Ecorbis: A Data Sculpture of Environmental Behavior in the Home Context

Abstract

We are in the middle of a climate crisis. Never before has the impact of climate change been this visible, problematic, and timely. While most people have a basic awareness of the enormous potential impact of climate change, the reality is that only a few people have a detailed understanding of how their own (combined) personal activities - including food, transport, energy - impact the climate. In this pictorial, we explore the design process and principles of a data sculpture - Ecorbis - that is designed to help people reflect on how their day-to-day activities translate to climate impact. Ecorbis provides abstract and numerical weekly feedback on the overall environmental behavior of households and allows for in situ reflection and comparison. We conducted an initial 8-day field study with two families that highlighted that Ecorbis raised environmental awareness on climate impact and that the layered design of Ecorbis facilitated reflection.