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HopStop Includes a Carbon Calculator to its Services
I always thought that GoogleMaps was one of the coolest things when it came to finding your way. As a person who is prone to getting lost, it's a constant guide when I navigate new cities. Now, HopStop is aiming to do one better - in addition to helping you find your way, they also want to let you know the carbon footprint of your journey.
HopStop is basically a city transit guide. Just like GoogleMaps they also provide bus and subway directions for several metropolitan cities in the US. They also provide a City Guide service that will tell you where to go, what to see, where to eat etc. The site can send you directions directly on your mobile device or email.
Last week in addition to all these services HopStop announced that they will be offering a carbon emissions savings calculator.
The calculator will already tell you how many calories you burn while walking or cycling to your destination. With the addition of a carbon calculator, HopStop is positioning itself to be the green transit guide.
Joe Meyer, CEO of HopStop has said: "We’re excited that HopStop users can now conveniently view their total carbon emissions savings within their directions results. Now our environmentally conscious users can better understand the positive impact that their commuting behavior is having on the earth while still getting to where they need to go.”
The calculator takes into account all the information that HopStop has gathered over the years and combines that with data from the EPA and the World Resources Institute, which has researched the CO2 output of different vehicle types. You can also compare the difference in emissions by taking the subway or driving.
HopStop has also partnered with The Green Restaurants Association to make restaurant recommendations. The Green Restaurants Association is a nonprofit organization that certifies restaurants that meet rigorous environmental standards. They help their users select the most environmentally conscious dining venues. HopStop will power direction to all of the Certified Green Restaurants within the Dine Green directory. They have also created a similar category within their City Guide.
If that weren't enough, HopStop is structured a B Corporation. B Corp is a standard pioneered by B Lab that measures a company’s "material positive impact on society and the environment, in order to meet higher standards of accountability and transparency."
For a company that started off simply to provide directions, HopStop is taking their green credentials pretty seriously.
Image Credit: NeitherFanboy Flickr Commons
Akhila is the Founding Director of GreenDen Consultancy which is dedicated to offering business analysis, reporting and marketing solutions powered by sustainability and social responsibility. Based in the US, Europe, and India, the GreenDen's consultants share the best practices and innovation from around the globe to achieve real results. She has previously written about CSR and ethical consumption for Justmeans and hopes to put a fresh spin on things for this column. As an IEMA certified CSR practitioner, she hopes to highlight a new way of doing business. She believes that consumers have the immense power to change 'business as usual' through their choices. She is a Graduate in Molecular Biology from the University of Glasgow, UK and in Environmental Management and Law. In her free-time she is a voracious reader and enjoys photography, yoga, travelling and the great outdoors. She can be contacted via Twitter @aksvi and also http://www.thegreenden.net
