Abstract

This paper presents the design and prototype of an intelligent web platform for personal carbon-footprint tracking. The platform enables users to record everyday activities, estimate associated greenhouse-gas emissions in kilograms of carbon-dioxide equivalent (kg CO₂e), review category-wise results, and receive personalised sustainability guidance. The architecture comprises a React, Tailwind CSS and Vite front end, a PHP back end, a MySQL database, and a large-language-model service accessed through the Groq API. The implemented calculation engine estimates emissions by multiplying each activity quantity by its stored emission factor and aggregates results by category and reporting period. A pilot dataset containing records from 10 users over September 1–30, 2026, included 14 logged activities and a reported total of 112.51 kg CO₂e. The mean across all 10 users was 11.25 kg CO₂e per user; the reported mean among active users was 22.50 kg CO₂e. The consumption category accounted for 53.3% of the reported total. A hand-calculation check matched the system output for all 14 samples. These findings are descriptive and limited by the small sample, short observation period, and use of illustrative emission factors. Random Forest forecasting, K-means user profiling, month-to-month comparisons, and leaderboard scoring are proposed extensions and have not been validated. The prototype demonstrates a transparent activity-based calculation workflow, while larger datasets, verified emission factors, and systematic evaluation of AI-generated advice are needed before broader claims can be made.

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Data Availability Statement

The data supporting the findings of this study are not publicly available due to privacy considerations. Relevant summary statistics are provided in the manuscript. Further information may be requested from the corresponding author, subject to applicable privacy and consent restrictions.

How to Cite

AI-Based Personal Carbon Footprint Tracker. (2026). Academic Research Journal of Science and Technology (ARJST), 5(07). https://doi.org/10.63300/arjst0507112026.04

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