Motivation for the project<\/b><\/h2>\n
UCSC has already made a name for itself in zero waste innovation.<\/p>\n
Each campus garbage truck is equipped with industrial Loadman<\/a> scales that can weigh each individual bin of garbage. The bins are geographically tagged, so each specific bin\u2019s weight can be sent to a computer in real time.<\/p>\n Although the information is valuable, the data is essentially \u201ctrapped in a spreadsheet,\u201d the Hello World Labs designers wrote in a report.<\/p>\n \u201cThey wanted to get the data that the trucks were collecting online in real time, in a way that looked nice, and would push the students to make less waste,\u201d said Katie Patrick<\/a>, founder of Hello World Labs.<\/p>\n It is easy for someone to ignore where their waste goes after they put it in a trash can. Screens on the doorways to residence halls will make it difficult for people on campus to just \u201cforget about it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOur premise was that without freely available performance feedback, dorm residents (and later the whole campus community) would not be able to sense how their actions affect diversion of solid waste from the landfill,\u201d said Roger Edberg<\/a>, senior superintendent of Grounds Services at UCSC.<\/p>\n \u201cOur hope is that with this information presented in their immediate living space, they will become more conscious of the opportunity to source separate divertable (recycling, compost) streams from the landfill stream and take action to improve performance.”<\/p>\n The design<\/b><\/p>\n The designers proposed a screen to be installed in the doorway of each of the university\u2019s dorms because it takes advantage of the power of \u201cambient messaging.\u201d Everyone can see and absorb the information on dorm waste without having to look at a smartphone, email or paper report.<\/p>\n In addition to numeric ranking, each building will be ranked by color on a scale from red to green.<\/p>\n The designers also added an emotive banana slug, UCSC\u2019s mascot, to display happy and sad emotions.<\/p>\n \u201cI used the social comparison design of ranking the dorms to create a sense of competition, a color grade to nudge the carrot-stick, and the emotive banana slugs to create an emotional connection with the content,\u201d said Patrick.<\/p>\n Lastly, the screen design will present tips to passersby and offer an opportunity for people to sign up for a free email course on how to limit their waste.<\/p>\n As of now, the university has only one functioning prototype, but there are plans to implement more.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/zero-waste-leaderboard-1024x768.jpg\")
What\u2019s next?<\/b><\/h2>\n