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May 2017 - December 2020 • Full Stack

Carbon Footprint Engagement Platform

Full-stack engineer building a mobile and web platform for carbon footprint tracking, sustainability challenges, and environmental gamification.

A Fortune 500 energy company building consumer engagement platforms for sustainability and carbon footprint reduction

Project Overview

Built a comprehensive mobile and web platform helping consumers understand and reduce their carbon footprint through tracking, challenges, and gamification. The platform serves employees of a Fortune 500 energy company, providing tools to measure environmental impact and incentivizing sustainable behavior.

The Product

EcoCred enables users to:

  • Track Carbon Footprint: Calculate emissions from home energy, transportation, and workplace
  • Complete Challenges: Participate in sustainability challenges with measurable goals
  • Build Habits: Develop eco-friendly habits with streak tracking
  • Earn Rewards: Accumulate EcoCredits redeemable for rewards and carbon offsets
  • Connect Socially: Share progress and engage with community activity feeds

Technical Architecture

The platform uses a microservices architecture with five interconnected services:

Core API (TypeScript/Express)

Primary business logic service with 2,139 commits:

  • Carbon Calculations: Comprehensive CO2 emissions engine
  • Challenge Management: Create and track sustainability challenges
  • User Management: Authentication via Auth0 and Doorkeeper OAuth
  • Environments: Dev, Stage, and Production deployments
  • Monitoring: Kibana logging and New Relic APM

Calculation Service (TypeScript/Express)

Dedicated carbon footprint calculation service:

  • Home Emissions: Electricity, natural gas, propane, fuel oil analysis
  • End-Use Breakdown: HVAC, water heating, appliances, lighting
  • Transportation: Vehicle miles, fuel types, MPGe calculations
  • Workplace: Building-specific or office location tracking
  • Targets: Reduction goals for 2020, 2025, and 2030

Gamification API (Ruby on Rails)

Social and rewards backend with 600 commits:

  • Authentication: Devise with OmniAuth (Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter)
  • Gamification: Badges, levels, challenges, rewards
  • Social Features: Activity feeds, reactions, following/followers
  • Rewards: Marketplace and fulfillment with Stripe payments
  • Admin: Trestle Admin framework for content management
  • Background Jobs: Sidekiq for async processing

Mobile App (React Native)

Cross-platform mobile application with 1,992 commits:

  • Platforms: iOS and Android via React Native
  • State Management: Redux with Redux-Saga
  • Navigation: React Navigation
  • Social: GetStream integration for activity feeds
  • Notifications: Firebase push notifications
  • Analytics: Firebase, CleverTap, Mixpanel, AppsFlyer
  • Updates: CodePush for OTA deployments
  • Payments: Stripe integration

Marketplace API (TypeScript/Express)

Reward fulfillment and sponsor administration:

  • Inventory: Reward item management
  • Carbon Offsets: Offset project marketplace
  • Transactions: Wallet and redemption management
  • Analytics: Dashboard metrics and reporting

Key Contributions

React Native Mobile Development

Built the cross-platform mobile application with 1,992 commits:

  • Developed complete mobile experience for iOS and Android
  • Implemented Redux with Redux-Saga for complex state management
  • Integrated GetStream for real-time social activity feeds
  • Set up CodePush for over-the-air updates without app store releases
  • Configured Firebase push notifications and multiple analytics platforms (Mixpanel, CleverTap, AppsFlyer)

Core API Development

Built the primary TypeScript/Express API service with 2,139 commits:

  • Developed comprehensive carbon calculation endpoints
  • Implemented challenge management and user tracking
  • Set up Auth0 and Doorkeeper OAuth authentication
  • Configured Kibana logging and New Relic APM monitoring

Carbon Calculation Engine

Created the carbon footprint calculation service:

  • Built home emissions tracking for electricity, natural gas, propane, and fuel oil
  • Implemented end-use breakdown for HVAC, water heating, appliances, and lighting
  • Developed transportation calculations with MPG and MPGe support
  • Created workplace emissions tracking with building-specific calculations
  • Set reduction targets for 2020, 2025, and 2030 goals

Gamification & Social Backend

Developed the Rails gamification API with 600 commits:

  • Built badge, level, and challenge systems for user engagement
  • Implemented activity feeds and social features (reactions, following)
  • Created rewards marketplace with Stripe payment integration
  • Set up Trestle Admin framework for content management
  • Integrated Sidekiq for background job processing

Marketplace Service

Built the TypeScript/Express marketplace API for reward fulfillment:

  • Developed inventory management for reward items
  • Created carbon offset project marketplace
  • Implemented wallet and redemption transaction management
  • Built dashboard metrics and reporting analytics

Carbon Footprint Engine

Comprehensive emissions calculation:

Home Energy

  • Electricity: Usage with regional grid factors
  • Natural Gas: Therms to CO2 conversion
  • Other Fuels: Propane, fuel oil, kerosene
  • End-Use Analysis: HVAC, water heating, appliances, lighting breakdown

Transportation

  • Vehicle Miles: Annual mileage tracking
  • Fuel Types: Gasoline, diesel, E85, electric
  • Efficiency: MPG and MPGe calculations
  • Commute Patterns: Work and personal travel

Workplace

  • Office Location: Exelon facility-specific tracking
  • Building Emissions: Shared workspace calculations

Gamification System

Engaging users through game mechanics:

Challenges

  • Multiple challenge types with completion tracking
  • Team and individual challenges
  • Time-bound goals with progress indicators
  • Action types: email verification, habit completion, streaks

Habits

  • Daily habit tracking with streak support
  • Habit completion rewards
  • Category-based habit organization

Rewards

  • Point-based currency (EcoCredits)
  • Reward marketplace with multiple item types
  • Carbon offset purchasing
  • Badge and level progression

Social Features

Community engagement tools:

  • Activity Feeds: GetStream-powered social feeds
  • Following: User following/follower relationships
  • Reactions: Post likes and comments
  • Sharing: Social sharing capabilities
  • Moderation: Community feed filtering

Integrations

Authentication & Identity

  • Auth0 for secure authentication
  • OmniAuth social providers

Payments

  • Stripe for reward purchases and carbon offsets

Notifications

  • Firebase for push notifications
  • Email notifications for rewards

Analytics

  • Firebase Analytics
  • Mixpanel for product analytics
  • CleverTap for engagement
  • AppsFlyer for attribution
  • New Relic for performance

Technologies Deep Dive

The technology choices supported enterprise scale and rapid iteration:

  • Microservices enabled independent scaling and deployment of each service
  • React Native provided native mobile experience with shared codebase
  • GetStream offloaded activity feed complexity to a specialized service
  • CodePush enabled rapid mobile updates without app store releases
  • Rails + Trestle provided rapid admin dashboard development
  • TypeORM offered type-safe database access in TypeScript services

Technologies

React Native TypeScript Node.js Ruby on Rails PostgreSQL Redis Express.js Firebase Stripe Auth0

Key Highlights

  • Built React Native mobile app with 1,992 commits for iOS and Android
  • Developed microservices architecture with Node.js and Rails backends
  • Created carbon footprint calculation engine for home, transportation, and workplace emissions
  • Implemented gamification system with challenges, badges, and rewards marketplace
  • Integrated social features with activity feeds, following, and community engagement