New Visual Tool For Mapping US Emissions
MapEcos, a new free website, offers a striking visualization of environmental pollution in the United States.
Developed by professors from Harvard Business School, Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, mapEcos is designed both as a public service and a research tool.
On the site, which utilizes familiar Google Maps, users can view detailed environmental performance information on facilities across the United States, HBS Working Knowledge says. Each facility on the map is color-coded according to emission level (blue is low, red is high; a green ring indicates that a company disclosed some information about its environmental management activities by responding to the researchers’ survey).
The purple “balloons” show detailed information for the facility concerned. MapEcos includes a tool for managers of facilities to provide updated information.
In their survey responses, managers can outline what their companies are doing about environmental protection and community engagement, and see their responses posted in real time. Companies are aware that by responding their data may be analyzed.
We want to get a better understanding of why some firms are more transparent than others about their environmental practices and performance.” —Michael Toffel, Harvard Business School.
Power plants and metal mines are the two industries with the greatest amount of toxic pollution, and the counties with the largest emissions in the country are in Utah, Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Texas.
Users can search on variables such as emission level or health hazard level, rated from 0 to 9, with 9 being worst. By typing in 7, 8, or 9, they can see highest polluters indicated all across the map, either by raw sum of pounds of toxic chemical emissions or by pounds weighted by human toxicity. According to Tuck’s Andrew King (also a fellow at HBS), emissions in the United States are highly skewed: Several make the lion’s share of emissions while a great number make relatively few.
Knowing that some factories have vast emissions really puts the situation in perspective. It makes you wonder whether all the attention that gets paid to a local dry cleaner is worth it.
Users can track factories’ pollution activity over time, compare factories in their community, and compare the pollution of local factories to others in their industry across the country—but just as important, monitor what mitigating steps facility managers are taking.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
