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comment Deutsche Bank Sponsors “Real Time” Carbon Counter in New York
On Thursday morning, June 18th, Deutsche Bank’s Asset Management division (DeAM) launched the first real-time carbon emission counter on the busy corner of 7th avenue and 33rd street in New York City, next to Madison Square Garden, Penn Station, and GreenSource magazine’s 2 Penn Plaza offices. The 9:00 AM launch event was cut short by what would turn into a day of heavy rain. The keynote participants in the event huddled under umbrellas, and before activating the display, Mark Fulton, Global Head of Climate Change Investment Research, reminded the crowd that a UN report projected heavy and disruptive summer rains for the Northeastern United States.
Based on what you have seen and read about this project, how would you grade it? Use the stars below to indicate your assessment, five stars being the highest rating.
The sign itself is 69 feet high and 37 feet wide, and contains over 40,000 LED lights, though DeAM claims the entire display is carbon neutral. The counter begins at 3.64 trillion metric tons, and will increase by approximately 2 billion metric tons per month. This measurement is not truly “real-time,” however; CO2 levels decrease overall as the planet “breathes” in gas during Spring and Summer. The counter also aggregates 24 other greenhouse gasses listed under the Kyoto and Montreal protocols, including methane, nitrous oxide, and Freon. Because the philosophy of the project is to catalyze action, DeAM chose a number based on a rolling one-year average over a true real-time display, calculated by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
A number of influential personages within the field of climate change endorsed the “Know the Number” counter campaign and spoke at a luncheon held afterward in the InterActiveCorp building. Speakers included Fred Krupp, President of the Environmental Defense Fund; Professor John Reilly of MIT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy; Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University; and former Senator Timothy Wirth, President of the United Nations Foundation. Professor Robert Socolow of the Carbon Mitigation Initiative at Princeton University, also in attendance, said of the counter that he “[hopes] it will be replicated in lots of other cities around the world. The number is the same. Part of what’s exciting about working on global change, is it develops one’s thinking about the fact that [we occupy] just one single planet. We’re influencing it together.” For more information on the counter and Deutsche Bank’s Climate Change Advisors, visit www.know-the-number.com, where you can download a live carbon counter widget.
