in Los Altos, California, eco-products comprised 40% to 50% of her store’s overall inventory three to five years ago.

Now, it’s at least 80%.

Since ecoPawprint will be promoted through breeders, veterinarians and adoption centers, tiered content (Tips Library) with ratings of Good, Better, Best establishes positive and healthy conditions for pet owners adopting new behaviors and minimizes the potential conflict of alienating less than ideal eco-conscious pet suppliers who are providing substantial donations to adoption organizations.

People

Local pet stores, organic food and product manufacturers and holistic vets and services will see short- and long-term economic benefits and opportu-nities from pet owners incorporating sustainable solutions. In the short-term, pet owners will experience a cost increase in the purchase of sustainable pet products, up to 30% as organic ingredients and production requires more manual labor, attention and regulation. Longer term, pet owners will see a decrease in medical bills as the health and welfare of the individual pet is being addressed. ecoPawprint creates value for communities and govern-ments as natural resources that were once depleted by over-consumption are protected and managed more sustainably in order to offset potential risks for future generations.

Economy

Pet ownership is not exclusive to Western society although these countries tend to share similar attitudes about pets and tend to make decisions on the go. A measurement tool that guides users by way of tiered content encourages healthy competition and goal setting and allows for easier assimilation by a broad array of people with diverse economic backgrounds and cultural values. Every pet owner will tell you that pets have the power to bring people together. ecoPawprint leverages shared values across diverse cultures to help facilitate discussions beyond the welfare of “my pet” and towards the welfare of the planet, helping to bridge difficult conversations on climate change, sustainable nutrition and consumer consumption.

Culture

Additional Recommendations

Engagement An update to the app will be released in Phase II that awards high scores with badges of achievement in the form of stars, ribbons and trophies. As an additional incentive, accumulation of badges result in discounts or special offers at participating retailers.

Funding The project stakeholders would like to offer ecoPawprint at no cost to the user in order to remove potential barriers for educational assimilation. To do this, they will need to look at various conventional and unconventional means of funding. If revenue will not be made by way of app sales, in-app advertising within the vendor directory is a possible option for app monetization in Phases I or II.

Measurement Sources They may include:

The Worldwide Wildlife Fund (WWF) American Pet Products Association (APPA) World Veterinary Association (WVA)American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)The Humane Society of the United States HealthyStuff.org / Ecological Center

Development ecoPawprint will be more complex to develop than a basic mobile app as it deals with database management systems but will take advantage of the mobile device’s existing firmware to enhance user experience such as GPS and Facebook API. The financial require-ments of this project include: research (metrics), design and development, mobile porting, marketing and registration fees for App Stores (Android and Apple).

Promotion Stakeholders of the project would like ecoPawprint to be promoted by breeders, veterinarians and adoption centers as they help to establish credibility and reach. In addition to the benefits of social media visibility, advertising banners with targeted informatics leading pet owners to the introductory website will be made available to breeders, veterinarians, adoption centers, retailers and bloggers.

If a model that can estimate the ecological impact of pet products and behaviors did exist, we may find it would provide benefits beyond its intended audience, the customer, and become the basis for education and strategies within the pet manufacturing industry.

As healthier benchmarks are publicized, manufacturers will need to get on the bandwagon to retain market share of more discerning, ecologically minded consumers. Such a model could be used to respond to those who argue that we should not keep pets at all.

Even if an ecoPawprint movement advances, it still may encounter consumer resistance, as higher prices for eco-friendly products can be a deterrent for consumers, especially in depressed economies, and particularly for first time pet owners.

Signs show that the pet industry as a whole will eventually need to develop eco-friendly products in multi-tiered cost categories as a response to consumer interests. Consumers are going to want eco-friendly products that meet their spending habits.

They’re going to need choices.

Image credit belongs to I Can Has Cheezeburger. Thank you.

ecoPawprint

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