swrm was founded in March 2019, and is dedicated to enabling human sustainability for the future of this planet. Currently, something missing from facilitating this is consumer awareness on the carbon footprint and energy used in the production, transport, use and disposal of consumer goods. It is only with more transparency and accurate data that consumers can make choices to reduce their carbon footprint. swrm is determined that our App will help individuals become more sustainable. And with that manufacturing companies will be motivated to move towards renewable energy sources and operate their business in a more sustainable fashion.
We’re here to help the transition into a less wasteful and more efficient community. That’s why the humble Honey Bee is our muse. As a superorganism they are one of the most efficient creatures on our planet. They use a hexagon shape for their hive cells because it’s efficient use of space; they travel miles and miles every day for pollen, but thanks to the efficient Waggle Dance for communication, they always know exactly where to go; they pollinate in excess of 336,000 types of plants – including 75% of our food crops; and when in danger and need to protect their society, they swarm. We want a ‘swrm’ of environmentally and socially minded people working towards a sustainable future for life on this planet. Can human civilization count on you to join the swrm ?
Want to read about the data? Scroll down.
Read about our Vision and Mission here.
Who’s in the Hive?
Founder, Benjamin Gilkes, has Engineering Degrees in Ocean Engineering and Marine & Offshore Systems that supplements his passion for the Ocean and Environment. After working for 15 years in the Energy Sector, he switched focus to help transition our world to becoming more sustainable. With tremendous support from his family, swrm was born to map out the life cycle of all things, look at the impact to our planet, and communicate the best alternatives. The more Ben worked to find figures on energy use for the full Life Cycle of products, the deeper he needed to dive and more complex it became. He wants to save you the same hassle! Our calculations include product dimensions and weight; transportation method; transportation miles; average life span of the product; usual disposal method; and a breakdown of fossil fuel Vs renewable energy sources. The journey started with non-perishable grocery items like toothbrushes, but soon included white goods, personal computing and communication devices, and fresh produce. The number of products with data held within the App is nearing 4 million!
Chrystal is co-founder, and the Sales and Marketing Director. She comes to help save the environment after working to save lives for many years. She attained her Bachelor of Nursing in 1999, and worked for many years as an Emergency Room Registered Nurse in Australia and England. Taking a slight change in career direction she then had a successful career with 2 medical device companies in sales and education, while retaining clinical patient contact. While having environmental responsibility had always been important to her, after having children she needed to find more active ways of harnessing this passion, for their sake. A chat with Ben, a personal friend (and cousin-in-law!), uncovered the opportunity to work with him to set up swrm. This is what she’d been looking for!
Chat with Chrystal to learn how your business can attract more customers & do right by the planet!
The Product
Our App is designed to provide a comparison of the energy used throughout a product’s life cycle, which ultimately provides us with the Carbon Footprint. A user scans the barcodes of several products in the store and gets a comparison of the energy life cycle analysis. The user can then choose which they will purchase. This decision is now being made with a complete set of data, including makes for a more sustainable planet – not based purely on price or a well-known brand name.
In addition to this very unique set of data on consumer goods within our App, we have also included the carbon footprint data on everything you might do and use in your daily lives: fridge; washing machine; car; train; cell phone etc etc. So with our App you are able to obtain a very complete picture of your personal carbon footprint, which thereby provides you with the ability to pinpoint where you can start to reduce it.
We all like a game and a bit of friendly competition, right? So our App provides you with the ability to challenge yourself against local and state carbon footprint averages, and also to build your own Hives to challenge each other to have the lowest carbon footprint. You’ll get personal satisfaction (and bragging rights) when you’re on a streak and keeping that number low…but we are also in conversations with various retailers of excellent sustainable products to provide even further incentive for you, as giveaways and discount coupons.
We also upload educational articles so you can stay up to date with environmental, energy and sustainability issues. Saving the planet starts with education!
The Data
The data within our App has been collected and collated over many years. Seriously. We have looked in every nook and cranny of the World Wide Web to ensure the data we provide you with is complete and accurate. Our data sources include (please note, this list is not exhaustive): EPA; eia; DMV; Energy Star; ACEEE; TNS Global; Factset; OSTI; UN; Eurostat Database (EU); National Data China; data.gov; Union of Concerned Scientists; Neilson, Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters; IRENA; Dept of Energy & Climate Change (UK); Bureau of Transportation Statistics; Athena Sustainable Materials institute; Food and Agriculture Organization; Environmental Working Group; Federal Aviation Administration; various manufacturer websites; and various retailer websites. Phew….so yes…this data collection bit has taken some time! But what good would inaccurate data be? You would agree that the planet’s future is worth the time we’ve put in. The fact that you want to help means that you’re satisfaction is worth the time spent too. You need to trust the data (which you can, btw) and be happy with the product you use.
Another point to note is that we are still adding to our database…we intend to have the carbon footprint data for products and services available across the whole globe, the U.S. is just our starting point. So once we got the data, we then had to build algorithms to do the sums. Luckily, Ben, being an engineer and with his experience in construction, has a love for (and substantial skills with) mathematics. So he has built these long, complex, boring (ahem, was that out loud?), necessary algorithms. He then cross checked them, several times over, with other credible sources to ensure he had the workings correct. He has refined the algorithms to be within +/- 2% – 5% accuracy.
What about your data?
When you use the swrm App to discover the carbon footprint of certain items you might wish to buy, and you then choose to buy one over the other, that’s a powerful decision. So our App collects the data from your buying behaviors, anonymizes it, and allows us to take it to the companies you scanned – both the one you took home, and those you left behind. For those you kicked to the curb, we can use this data as a very sharp pointer on why they should change up, or even create, a sustainability policy for the production, packaging and transportation of their goods. You’re participating in activism just by doing your grocery shopping!
So you probably have questions about data privacy. Unlike some, we truly take this very seriously. The core of the carbon calculator is data, after all. And we need that data to be clean and want to provide it transparently. So the data that we collect from the App is nothing personal. Nothing personal. No offence, but we aren’t interested in if you’re male, female, transgender or non-binary; whether your 23 or 63 years old; if you have 1 or several jobs; if you’re happily married (or just married 😉)…the only data we care about are the barcodes you scan and the ones you then buy. Because it is this, and only this, data which will help to shape the way manufacturers manufacture and retailers retail.
When you sign up to the App we ask for your email address so we can (infrequently) keep you updated with the latest buzz from the Hive, information and actionable advice. We will never share your email address with anyone. We then ask for your location, so we can provide you with accurate localized carbon footprint data, allowing you to compare your carbon footprint with others around you – so you’ll always be motivated to keep lowering your carbon footprint!