Today’s Greener Gadgets Conference featured keynote speaker Saul Griffith: inventor, entrepreneur and science-geek extraordinaire. He spent the first half of his presentation explaining how he’s come to quantify his personal impact on the earth through adding up the watts it takes to run his life.

From air travel and driving to the food he consumes and the stuff he owns, his total yearly watt use is close to 18,000, while the average American uses 11,500 watts per year. He was surprised by this - he drives a hybrid, bikes often, eats locally, etc. Shouldn’t all these things amount to a lower watt total? He had news for us too - we are all probably using way more watts than we think.

In order to help all of us identify exactly where we stand, Griffith and his friends created Wattz On, a website devoted to calculating personal energy consumption based on individual lifestyle. The website aims to prove that our total energy use can in fact be measured and knowing our impact can help us to analzye our worse habits and change them. Ready to face your energy reality? Click here.

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