Building a Carbon Offset Calculator with GitHub Copilot: A Step-by-Step Guide

This is a submission for the GitHub Copilot Challenge : Fresh Starts

What I Built

I created a Carbon Offset Calculator that allows users to calculate their carbon footprint based on their home energy usage and transportation habits. The calculator also provides actionable steps for offsetting their carbon emissions.

Demo

Repo

https://github.com/MakendranG/carbon-offset-calculator

Copilot Experience

I used GitHub Copilot extensively throughout the development process. Copilot helped me with:

1. Generating the initial class structure and methods for the calculator.
2. Providing suggestions for emission factors and calculations.
3. Creating the user-friendly command-line interface.
4. Generating recommendations for offsetting carbon emissions.
5. Adding input validation and data persistence features.

GitHub Models

I used GitHub Models to prototype LLM capabilities in my app, specifically for generating recommendations and validating user inputs.

Conclusion

Using GitHub Copilot significantly accelerated the development process and provided valuable suggestions that improved the functionality and user experience of the Carbon Offset Calculator. This project has the potential to raise awareness about carbon emissions and encourage users to take actionable steps towards reducing their carbon footprint.