✓ CO2 Emissions

[TamZam]

I'd love to see the amount of carbon dioxide emissions prevented from commuting by bicycle, walking, etc. It could be displayed on your activity just like calories burned (but only when "commute" is chosen). Not only could this encourage more people to choose active transportation, but I read on your Commutes on Strava page that "we hope to make the commuting experience on Strava more rewarding and exciting in the future." A win-win!

CO2 Emissions displayed on NH CommuteSmart platform

[VikK]

A neat idea! But as you have to pick a singular vehicle to compare against, in most European cities that will be public transport not a car.

Also if you drive an EV then it's a bust in comparison, good idea but needs a bit more thought. 

[NateB]

This is absolutely wonderful Strava have enabled this functionality after taken on board everyone’s so well done to all involved in the implementation. 

I note for some, including myself, even when commute is selected, no info is displayed for CO2 savings.

Please advise a fix for this.

thanks

Nate.

[Greenstem]

It appears to have replaced the calories data field on the iphone

i am much more concerned about tracking my calories than my carbon footprint. I already know I am helping the environment by commuting by bike, don’t need some weird number to tell me that. 

[Phill]

Whilst mildly interesting I want the calories burned field back.

Calories burned is useful information and important to me, CO2 saved is not. I'm not saying get rid of it, just add Co2 onto the analysis screen instead, rayher than losing an important metric.

[Former Member]

Thank you for taking feature suggestions from the community and implementing these. It is a good thing to see product managers interact with the community and also prioritizing these features internally.

I would like to critize a few details:

• The assumed saving is 217 g/km of CO₂. This is equivalent to burning 9.34 l/100 km of fuel, or 25 miles per gallon. I have an educated guess what the average car is in the US, but for Germany this number is already pretty high. With my little car I get 40 miles per gallon. Therefore this already grossly overestimates the savings.
• Assuming a fixed but inaccurate emission per distance, this number is basically just a new number proportional to the distance. It doesn't mean much, and one will get a feel for this number. Because it is off by a factor of almost two, it isn't really comparable with other things. It is misleading.
• Additionally, it isn't always a car ride which is replaced by a bike or walk commute. If I don't take the bike to work, I take the regional train. That has, according to the “German EPA”, an emission of 91 g/km. If I walk to the train station, there is no real alternative expect perhaps taking the folding bicycle. Neither has CO₂ emissions in itself, therefore there is no CO₂ to save on that particular trip.
• The calories are not displayed any more. These are much more interesting as they are not simply proportional to the distance. When I commute to work, the distance stays the same, so your current CO₂ estimates are always constant. What's the point in displaying the same number every time in such a prominent spot?

Therefore I have two suggestions to make:

1. Keep the calories display in the overview. These are more interesting then the CO₂. Move the CO₂ estimate into the analysis part where you also display the elapsed time and other tier-2 metrics.
2. Let the user supply the CO₂ impact per distance themselves. In order to make this viable for a lot of people, prepopulate this field with an estimate, ideally based on the region. Then offer them to enter either their milage as miles per gallon or l/100 km; alternatively the g/km of CO₂ emissions.

[velocipederider]

It's cool and I support it but… commuting is a highlight of my day as it is an excuse for me to cycle and as such I often go on massive detours. I only live 5.5km from the office via a direct driving route yet I regularly cycle 10km or more by cycling more interesting ways. One of my commutes last week was 25km for example and added several 100m of extra elevation gain.

It would therefore be great if I could set the "normal" distance for a car commute and it would just use this value, even if I then commute via a much longer route by cycling because I can tell you, if I was to commute via car I would use the shortest/fastest route possible and not be doing extra. Being in a car during speak commuting time is basically hеll on earth. Unlike cycling, which is heaven.

[Webs]

Everyone has their favorite stats so it’s nice for those into sustainability. Did you have to remove the calories? I tend to know how many calories on my commute as it’s broadly the same, but maybe space for both?

[Soren]

Hello folks, I just wanted to let you all know that we appreciate all the feedback that has been shared around this new feature and we have people from our product and research teams reading your comments, so thank you for bringing up all the valuable remarks and suggestions. We hope to continue to make improvements to the CO2 emissions displayed in commute activities, so we welcome your feedback. Thank you!

[D56]

Just noticed the CO2 carbon saved addition. I agree with others that it’s virtual signalling. No need for it IMO. Don’t see it as a tool for fitness progress.  Strava should make this as optional in the settings. 

[alexbr]

Calories burned was much more useful to me. I would like the option to display that instead. What's really frustrating is that, as far as I can tell, there's no way to view calories burned at all on the android app, even in the activity details. That doesn't make much sense to me.

[Krahling]

I too would prefer the option to display calories rather than CO2.  

[Mahlered]

Please reinstate calories in commute. Otherwise, I will stop using the commute button. Calories is a more meaningful metric to me. Getting rid of calories for carbon saved is ludicrous. I'm not saying get rid of the carbon saved metric altogether though. Guess what Strava, you can display both! It doesn't need to be the weird this-or-that situation you have created. 

Also, putting it as the third most important metric of the activity on the homepage is ridiculous. I would rather have speed or elevation gain. Calories would probably be fifth. Carbon saved is least important to me.

As others have brought up, these are numbers pulled out of nowhere. It doesn't take into account of the persons alternate transportation. I'm guessing an average car was used in the equation. If I wasn't commuting by bike, I would be taking mass transit. As another already pointed out, the subway train would still be running without me. Also, I'm guessing the average car's emmison is different from a subway train. What Strava is doing is a weird one size fits all statistic. Which again: useless and not meaningful.

Bottom line: reinstate calories in commute. Maybe include a opt in, or opt out choice. You need to do more thinking and tinkering to get a more meaningful and accurate statistic. And please don't display "carbon saved" as the 3rd most important metric on the homepage. Absolutely ridiculous. 

Also, instituting a sweeping change on an idea that's been viewed 6,440 times but has only 30 kudos?? Weird. Doesn't seem like a popular idea to begin with. Since Strava seems to like arbitrary statistics: That's only .46% popularity. As in 1 person out of 214 people likes the idea, on average.

Rethink this Strava

[arnaud_g]

That's a great feature. I really like it. Personnally I don't care if these are not accurate (CO2 measures of cars are not accurate neither)
It would be great to allow aggregating the CO2 savings inside a team.
In my company we are trying to push bike commuting. Having evidence of the total savings would help convincing people to leave their car and use bikes.

[Eee_Jay_Jay]

What Arnaud_g suggested please.

Our environmental group would much appreciate the co2 totals for the company commuting group. Again if the actual co2 saved is for the average vehicle that's perfectly fine, but modifying for a baseline vehicle would be nice. Depending on how you guys build this out, with features on the group admin level, and only counting co2 going to and from the place of work, you might be able to turn this into a corporate revenue stream with more users... You guys know who I am and where to send the royalty check to 😉.

[Gourangajon]

Thank you for initiating this conversation. 

I'm just entering the cycling world from a background in climate change/ pollution mitigation and was wondering who amongst the  cycling corporate giants have the best environmental profiles